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Vladimir Nabokov: Pnin

Weelllll, I'll give you something to look up:p

I may be way of the post here but our main narrator - insect man - says on page 31 (chap 2.1 para 6) 'Technically speaking, the narrator's art of integrating telephone conversations still lags far behind that of rendering dialogues conducted from room to room, or from window to window across some narrow blue alley.......' I mention this as it leads me to believe that our main narrator is telling the Pnin story from stories he has picked up along the way. As for the second narrator (if there are only two!): stick to the same chapter but go to 2.2 para 8(ish) towards the end - it mentions a mimic and describes the mimic as being 'the greatest'. What do you think?:D
 
Well, luckily I brought my book out with me today. ;)

The Head of English, Jack Cockerell?

The phonecall, in Chapter 2.1, when a strange voice asks for Mrs Fire, and Joan is actually Mrs Thayer, occurs when Joan and Lawrence are talking about Jack Cockerell too.

Is he one of them?
 
Steffee That phone call was actually from Pnin to inquire about the room for rent. But again, his accent worked against him. Ah, Timofey!

I find it interesting that I at least tend to refer to VN's characters in different ways. I almost always think of Humbert Humbert as HH. I wonder if that is because what he is/was doing was so very repungant, the pronouncement of his name is.........slightly.......sticky, like a piece of dirtied laundry that one doesn't remember exactly what got on it, and we really don't want to put our hands directly on it. Just in case. :eek:

Now OTOH, The Enchanter, (Arthur), I think of as Arthur. Maybe the name Arthur is more of a.........I don't know a formal name. A name that I appreciate, but don't really like all that well. Now one could not be too much raunchier than he was. :rolleyes: :(

Now Pnin, I always think of as Timofey. Our Timofey. His heart is so.....good almost pure in a way. Innocent and loving, loyal to the end type of man. Plus what a wonderful sense of humor. Always important in a man! IMHO :D
 
That's strange Pontalba.

I think of Timofey Pnin mostly as Pnin, unless his father comes into it too, when it has to become Timofey, to avoid having Pnin Senior and Pnin Junior etc. But yeah I agree, due to the niceness of him, he should be Timofey, it sounds much more personal than Pnin. But then I remember that Timofey Pnin didn't appreciate calling people by their first names, so Pnin it remains with me.

Arthur, I too, think of as Arthur.

Humbert Humbert is always 'Humbert the Horrible' in my mind, though occasionally I abbreviate his name on here to HH just out of laziness, never just Humbert though.

Edit: lol at the sense of humour in a man, yes he was so "pure" as you say, very vulnerable.
 
Thats an excellent point regarding the use of first names for Timofey. And you are perfectly right. But Timofey he shall remain to me. :) I think mostly because he had in a way a childlike quality about him. /shrugs shoulders/ what can I say? He rings out my maternal instincts. :rolleyes:
 
steffee said:
The Head of English, Jack Cockerell? The phonecall, in Chapter 2.1, when a strange voice asks for Mrs Fire, and Joan is actually Mrs Thayer, occurs when Joan and Lawrence are talking about Jack Cockerell too.
Is he one of them?
Click to expand...

That's who I think it is and I'm sticking to my guns. There is the other give-away - for want of a better word - the very last sentence in the book: "And now he said (Cockerell), "I'm going to tell you (the main narrator) the story of Pnin rising to address the Cremona Women's Club and discovering he had brought the wrong lecture." VN brings us full circle - beginning to end to the beginning:cool:
 
Wow, well done Breaca. It seems you would be correct!

To complicate further the basic antinomy (N.'s thesis against Pnin's antithesis), the reader has to grapple with the version offered by Jack Cockerell, a minor narrator of Pnin's anecdotes in the last chapter.
Click to expand...

From here
 
Hi Steffee - sorry but I tend to have several webpages open at one time and get caught up:eek:

Thanks for the link I shall read it fully whilst cooking my supper:D It's a very confusing world out there when you dare to google Nabokov. There's pages and pages of the stuff leading us to ponder on where to look first. So thumbs up for providing lovely links:D
 
steffee said:
So, VV cats himself as a narrator. Cockerell is another. Any more for any more?
Click to expand...
I don't think its as simple as narration. He actually becomes an integral part of the story. Remember Pnin would not even stay at the university because he said he would never work under that man. VV's character is the cause actually of Pnin and Liza marrying at all. If he'd not blown her off she would not have attempted suicide, and friends would not have recomended she get married asap. {what dumb advice!!!}......anyway, so because of this and more, his "character" was an integral part of the story.

Any more? Hmmm.......I don't know.
 
Oh, right, I get it. I've read Pnin twice as well...

So, the person Hagen and Timofey Pnin were talking about that day, was VV! I knew it!! I knew she attempted suicide, but thought that was after she was married to Pnin, whilst she was having affairs left and right! Ah!!
 
It's the final chess move in the furthest corner of the board. Just like VN promised.
Inscrutably,
Peder
 
... Pnin is given the key at which he looks abstractly, turns it this way and that and then drops with a shrug, without recognizing it, for one cannot be aware of a pattern, let alone see it, if one is an element of it.
Click to expand...

I think I found this in steffee's link. I'm so confused
 
pontalba said:
Its really, really, really irritating when you "do" inscrutable Peder!
:D :D :D
Click to expand...

I'll bet Peder was just reading his head off while he was without his PC. We're probably in for a world of trouble from him now!

Don't you just adore Remains of the Day, pontalba?;)
 
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