Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin

[Peder]

Pontalba,
I should have mentioned it earlier, but I really like your signature line. That encounter between Timofey and the squirrel just captures his personality so completely. Not only is he kind to the squirrel, but he even empathizes that it mght not be feeling well and then has the patience to wait for it to be satisfied. Just wonderful!

That the reaction of the squirrel typifies most of the world's reaction to Timofey and his kindness is also true and elevates that encounter to a metaphor for the book and his life. But that loads it down with far too much intellectual baggage and makes the thought much too ponderous. I think that just the clear expression of Timofey's personality is reason enough to admire that passage.

Cheers!
Enjoy the day.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Oh Thanks Peder, I was flipping thru looking for something, and that just leapt off of the page right at me. Its right after Liza left. I'll say it again....wretched woman!

It was so reminiscent of her attitude and his lot in life, I had to use it!
Your thought is so Not Ponderous! Its right on the money! IM(H)O

 

[Peder]

Pontalba and all,

That squirrel may be one of the few things in Pnin that is not directly out of Nabokov's life, because there seems to (me) to be so much that refelects the man himself that he did put into the novel.

Pnin's lecturing style, where he gets so caught up in telling a humorous story that he becomes nearly unintelligible, for example, is corroborated in Vera, as I recall, as something that occurred not infrequently when VN himself was lecturing in real life (and Vera sitting in the front row had to give him a signal).

VV's mention that he and his brother traveled up to his aunt's estate in Pnin sounds very close to real truth, because VN did have a brother, and a very wealthy uncle did have an estate (the estate which VN inherited from the uncle). And it would not surprise me at all if the location in Pnin was (close to) the same location in real life.

Finally, I'll mention his father's office, which had three rooms and a dining room on one side, and three bedrooms on the other side of a central hallway in Pnin. In Mary, his very first novel, nearly all the characters live in a pension which has three single rooms on each side of a central hall, with a dining room at the end of that hall. Since VN recalls elsewhere that he has rented out his and Vera's apartment from one point in their life to several characters in various novels, no great leap of imagination is needed to surmise the obvious about their own apartment that they once occupied.

With respect to opinions, however, I think there has to be even less doubt that all opinions rendered are the author's own. We know how often he gives his opinion of Freud at every opportunity, including in Pnin.

Elsewhere, we also hear him commenting about Waindell that

...still the College creaked on. Hard working graduates, with pregnant wives, still wrote dissertations on Dostoevski and Simone de Bauvoir. Literary departments still labored under the impression that Stendahl, Galsworthy, Dreiser, and Mann were great writers.

Ouch!

Or else we hear his bitterness in describing the plight of the emigre community as

a kind of special knighthood, the active and significant nucleus of an exiled society which during the third of a century that it flourished remained practically unknown to American intellectuals, for whom the notion of Russian emigration was made to mean by astute communist propaganda a vague and perfectly fictitious mass of so-called Trotskiites (whatever they are), ruined reactionaries, reformed or disguised Cheka men [the Tsar's secret police], titled ladies, professional priests, restaurant keepers and white Russian military groups, all of them of no cultural importance whatever.

Or else we see his attitude toward the Soviet government where he describes Pnin viewing a propaganda film where

...eight thousand citizens at Moscow's Electrical Equipment Plant unanimously nominated Stalin candidate from the Stalin Election District of Moscow"

But enough! The more one reads Nabokov the more one can recognize him and his actual environment appearing in his novels.

And who knows? Maybe there once really was a squirrel that caught VN's attention.

Peder

 

[Breaca]

I loved the scene with the squirrel. VN gave such a wonderful description of the event (naturally) that I could picture the scene with my mind's eye. We've got some playful and chatty squirrels around here so it made it even more believable And all I can say is at least this one didn't appear as squished roadkill

 

[Peder]

I loved the scene with the squirrel. VN gave such a wonderful description of the event (naturally) that I could picture the scene with my mind's eye. We've got some playful and chatty squirrels around here so it made it even more believable And all I can say is at least this one didn't appear as squished roadkill

Breaca,
We do up here also, and especially in upstate NY where he taught at Cornell. It would be hard to imagine that he had not noticed a squirrel sometime or other and maybe even filed away the thought for future use. I think he must have looked at the world differently than I/we do. I imagine him doing just that more or less continually, namely looking at what he saw and mentally imagining a projected use some time or other in his writing, and then filing it up there in his head. He might have simply dredged his memory and/or imagined scenes as the need arose, but I find it easier to imagine that he helped the process along by careful and habitual observation in the first place. But then of course my imagination is not to be compared with his, so who am I to speculate?

Peder

 

[steffee]

What's roadkill?

I don't remember the Squirrel scene, but I love love love all the Freud, or should that be anti-Freud(?) and always look out for them. In Pnin, most of all I loved the language descriptions.


​

 

[pontalba]

What's roadkill?

I don't remember the Squirrel scene, but I love love love all the Freud, or should that be anti-Freud(?) and always look out for them. In Pnin, most of all I loved the language descriptions.


​

Roadkill is any dead animal on the road killed by automobiles. and look at my signature line for the squirrel scene.

 

[Breaca]

Or.... it could really have happened. I'm telling ya these little critters are something else. I can tell you a true story cos I was there.

One bright and sunny spring morning I went for a short walk. I was quietly minding my business when a flurry of activity caught my attention. I had inadvertently startled around half a dozen squirrels the majority of which scrambled up the nearest tree. But wait, what's that noise she mutters as she quietly looks around - there was the pitter patter of tiny feet and a streak of fur ran in front of me and up the sweet gum tree to my left quickly followed by another set of tiny feet only this one must have thought I was a tree - albeit a very short one - as it ran over and around my feet before realising he'd made a terrible mistake. He then ran up the sweet gum tree and at some mid point looked down at me and gave me a good telling off for deceiving him in such a thoughtless and cavalier manner. Ah, didn't even give a thought to how I must have felt. Believe me had he run up my legs and settled on my head I'd have been running around the yard like a wild banshee.

So you just never know....

 

[pontalba]

OMG!!!! ROTFALOL!!Wish I'd seen That!

 

[Peder]

Multilingual humor

Picking up the thought again of that propaganda film that Timofey was watching, one other item can be directly verified as factual (even though there is no reason particularly to doubt any of the scenes, except maybe for a slight Nabokovian exaggeration for effect. )

The second part of the program consisted of an impressive Soviet documentary film made in the late forties. It was supposed to contain not a jot of propagandea, to be all sheer art, merrymaking, and the euphoria of proud toil. Handsome unkempt girls marched in an immemorial Spring Festival with banners bearing snatches of old Russian ballads, "Ruki proch ot Corei," "Bas les mains devant la Coree," "La paz vencer la guerra,"Der Friede besiegt den Krief."

A close duplicate of that scene actually appeared as a front-page phtograph in the NYT during the UN Korean intervention, with marchers carrying banners that had exactly that first phrase "Ryki proch ot Corei." [or Korei]!

That phrase, however, means "Hands off Korea," [!] so it is a propaganda slogan and anything but a phrase from "an old Russian ballad," and that march, then, was a mass demonstration and anything but an "Immemorial Spring Festival." Staring closely at the other phrases, one might imagine that the second one, in French, probably says the same thing, while the last two, in Spanish(?) and German both seem to say "Peace conquers war," or something similar.

So, in describing the girls as marching along singing snatches of old Russian ballads, VN seems to be having some multililingual fun at the expense of the unsuspecting reader, or else is simply chuckling at a private joke of his own in poking fun at a supposedly non-propagandistic Soviet movie.

However, the march and the Russian slogan are quite real enough -- one more connection of his fiction to actual reality! And perhaps he was looking at the same photograph that I was, back then. An utterly amazing coincidence if so! Tower! as Ada would say.

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Thats something that struck me as well, the propaganda machine of the Soviets that ground out nasty stuff about the so-called White Russians. Its not enough that these peoples homes and property, and basically everything they owned was stolen, their men murdered, their women raped, the Soviets found it necessary to defame them at every opportunity. Grrrrr..... Infuriating to say the least.

Love the idea of you seeing the newspaper pic at the same time as VN! I wonder if the Hands off Korea slogan was just a repetitive type of slogan they used? Its certainly some sly bit from VN, but it does say the late '40's....could it really have been Korea that he meant? We got into Korea in 1950, but how much sooner did "advisors" go in? That would take the Baker Street Irregulars................

 

[Peder]

Thats something that struck me as well, the propaganda machine of the Soviets that ground out nasty stuff about the so-called White Russians. Its not enough that these peoples homes and property, and basically everything they owned was stolen, their men murdered, their women raped, the Soviets found it necessary to defame them at every opportunity. Grrrrr..... Infuriating to say the least.

Love the idea of you seeing the newspaper pic at the same time as VN! I wonder if the Hands off Korea slogan was just a repetitive type of slogan they used? Its certainly some sly bit from VN, but it does say the late '40's....could it really have been Korea that he meant? We got into Korea in 1950, but how much sooner did "advisors" go in? That would take the Baker Street Irregulars................

Pontalba,
Keen eye you have there!
I wondered about the dates too, but finally decided that VN willingly committed a slight anachronism /clamps hand over mouth, unable to believe he said that!/ in writing the book at a later date, after the Korean war had started. That's the only thing I can think of. It would have to be willingly because I can't imagine 'accidental' with VN.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Wait jes a cotton-pickin' minute thar fella! Look on p. 9....

In the Fall Semester of that particular year (1950),

yada, yada, yada....

But now I'm not sure, as above that it says that Pnin had been at Waindell since 1945, and he'd been there 9 years at that point. So it was 1954. However, the way VN goes back and forth within that 9 year period......
Ya Suppose? /sigh/.............

Thought I had something there.....

 

[pontalba]

Where is that propaganda film quote?


edit: I found it. p.81
back in a moment

 

[pontalba]

OK, as you said, it was made in the late forties, but Pnin was viewing it in 1954ish. Right after that on the bottom of that page and the next, it looks as though Timofey has fallen asleep and is dreaming of the forest in the film, merging it with the romantic tryst he enjoyed with Mira. Hence the tears.

 

[Peder]

OK, as you said, it was made in the late forties, but Pnin was viewing it in 1954ish. Right after that on the bottom of that page and the next, it looks as though Timofey has fallen asleep and is dreaming of the forest in the film, merging it with the romantic tryst he enjoyed with Mira. Hence the tears.

Pontalba,
Neat of you to separate date of film from date of viewing.
Also Timofey falling asleep.
I thought his tears were simply for recollection of scenes from Russia quite apart from being propaganda.
Now you really have made it that I'm going to have to look at every word on those pages. (Tomorrow when the sun comes up again.)
Thanks for the careful scrutiny.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I appreciate and like the fact that Nabokov allows his male characters their emotion. So often men are not allowed tears or any type of emotional response in life as well as fiction.

 

[Peder]

I appreciate and like the fact that Nabokov allows his male characters their emotion. So often men are not allowed tears or any type of emotional response in life as well as fiction.

Yes, at worst their eyes 'fill' but somehow they never overflow and form tears.
At least if you believe the reports.

 

[pontalba]

Pnin's Punch

A heady mixture of chilled Chateau Yquem, grapefruit juice, and maraschino, which the solemn host had already started to stir in a large bowl of brilliant aquamarine glass with a decorative design of swirled ribbing and lily pads.

http://www.finestwine.com/english/a...&appellation=&currency=1&sort=name&currPage=2

By some tender coincidence the bowl had come on the very day Pnin had counted the chairs and started to plan this party.

Is there such a thing as coincidence in Nabokovia?

The bowl that emerged was one of those gifts whose first impact produces in the recipient's mind a colored image, a blazoned blur, reflecting with such emblematic force the sweet nature of the donor that the tangible attributes of the thing are dissolved, as it were, in this pure inner blaze, but suddenly and forever leap into brilliant being when rasied by an outsider to whom the true glory of the object is unknown.

When I first read this description of both the bowl, and Pnin's realization of just how beautiful the bowl was, the impact on me was intense.
It is so true, that when we receive a gift from someone we love, its not the physical thing itself we see, its the love and thought the person giving put into the article. Ah, but when an "outsider" remarks on the gift, then we realize the extent of the physical beauty of the object.

And the remarker may not, and probably doesn't know the history of the gift. I find it so remarkable and wonderful that Victor had the love and affection for Timofey that Victor's mother certainly didn't impart to him. Nor his father Eric Wind. Hah! Wind is a great name for the Windbag...
In many ways Victor is one of the most interesting of characters in this book.
His dream life was interestingly on a par with Timofey's. He should have been Timofey's son.

 

[Breaca]

I was struck by the emotion of this bowl scene too. And you are so right - the receiving of a gift by someone you care about is one of life's treasured moments - and highlighted further when gift receives praise from others.

Can you imagine the bond that would have formed between Timofey and Victor had they been father and son. Timofey would have taken a profound interest in his (son's) art and I believe Victor would have enjoyed his (father's) secret jokes and anecdotes on literature and russian history/life - What wonderful discussions they would have had.