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Pnin
Pnin - Nabokov 2013
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Discussion - Week Two - Pnin - Chapter Five - Seven
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I enjoyed this quite a bit, great humor and parody of the academic world. I got the idea Nabokov had a few axes to grind about academic trends and about Russian émigrés :-) Other than that, it was a rather slight book, content-wise. Summary above seems to make the point as well.
Mod
Yes, my attitude towards the book was not exactly positive. Each of the chapters is wonderful in itself, but there isn't really a novel here. At best, this book could be looked at as a series of vignettes or short stories on a related theme. The wrap-up chapter doesn't succeed in turning these anecdotal short stories into what we think of as a novel.
As always, great writing and characterization, but not strong overall.
Hi, I haven't taken part in any of your discussions yet but as it happens I bought Pnin just before you started your thread and was delighted to see that for once I'm on 'the same page'.About the story: I agree with Jim that it is collection of stories rather than a book, and as was mentioned by David Lodge in his introduction to Everyman's Library edition it might have been intended for a paper and only to be published as a collection at later stage.
It certainly feels disjointed and lies in the categories of lighter books.
I was dissapointed (I haven't finished reading yet, few pages left but really forcing myself at this point) because the expectations were really high after Lolita.
I didn't see where it was 'hilariously funny'; normally I would be the first to laugh at emigres' circles (being an emigree myself). I would at the most chuckle a little but, definitely not rolling on the floor. It is witty at times and boring at others. And believe me I understand at least some of the allusions.
Maybe it's sarcastically pessimistic tone or maybe good knowledge of a fairly educated immigrant's life that makes me feel that it is somehow unpleasant novel(?)...
Had this been the first book by Nabokov I read it probably would be the last one. Luckily I read Lolita first.
Mod
About the..."
One of the elements that was strangest for me was when his "son" visited. No resolution - he visited, he went back to school. Where does he fit in the story arc? Trick question because there really isn't a story arc, in the usual sense.
I like the writing, but disappointed by the structure.
Jim wrote: "No resolution - he visited, he went back to school. Where does he fit in the story arc?"This is the impression I was getting throughout this novel (?). What is the point of the story? Fair enough the story does not always need a point. The only conclusion I can come to is that each person appearing in it is on one hand showing the desperate, yet somehow unnoticed by the protagonist himself loneliness, on the other hand clearly showing that others can be quite lonely too even if they're not alone - they are married, they socialize, never really giving impression of happiness.
Mod
Yes, I can see that. Characters living lonely lives of quiet desperation.
I normally don't like to look at extra-textual materials during a first read, but now that I'm finished, I think I'll look for some reviews/critiques of this book.
I only glimpsed at my edition's introduction but quickly abandoned it as I didn't want it to influence my reading. But I'll go back to it now and see how much I differ in opinion from the professionals:) The "hilariously funny" statement comes from Graham Green cited on the cover. I somehow can't imagine Greene being so easily amused. It seems that I'm missing some subtleties of this novel and cannot get to appreciate it. But I think you are right saying it's rather the structure to blame more than anything else. It reminds me of Three Men in a Boat - very funny indeed, however without a real point, therefore not a novel, therefore not interesting... It turns out I'm more of a traditionalists, 19th century style lover.
I did see the humor in the book: Pnin's foibles, the ridiculous academic grants, Pnin being unqualified for a position as a French teacher due to his ability to actually speak French etc.. I do suspect that these parodies of academic life were less familiar at the time Pnin was published than they are today, and probably don't seem as fresh as they may have at the time.This article in the Guardian is informative: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004... . It discusses how Pnin was originally intended to be published as separate parts in the New Yorker. It also says that the original story was written by Nabokov as a means of brief escape from the darker Lolita.
The Cubist analogy I mentioned in the previous thread works quite well for me - Pnin is not about presenting a continuous whole (as Cubist painting denies Cartesian space, so does Pnin deny the flow of narrative time) but presents its subject simultaneously from a variety of of angles, with the added complication that those perspectives are never "pure" but always in some way distorted (cf. the wind starring the watery reflection at the end of the "son" chapter - which I think is kind of the central methodological chapter of the novel (its certainly not placed in the middle by accident).Except for the first chapter, none of them is really about Pnin, it's more like he figures in them - note that he never is introduced directly, but always from some distance witout being named, in some chapters he even makes a very late appearance. He is seen as lover and husband, as father, as teacher, as Russian emigré, but we never get the whole and complete Pnin, and always perceive him through some kind of caleidoscopic lens - the last chapter, with its brazenly intruding narrator (who does seem to bear some resemblance to Nabokov himself) and his possibly made-up stories only brings out in the open what had been structuring the novel (or series of closely interlinked stories - I really do not think it matters much) all along.
And finally, more squirrel sightings - there is a squirrel in the first four chapters, none in ch. 5 but someone is said to enjoy "killing small forest animals" and in consequence, the squirrels in ch. 6 ("squirrel fur") and ch. 7 ("a stuffed squirrel") are dead.
There probably is no deeper significance to this at all, but I admit it was rather fun to follow the trace of the little critters throug the novel.
Mod
I like the cubist analogy. I can see that here. Of course, this isn't a painting so I doesn't help me enjoy this book as a novel.
Conclusions / Book as a whole
Pnin summers with some expats. Pnin throws a housewarming party and loses his job. The narrator reminisces about early Pnin sitings. The end…