Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 39

DR. GREYSON
It’s just very hard to grasp all of … this.
HAZEL SHADE
I know. My father and I were both always very … spiritual.
DR. GREYSON
He describes his complete loss of faith on God.
HAZEL SHADE
Not like that. We both just … loved the abstract. The mysterious beyond, you
know? The afterlife and such.
DR. GREYSON
But what about real life, the here and now? How do you explain all these inter-
actions you describe in the commentary? People are talking to Kinbote - not you,
not the young woman that is Hazel Shade, but Kinbote. And what about all
these other characters - Gradus, Disa, even the gardener - what of them? I don’t
understand.
HAZEL SHADE
I think you’re taking this book a little too literally. I never said everything I
wrote is as exactly as it happened. Sometimes the stories we tell are closer to the
truth than what actually happens.
DR. GREYSON
Isn’t that lying?
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