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Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

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Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#21

Post by vessenes »

mm263 wrote: post #13
vessenes wrote: post #2

Nice to see more literature on HN recently -- Infinite Jest came up yesterday to my delight. Pale Fire is not my favorite Nabokov novel, largely because it's so successful at getting you in the head of someone who just fully and completely gives you the ick, top to bottom, in nearly every sentence. This paper is awesome, though. I particularly like that Mr. Rowberry went ahead and graphed a bunch of connections, very…

I actually saw a little excerpt of a video interview that I failed to find to give you the link where he was asked about his current project. He showed a stack of cards that became Ada and talked about the main theme being passage of time

Ah, interesting!

Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#22

Post by vessenes »

mrsvanwinkle wrote: post #15
vessenes wrote: post #2

Nice to see more literature on HN recently -- Infinite Jest came up yesterday to my delight. Pale Fire is not my favorite Nabokov novel, largely because it's so successful at getting you in the head of someone who just fully and completely gives you the ick, top to bottom, in nearly every sentence. This paper is awesome, though. I particularly like that Mr. Rowberry went ahead and graphed a bunch of connections, very…

i had a second reading, and i am convinced it is the greatest work of Art. a lot of people, myself included, bit the ruse that Kinbote was some parody of a mad man and ignored everything but the poem. but the notes have the most beautiful verses in the history of literature, even more beautiful, far more beautiful than the poem. spoiler: it is just one mind (solipsism). it deals with all kinds of dysphoria, especiall…

Thanks for this. Sounds like some good required summer reading coming up :)

Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#24

Post by defen »

mrsvanwinkle wrote: post #15
vessenes wrote: post #2

Nice to see more literature on HN recently -- Infinite Jest came up yesterday to my delight. Pale Fire is not my favorite Nabokov novel, largely because it's so successful at getting you in the head of someone who just fully and completely gives you the ick, top to bottom, in nearly every sentence. This paper is awesome, though. I particularly like that Mr. Rowberry went ahead and graphed a bunch of connections, very…

i had a second reading, and i am convinced it is the greatest work of Art. a lot of people, myself included, bit the ruse that Kinbote was some parody of a mad man and ignored everything but the poem. but the notes have the most beautiful verses in the history of literature, even more beautiful, far more beautiful than the poem. spoiler: it is just one mind (solipsism). it deals with all kinds of dysphoria, especiall…

Pale Fire is one of my favorite books of all time. BTW the crown jewels can be found in the book, if you know where to look :)

Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#26

Post by zem »

stevenwoo wrote: post #8
windward wrote: post #5

I love this book. Before anything else it's a pleasure to read: it's funny, touching, and the constant referring to the poem at its core forces literary engagement - even if it's only to notice where Kinbote is bending the truth. It also scratches a metafictional itch that has now become a huge trend in modern media... Spoilers below ...but I find it suffers in criticism for a different trend: that everything has a '…

I went into it blind and the first thought ( which is probably very common ) is that this experience would greatly benefit from a hypertext implementation. There's a neutral interpretation here. https://www.tundrasquid.com/palefireindex.htm

I think jumping back and forth via hypertext would be a bad reading experience; what you ideally want is two panes scrolling in parallel. (I read it keeping two copies of the book open on my kindle and phone but if I reread it I'll probably use split windows on a laptop instead)

Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#28

Post by vessenes »

mcbrit wrote: post #12
vessenes wrote: post #2

Nice to see more literature on HN recently -- Infinite Jest came up yesterday to my delight. Pale Fire is not my favorite Nabokov novel, largely because it's so successful at getting you in the head of someone who just fully and completely gives you the ick, top to bottom, in nearly every sentence. This paper is awesome, though. I particularly like that Mr. Rowberry went ahead and graphed a bunch of connections, very…

Shuffling zk (Zettelkasten) cards is just fine. [1] The meaning of a note is largely determined by its connections, and so approaching a note through a different set of connections gives it a different meaning. Finding new paths uncovers new meanings, which is at least one of the zk points. Shuffling cards is one way you might find new paths. [1] If you have physical cards you are destroying the default hierarchical…

Yep. I'm a purist and prefer paper. Well, mostly. I do have a digital system that tries to bridge the gap, but it uses a standard-ish paper numbering system (1a2b11..) for a variety of reasons. And, yes, the keeping in order is much of the point of the numbering system on paper in my opinion.

Re: Nabokov's pale fire: the lost 'father of all hypertext demos'? (2011)

#29

Post by zabzonk »

mrsvanwinkle wrote: post #15
vessenes wrote: post #2

Nice to see more literature on HN recently -- Infinite Jest came up yesterday to my delight. Pale Fire is not my favorite Nabokov novel, largely because it's so successful at getting you in the head of someone who just fully and completely gives you the ick, top to bottom, in nearly every sentence. This paper is awesome, though. I particularly like that Mr. Rowberry went ahead and graphed a bunch of connections, very…

i had a second reading, and i am convinced it is the greatest work of Art. a lot of people, myself included, bit the ruse that Kinbote was some parody of a mad man and ignored everything but the poem. but the notes have the most beautiful verses in the history of literature, even more beautiful, far more beautiful than the poem. spoiler: it is just one mind (solipsism). it deals with all kinds of dysphoria, especiall…

> but the notes have the most beautiful verses in the history of literature, even more beautiful, far more beautiful than the poem.

An example, perhaps?

I've always found the poem full of beautiful things (makes you wish Nabokov wrote more poetry), and the commentary by Kinbote full of mad, hilarious nonsense. But each to his own, I suppose.

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