Discussion - Week One - Pnin - Chapter One thru Four

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter One thru Four, p. 7 – 110


Expatriate Professor Pnin has trouble with public transportation. “Ping-pong” Pnin settles into his new digs. A visit from his ex goes in an unexpected direction. Victor, the son-he-almost-had, visits Pnin in Waindell.

[Whitney]

Oh, man, I've showed up at the wrong party again, haven't I? Anyone else here?

[Mekki]

I'm in this.

Still in chapter 3 section 6.

So far i feel its a little funny. especially when pnin makes mistakes when he doesn't understand something or when people don't understand him. The panic attack at the bus stop was funny.

It also sad. In the sense that some people see his difficulties in life and they laugh and ridicule him behind his back or try to use him(ex-wife and her husband).

Lets see what Mcfate has in store for pnin.

Again nabokov is a master with his prose.

[Jim]

Whitney wrote: "Oh, man, I've showed up at the wrong party again, haven't I? Anyone else here?"

Did you remember to bring the wine?

@Mekki - While reading this, I was wondering if the anecdotes are related to Nabokov's experiences, or to other expat professors. I'm guessing others since RL Nabokov seemed to have led a charmed life.

It's strange but it seems that Pnin ping-pongs back and forth between in-control and admirable, and confused schlemiel. Not sure what to make of that.

[Whitney]

Jim wrote: "It's strange but it seems that Pnin ping-pongs back and forth between in-control and admirable, and confused schlemiel. Not sure what to make of that..."

I noticed that as well. It has a ring of truth to it, and also lends support to the claim that Pnin was based on a real person or persons. Wikipedia, quoting David Lodge, says that 'The main character is based, in part, on Cornell Professor Marc Szeftel, who may have "somewhat resented the resemblance" '.

I was also glad to see that Pnin was not so one-dimensional as to be the butt of every joke, as I found myself relating to many of his somewhat pathetic actions. Getting on the wrong train, taking all three papers to be sure he had the right one, eating at a mediocre restaurant because he felt bad for it - all pretty much things I do / have done :-)

[Larou]

I thought the first chapter was utterly, breathtaking brilliant, and if Pnin had managed to retain this level during the rest of the volume it might even have been among Nabokov's best books (I love how he makes the wallscreen in the flashback depict exactly the situation of present-day Pnin).

Unfortunately the rest (I just finished chapter three) seems significantly less dense and to lose itself occasionally in what I assume are insider jokes. So, definitely Nabokov's best, although I don't think it is quite as slight as some here seem to think - more on that when I've read the rest (unless I should change my opinion until then, of course. :P )

Is it just me, or are there a lot of alllusions to Ulysses sprinkled through Pnin? There is of course the whole wandering motif, but also more specific things like Wind/Aeolus or the book Pnin carries around everywhere in chapter 3 and which reminded me of Bloom's lemon soap.

Also, squirrels. There has been one in each of the chapters so far, I'm really curious to find out whether this is going to lead anywhere...

[Jim]

Larou wrote: "I thought the first chapter was utterly, breathtaking brilliant, and if Pnin had managed to retain this level during the rest of the volume it might even have been among Nabokov's best books (I lov..."

No doubt, Nabokov is an excellent writer. What is strange about this book is that it isn't exactly clear how it's supposed to hold together as a novel, insofar as a narrative thread that doesn't seem coherent. Each chapter is good in itself, but their relation to each other is harder to discern.

[Larou]

Well, there is definitely no ongoing narrative thread here (unless you count the very slender one of Pnin looking for a place to stay), but I'd think that this has stopped being a prerequisite for the novel some time around Tristram Shandy.

I do think there is thematic unity, though, and some signfificance beyond Pnin's tale, and possibly some formal coherence, too. I noticed this bit in chapter 4, actually pretty much exactly in the middle of the book:

"Now break the body of the car into separate curves and panels; then put it together in terms of reflections. These will be different for each part: the top will display inverted trees with blurred branches growing like roots into a washily photographed sky, with a whalelike building swimming by—an architectural afterthought; one side of the hood will be coated with a band of rich celestial cobalt; a most delicate pattern of black twigs will be mirrored in the outside surface of the rear window; and a remarkable desert view, a distended horizon, with a remote house here and a lone tree there, will stretch along the bumper. This mimetic and integrative process Lake called the necessary “naturalization” of man-made things."

I wonder if that does not describe the formal methodology of Pnin - it shows us US society in the 50s as reflected in Pnin, and at the same time gives us a portrait of Pnin from the way he is reflecting the world around him. The resulting book, I imagine, would look not so much like a history painting but more like the novel equivalent to a cubist painting, and maybe that's what Pnin is.

In the end, though, I have to admit that I'm perfectly okay with considering Pnin as a thematically linked story collection rather than a novel. :P