Vladimir Nabokov

[pontalba]

Well I will get Pnin finished tomorrow more than likely, and a re-read on Saturday...

So, what we reading next then?

Oy, we haven't done Timofey justice yet! LOL
But actually, you said you'd finished Ada, I have it right here looking at me reproachfully, while I cheat and read another author. And I remember that Peder's got a copy. Didn't you StillILearn
say that you had it as well? BTW, where are you SIL?? But I've been thinking longly of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight .

 

[steffee]

No, I know, we must continue with our Pninian chat first, hurry back Peder and Still!!

Then it's either Ada or TRLOSK

 

[pontalba]

Peder,
Haven't you read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight once already?
I mean answer after you've read the reams and reams of posts you've missed!! LOL heh, heh.....

 

[steffee]

Peder, I do hope you know how to transform a 24-hour day into 48 hours, 'cause you're gonna need them when you get back

 

[pontalba]

heh, heh, heh........

 

[pontalba]

Pnin was the second of VN's novels to be based in America (Lolita being the first), but the first story, period (it was a short story) was Time and Ebb. A teeny tiny sort of reverse science fiction story that takes place in 2024, but looks primarily back of the mans youth in the mid 1940's. In a time when airplanes have been banned... .

The story may be found in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, p.580-586.

 

[steffee]

Oh wow, I didn't know VN wrote stories like that, set in the future I mean.

 

[pontalba]

Oh wow, I didn't know VN wrote stories like that, set in the future I mean.

It doesn't read like that all however. Its not "science-fictiony". Ordinary language etc. No flashing items of clothing or weapons. Just an old man reminiscing about a past that is different from the reality of our "past".

 

[StillILearn]

Peder, I do hope you know how to transform a 24-hour day into 48 hours, 'cause you're gonna need them when you get back

I can't help but wonder if Peder is experiencing withdrawal symptoms after starting and ending so many of his days with us here in Nabo-Naboland. Is Mrs Peder delighted to have her husband back 24/7 or is she feverishily trying to repair (or replace) his monitor? Did she secretly sabotage his PC or is she out there right now trying to buy him another one?

Speaking just for me, if my computer had crashed I might have moved into the local library by now, pillow and all.

I hope Peder isn't getting over us. Maybe he's taken up playing chess with some guy he met at Starbucks.

Speaking for all of us (I know I am correct in saying this), we want our Peder back!

 

[pontalba]

LOL SIL! I expect Peder is chewing the woodwork by now. AFAIK the keyboard is still being replaced, so lets all send "hurry-up!!" thought waves to the replacer of keyboards and make them put the pedal to the metal!

You know I'd just signed up on this forum less than a month when the hurricane hit at the end of August, and we didn't have phone lines (computer dependent) for Three Months!!!. Cyber-Hades! So I can totally sympathize with him. Miserable. Every time I saw a Bell South Telephone truck on the road, if I could I'd make them talk to me about the outage.

 

[steffee]

A few months ago, I decided (well, actually, my husband decided for me ) that I spent too much time on the internet (no, really ) and so I got the internet took out. I thought I would be heartbroken, but I wasn't. I didn't miss it at all, for about six months, until I started my university course and realised that the internet would come in very useful for my coursework, so I got it back. Now, I don't know how I lived without it

Peder, yes, do come back. We will all club together and purchase a shiny new keyboard for you. Peder, Pnin positively needs you.

 

[StillILearn]

A few months ago, I decided (well, actually, my husband decided for me ) that I spent too much time on the internet (no, really ) and so I got the internet took out. I thought I would be heartbroken, but I wasn't. I didn't miss it at all, for about six months, until I started my university course and realised that the internet would come in very useful for my coursework, so I got it back. Now, I don't know how I lived without it

Peder, yes, do come back. We will all club together and purchase a shiny new keyboard for you. Peder, Pnin positively needs you.

Omigosh, steffee, nobody better get between me and my internet. I have dial-up where I live, and that's about all the interference I can tolerate. I think you asked me where in am Pnin-wise?

I just read Pnin's marriage proposal to Lise, wherein he ends it by writing:

"I have permitted myself to correct an obvious misprint on page 48 of Chateau's excellent paper. I await your (probably) decision,"

Now, if this man cannot give lessons in how to win a Russian woman's heart, I don't know who can!

 

[pontalba]

I just read Pnin's marriage proposal to Lise, wherein he ends it by writing:
Now, if this man cannot give lessons in how to win a Russian woman's heart, I don't know who can!

For some reason, I thought you were finished the book. This thread seemed to be becoming a Timofey Pnin thread, so thats why I opened the other one.

I had dial-up until recently. The phone company had to lay all new wires from the town as the old ones were uprooted during the storm, so they put in the DSL while they were at it. I resisted for about a month, but the dial-up was getting slower and slower, so I finally relented and signed up for DSL. The difference is Night and Day!

 

[steffee]

I wouldn't mind having dial-up, but the cost over here is virtually the same for the two, and broadband obviously has the added benefit of people actually being able to get through on the phone line, without an engaged tone greeting their ears for hours at a time.

 

[pontalba]

Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years by Brian Boyd

Nabokov certainly knew what he wanted in regard to any and everything to do with his work. He received the preliminary sketches for the book covers for Pnin, and was not a happy camper, but even in his irritation, he was kind to the artist. p. 298

I have just received the sketches. They are executed with talent, the picture as art goes is first rate, but in regard to my Pnin it is wrong: The sketch looks like the portrait of an underpaid instructor in the English department or like a Republican's notion of a defeated Adlai, when actually he should look like a Russian muzhik clean-shaven. I am sending you some photographs of Pnin-like Russians, with and without hair, for a visual appreciation fo the items I am going to discuss.

He then made a long and very detailed list of attributes for Pnin.

 

[steffee]

So what does Pnin look like then?

 

[pontalba]

Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years by Brian Boyd

Some of the physical qualities VN wanted depicted on the cover were as follows: (p.298)

1. The head should look quite bald, without any dark margin, and must be ampler, rounder, smoother, more dome-like. Not Zhavoronkov and Yegorov for the type of head, which however should be bigger in Pnin's case, not egg-shaped. Maslov would be perfect, minus hair.

2. The glasses should be definitely tortoise-shell ones, with somewhat squarish frames.

3. The nose is very important. It should be the Russian potato nose, fat and broad, with prominent nostril curves. See Zhukovski for nostrils, and Obraztsov for a replica of Pnisn's fat golssy organ; but Pavlov and Maslov are also good.

4. The terribly important space between nose and upperlip. This must be simian, large, long, with a central hollow and lateral furrows. See Zhavoronkov, Baykov, Yegorov, Zhukovski. The latter's lips are very Pninian. Pnin's bad teeth should not show.

5. The cheeks and jowls. Jowls and jaw should be large, broad, massive. See Baykov, Zhavoronkov, Yegorov.

6. The shoulders should be very broad, square, padded. Pnin wears a ready-made suit of four years ago.

7. The tie should be a flamboyant one.

Now regarding all the names, VN had enclosed pictures with instructions. And doesn't it seem that VN has a bit of a fetish for "ape-like" features?

 

[steffee]

Wow, Pontalba, talk about descriptive! When I asked I expected a meagre reply such as "short, slightly overweight, bald and wearing glasses" or something, not all that, not instructions for the shape of the nostils and the distance between the nose and mouth, called the fulcrum, is it not?

If only we had access to Photo-fit type software huh?

Yes, strange choices

 

[pontalba]

Well, that was the description he gave the publisher for the book cover. I love the way he was so very precise in every small detail. Even down to what book Pnin would be holding in his hands in the picture and the Cryllic (sp) script on the cover of the book on the cover. BB says that Pnin's interest in gestures was actually Nabokov's own.

Is photo fit the program that police use in place of the police artist? For suspects and stuff? I would love to use that to create Timofey.

 

[steffee]

Yeah, it is what the police use. It's really hard, we had a go of it in our forensic psych. class and we spent ages trying to do our lecturer but it was so hard! You need exact descriptions, much like Nabkov gave, lol, it's no good just saying "big nose, small eyes" or whatever lol.

My book cover doesn't have a picture on... I'm gonna go searching amazon for a cover with Pnin on the front.