Pale Fire: Illustrated Sports Illustrated Sports Pale Fire Journal | Page 54

university. The ambiguous dialogue consistently leads to multiple possible inter-
pretations.
The patient spends a lot of time making up a world in which he calls Zem-
bla. This world is featured quite often in the book. It is known that the patient’s
therapist and the patient share many hours talking of Zembla. The doctor
thinks it will help the patient accept trials of the past. It is said in the book “that
distinguished Zemblan scholar Oscar Nattochdag” (1962, 237). It is important
to ask ourselves who would know more about a made-up land than the therapist
of the patient who made it up? At the same time, this is a work of fiction and in-
formation is often leaked from a person’s personal life. The question that re-
mains is where does the ‘leaking’ stop and the resemblance begin?
Furthermore, the placement of characters in unlikely settings further sug-
gests that this was written by the patient in the mental institute. For example,
the character Sylvia. Given the character’s job and position it would not be ex-
pected that she would be “Discussing hospital cots with the head nurse” (1962,
211). However, that is exactly the situation the character finds herself. This leads
54