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Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin

Americans aren't egotistical! :eek: :D

It's french (no, really) for "I don't understand". It's the only French I remember.

But anyway, I have marked down those chapters, I will look. I'm not promising to actually "get" it, but I will look, he he. :D
 
steffee said:
Americans aren't egotistical! :eek: :D

It's french (no, really) for "I don't understand". It's the only French I remember.

But anyway, I have marked down those chapters, I will look. I'm not promising to actually "get" it, but I will look, he he. :D
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I thought that might be it, but wasn't sure...:)
 
Ok, Chapter 5.2 then. Kukolnikov? Petrovich? Shpolyanski or Poroshin? Professors Bolotov or Chateau? Lidia Vinogradov?

Chapter 5.5 is where Pnin's father and a friend, Dr. Grigoriervich are playing chess.

No clue, Pnin plays chess later with Chateau. Is it Chateau?

Birthplace: St Petersburg? He bought a map in Biarritz?

He was 12, give or take a few days, as he'd been "trying out a beautiful new English bicycle given to me for my twelfth birthday". And Timofey Pnin was 13.

In Chapter 7.2, he mentions having a brother, and "going back to the butterfly". Is the narrator the same person who knew all about butterflies earlier? Vladimir Vladimirovich?
 
StillILearn said:
Ta-daaa! What an amazing writer. Pnin deserves a reread.

But not right now. The Penelopiad is calling my name. :eek:
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In my softest whisper.... How's that other one coming along - it's on my wishlist;)
 
Breaca said:
In my softest whisper.... How's that other one coming along - it's on my wishlist;)
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;) I got it for my birthday (it was on my wishlist, too), and it's starting off really beautifully. I'll meet you in the Penelopiad thread later. ;)
 
Steffee Sorry, I had to go to town today to run errands. On page 117 Chap. 5 sub2, Pnin is an The Pines
............Emigre Russians--liberals and intellectuals who had left Russia around 1920--could be found swarming all over the place. You would find them in every patch of speckled shade, sitting on rustic benches and discussing emigre writers--Bunin, Aldanov, Sirin; lying suspended in hammocks, with the Sunday issue of a Russian-language newspaper over gheir faces in traditional defense against files;............
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page 128, chap 5, sub 4
Pity Vladimir Vladimirovich is not here, remarked Chateau. He would have told us all about these enchanting insects.
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p. 174 Chap 7 second paragraph:
it was one of those rough, gusty and lusterous mornings in St. Petersburg.............
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p.178 Chap 7 sub 2:
The interview ended in mutual emparrassment, not alleviated by Pnin or Belochkin overturning a glass of pear kvas and I went back to my butterfly...................
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;)


Remember Alfred Hitchcock's trademark?
 
So the "emigre Russians" that were seen "swarming all over the place" is an analogy for butterflies?

I got the Vladimir Vladimirovich bit, so that's the narrator? Nobody?

I don't know what Hitchcock's trademark is.... birds? colour red? heights? lol

Also, I don't get the St Petersburg significance. :confused:

And Still, happy birthday! For whenever it is. I read somewhere you're a Pisces...
 
V. Sirin was the name VN wrote under early on in his career, and he was from St. Petersburg. But thats good, thinking about the swarming bit regarding butterflies. :) That didn't sink in with me. :)

But there is more. Think about all those references, and Liza and how she came to marry Pnin. And who has the letter Pnin wrote to her. All the same.

Alfred Hitchcock's "trademark" (well one of them) was to inject himself into one of his films as a passerby. Everyone one of his films, you had to look for him, and he was so distinctive looking, it wasn't easy for him to be unobstrusive. ;)

Nabokov didn't really enjoy being unobstrusive. He really has a major role.

But there is some debate regarding who the other narrator is........
More later.
 
Wow Pontalba, amazing!!

I kinda worked it out, from where you mentioned in a different thread about Vladimir Vladimirovich, as the author of Lolita et al.

You're a genius! :D
 
Hardly! :eek: :D I had help, but the minute I saw Vladimir Vladimirovich, the nickle dropped. Plus haveing read Vera I knew he was from St. Petersburg. He is the one that is the lover that discarded Liza and drove her to suicide. (She was almost successful). But the interesting thing, is there is at least one more, and maybe two more narrators. /sigh/ After all the "friend" VN in the novel could not have known the inner workings and musings of Pnin's mind......

Now remember that VN is interjecting himself as a character, he didn't really do that in real life.

Thats why I brought out that he was the character that Ultimately received the letter of Pnin to Liza (prior to their marriage).
 
Remember I bought the two Brian Boyd bios of VN? After I'd worked it out to a certain point, I consulted BB. That helped connect the last of the dots. :D :eek: :p
 
You're too modest, Pontalba.

This is so exciting it's making me feel sick. Vladimir Vladimirovich (which from this point forwards shall be abbreviated to VV, because that has to be the most confusing name there ever was, non?) is VN, who is a character. So, is Pnin a real person then? A real professor, with a real "tramp" of an ex-wife? With a real bout of bad luck? Or is VN, or VV rather, just a part of the story in an entirely fictional way?

So who could have known the workings of Pnin's mind? Liza? Pavel Pnin? Timofey Pnin himself? Let's not forget that one of the narrators knew the workings of Liza and Eric Winds' minds too...

This book just gets better and better! :D
 
There was a great amount of debate as to who was who, based on who, (or is it whom):confused: , anyway VN just interjected himself as a fictional character. There was a woman poet that was quite aggrevated, upset with VN for what she considered his characterization of her poetry. So she was someone he knew in their (VN and Vera's) Paris life. But he didn't have an affair with her. Vladimirovich is just an affectionate form of Vladimir.
Steffee wrote--So who could have known the workings of Pnin's mind? Liza? Pavel Pnin? Timofey Pnin himself? Let's not forget that one of the narrators knew the workings of Liza and Eric Winds' minds too...
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Ahh...now thats the kicker isn't it? What did Nabokov mean? Was it simply authorial hubris?
OTOH, reread the last page of the book. :)

My tea is calling....I'll be back later....:)
 
I have a theory about a second narrator. Who would know the workings of Pnin's mind? The book - and hence Mr Nobokov - tells us of one character who knew enough about Pnin to provide entertainment at our precious russian's expense. But I'll keep the name to myself for a bit - just in case I got it wrong:p
 
Oh no, do spill Breaca! :D

I'm thinking it's gotta be either Liza, Mira, Victor or Pavel Pnin. I'd be more inclined to go with Liza or Victor though.
 
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