Greg Lloyd
@Roundtrip@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@marick The first time I read Nabokov’s , I decided to follow all of the links, depth first. I had to use six or seven numbered bookmarks to mark my place!

Since I was busy with other studies and CS, I read mainly late at night, but when I got sleepy, it took so much time to carefully review my bookmarks that I was wide awake again!
Greg Lloyd
@Roundtrip@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@marick
Yes, Nabokov did his job — creating a novel experience. is a favorite.

No, he didn’t suggest a depth first tour, that was my idea as a CS nerd!

“Although those notes, in conformity with custom, come after the poem, the reader is advised to consult them first and then study the poem with their help, rereading them of course as he goes through its text, and perhaps, after having done with the poem, consulting them a third time so as to complete the picture.”

A quote from the Foreword of the novel ‘Pale Fire’ (by Vladimir Nabokov, 1962) as written by Charles Kinbote — the novel’s narrator and the nominal editor of the book — on how to read the book. Kinbote suggests 1) read his Foreword; 2) Read his Commentary — a sequence of notes organized by Poem line number; 3) Read John Shade’s 999 line Poem ‘Pale Fire’, the nominal subject of the book — shifting to read any associated Commentary notes as lines of the Poem are read; 4) Consult Kinbote’s Commentary a third time ‘so as to complete the picture’.
A quote from the Foreword of the novel ‘Pale Fire’ (by Vladimir Nabokov, 1962) as written by Charles Kinbote — the novel’s narrator and the nominal editor of the book — on how to read the book. Kinbote suggests 1) read his Foreword; 2) Read his Commentary — a sequence of notes organized by Poem line number; 3) Read John Shade’s 999 line Poem ‘Pale Fire’, the nominal subject of the book — shifting to read any associated Commentary notes as lines of the Poem are read; 4) Consult Kinbote’s Commentary a third time ‘so as to complete the picture’.
A quote from the Foreword of the novel ‘Pale Fire’ (by Vladimir Nabokov, 1962) as written by Charles Kinbote — the novel’s narrator and the nominal editor of the book — on how to read the book. Kinbote suggests 1) read his Foreword; 2) Read his Commentary — a sequence of notes organized by Poem line number; 3) Read John Shade’s 999 line Poem ‘Pale Fire’, the nominal subject of the book — shifting to read any associated Commentary notes as lines of the Poem are read; 4) Consult Kinbote’s Commentary a third time ‘so as to complete the picture’.
Greg Lloyd
@Roundtrip@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@marick

It was easy to navigate ’s four sections: Foreword, Poem, Commentary, Index

I could freely read

1) Start to finish, like a traditional book
2) Exploring Commentary trails
3) Exploring Index trails (a treat)
4) Read the Poem sequentially (first or last)
5) Read the Poem and associated Commentary — as Kinbote suggests
6) Following Commentary trails depth first, as deep as I wished, switching to read Poem lines associated with notes as I travelled
7) Change order at will
Greg Lloyd
@Roundtrip@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week

@marick
I highly recommend the Audiobook performance of read front to back (including the Index) by two narrators:

Marc Victor - as John Shade (reading the Poem)

Robert Blumenfeld - as Charles Kinbote (reading the Foreword, Commentary, and Index in a mixed Slavic accent)

I didn’t think a front to back audio book reading would work well, but with the energetic performances it was thouroghly enjoyable, and often hilarious (the Index was a particular treat).

audible.com/pd/B004GIDQI0
Brian Marick
@marick@mstdn.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@Roundtrip I don’t think I finished /Pale Fire/ oh so long ago, and I probably read it before I was ready to think about hypertext. So: interesting. Thanks.

Although Nabakov doesn’t strike me as someone who goes out of his way to make things easy for the reader. He was likely aiming at a narrower audience than I think hypertext-enhanced narrative text should go for.
Bill Seitz
@billseitz@toolsforthought.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last week
@Roundtrip @marick "In 1969, IBM and Ted Nelson from Brown University gained permission from Nabokov's publisher to use Pale Fire as a demonstration of an early hypertext system and, in general, hypertext's potential. The unconventional form of the demonstration was dismissed in favour of a more technically oriented variant." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_fiction
Greg Lloyd
@Roundtrip@federate.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@marick 🧵 Trails

Brian — or anyone — can you recommend a tool or app that can use a reference to the head of a Mastodon thread like this to create a neatly structured sequence of posts as a document that can be edited into a coherent linear trail? Markdown would be best, but anything would be helpful.

Not limited to a single author or simply linked thread, but using a depth first topological ordering from the root.