Changing My Mind_ Occasional Essays Part 11

Warning: this footnote for Pnin Pnin nerds only. Galya Diment's illuminating study nerds only. Galya Diment's illuminating study Pniniad Pniniad reveals that Nabokov meant to kill Pnin, and was committed to this plan until quite far along in the novel. It appears to be a case of a writer becoming too charmed by his own creation to kill him. But it also means that the Tolstoy and Lermontov echoes (this sense of being spoken about casually, or caricatured, by other people, while you yourself are experiencing an extremely personal and ulterior reality) are deprived their final satisfaction (as Pnin's escape from the jaws of death finds its own echo in the gla.s.s bowl that improbably survives the washing up). We can faintly imagine what the last chapter was to have been: the narrator and Jack c.o.c.kerell doing their sordid, lame little impressions of Pnin, while Pnin lies dying, or perhaps has already died. (Which leads to the question: what is it about having people speak of you as you lie dying that is particularly Russian?) reveals that Nabokov meant to kill Pnin, and was committed to this plan until quite far along in the novel. It appears to be a case of a writer becoming too charmed by his own creation to kill him. But it also means that the Tolstoy and Lermontov echoes (this sense of being spoken about casually, or caricatured, by other people, while you yourself are experiencing an extremely personal and ulterior reality) are deprived their final satisfaction (as Pnin's escape from the jaws of death finds its own echo in the gla.s.s bowl that improbably survives the washing up). We can faintly imagine what the last chapter was to have been: the narrator and Jack c.o.c.kerell doing their sordid, lame little impressions of Pnin, while Pnin lies dying, or perhaps has already died. (Which leads to the question: what is it about having people speak of you as you lie dying that is particularly Russian?)

32.

Of course an actual actual Van Eyck turns up at Pnin's successful little party, when Laurence Clements, lost in thought while holding a dictionary, is compared to the master's portrait of Canon van der Paele. At the same party, a little later on, bored Laurence is to be found "flipping through an alb.u.m of Van Eyck turns up at Pnin's successful little party, when Laurence Clements, lost in thought while holding a dictionary, is compared to the master's portrait of Canon van der Paele. At the same party, a little later on, bored Laurence is to be found "flipping through an alb.u.m of Flemish Masterpieces. Flemish Masterpieces."

33.

All appear in Pnin Pnin. Bole Bole is used for "the trunk of a tree" but is also the small eye on a b.u.t.terfly wing; is used for "the trunk of a tree" but is also the small eye on a b.u.t.terfly wing; crepitation crepitation is a Nabokov favorite, but aside from crackling generally, it's the word for what a (bombardier) beetle does when he "ejects a pungent fluid with a sudden sharp report." is a Nabokov favorite, but aside from crackling generally, it's the word for what a (bombardier) beetle does when he "ejects a pungent fluid with a sudden sharp report." Punchinello Punchinello, in Pnin, Pnin, is of course the ugly Italian commedia character, who is short and stout, and so, in the simile under consideration, reminiscent of a tongue. But it is also a very pretty b.u.t.terfly. is of course the ugly Italian commedia character, who is short and stout, and so, in the simile under consideration, reminiscent of a tongue. But it is also a very pretty b.u.t.terfly.

34.

From Pnin: Pnin: "He placed various objects in turn-an apple, a pencil, a chess p.a.w.n, a comb-behind a gla.s.s of water and peered through it at each studiously: the red apple became a clear-cut red band bounded by a straight horizon, half a gla.s.s of Red Sea, Arabia Felix. The short pencil, if held obliquely, curved like a stylized snake, but if held vertically became monstrously fat-almost pyramidal. The black p.a.w.n, if moved to and fro, divided into a couple of black ants. The comb, stood on end, resulted in the gla.s.s's seeming to fill with beautifully striped liquid, a zebra c.o.c.ktail." "He placed various objects in turn-an apple, a pencil, a chess p.a.w.n, a comb-behind a gla.s.s of water and peered through it at each studiously: the red apple became a clear-cut red band bounded by a straight horizon, half a gla.s.s of Red Sea, Arabia Felix. The short pencil, if held obliquely, curved like a stylized snake, but if held vertically became monstrously fat-almost pyramidal. The black p.a.w.n, if moved to and fro, divided into a couple of black ants. The comb, stood on end, resulted in the gla.s.s's seeming to fill with beautifully striped liquid, a zebra c.o.c.ktail."

35.

"My method of teaching precluded genuine contact with my students. At best, they regurgitated a few bits of my brain during examinations."

36.

Foucault, "What Is an Author?," 1969. The English translation quoted is by Joseph V. Harari, first published in 1979.

37.

"Ferrety, human-interest fiends, those jolly vulgarians," as he called them. And that cagey afterword to Lolita Lolita performs a similar function. performs a similar function.

38.

Foucault, "What Is an Author?"

39.

In Nabokov's case, it's more like S&M-an experience you'd hope Foucault could get behind.

40.

A largely romantic concept. And wasn't it always the same examples? Either it was Homer; some unspecified "ethnographic societies" within which "narrative is never a.s.sumed by a person but by a mediator, shaman or relator whose 'performance'-the mastery of the narrative code-may possibly be admired but never his 'genius' " (Barthes); or else the rather weak model of Beaumont and Fletcher.

41.

Respectively, Walter Benjamin, Milena Jesenska, Erich h.e.l.ler and Felice Bauer.

42.

This has not been seriously a.s.sailed since Edmund Wilson's "A Dissenting Opinion on Kafka."

43.

Begley tells us that Brod did not directly publish Kafka's letters to Milena and Felice, but neither did he press them to "surrender his letters for destruction, or to destroy the letters themselves." As a result, Brod lost control of them. As the German army entered Prague, Milena entrusted them to w.i.l.l.y Haas, who published them in 1952; Felice, who emigrated to America, sold her letters herself, in 1955, to Schocken Books.

44.

Brod championed many artists, including Leo Janaek, Franz Werfel and Karl Kraus.

45.

The truly hagiographic text is Gustav Janouch's Conversations with Kafka. Conversations with Kafka. The young Gustav befriended Kafka in Berlin in the final year of the writer's life. In this essay, where I quote from the book, it is with the understanding that this is "reported speech" and most probably prettified for publication. The young Gustav befriended Kafka in Berlin in the final year of the writer's life. In this essay, where I quote from the book, it is with the understanding that this is "reported speech" and most probably prettified for publication.

46.

Conversations with Kafka, Gustav Janouch.

47.

Ibid.

48.

Although, naturally, Larkin felt his own case to be by far the more extreme, as he makes clear in his poem "The Literary World": My dear Kafka / When you've had five years of it, not five months, / Five years of an irresistible force meeting an / Immoveable object right in your belly, / Then you'll know about depression.

49.

"Self's the Man" by Philip Larkin.

50.

From Kafka's diary. "She" is Felice.

51.