Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 48

Inside the asylum: A Tribute to Nabokov’s Creativity
A Note from the Author
Writing Pale Fire was Nabokov’s way of making a point to the community
of literature. As such, it is a book that resists being conformed into any one in-
terpretation. He wrote this book to exploit readers’ creativity and prove that
what is on the surface is not always what is being said. For this reason, when ex-
amining the text, I believe Nabokov would appreciate the creative approach. In
order to embody Nabokov’s creative style, the following ‘essay’ is unlike most es-
says submitted in a college class, just as Nabokov wrote a book that is unlike any
book that is studied in a college class.
By organizing the essay into entries multiple perspectives and interpreta-
tions can be analyzed without becoming jumbled. Consequently, each entry is
either from the perspective of a madman in a madhouse or a patient log of a
doctor about a madman in a madhouse. This directly addresses an interpreta-
tion that says the book was written by someone in an insane asylum.
Not only do the entries make the writing unique but the entries of the
madman are in an unconventional font. This is a stylistic choice made to further
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