''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 80 - one-'s own prejudices and insinuate his vision into 23 one's own consciousness. With him, one can discover new and surprising aspects of reality and discoverthat there is more delight, more beauty and wonder, but also that there is more sadness than the "normal" approach discloses. As one critic has put it: "By the absurdities of his life, by his laughable preoccupation with the patently irrelevant, he persuades us to readjust our focus and to revise our own sight. "24 However, this is not the attitude brought to Pnin at Waindell. No one there is persuaded by him to readjust his focus or to revise his sight. On the contrary, as has been seen, Pnin himself has become the victim of the conventional approach to the world. Once people have made up their minds about him and decided that he is an outsider and a freak., they do not let anything interfere with this notion. He has been labelled and behind the convenient label no one cares to look. This mindless approach is fatal when applied to human beings. It also reflects on those who exercise it and casts a new and surprising light on them. All along Nabokov has led the reader to believe that it is Pnin who is the comic figure of the novel, and so he is when he is measured against what is commonly accepted as the norm. However, without a word of open criticism, and . almost imperceptibly, Nabokov cuts the ground under our feet. Not only has he led us to realize that, com- pared with Pnin, we miss a great deal of what the world offers, and that, what we look at as reality is
- 81 - indeed only the very thinnest surface of it; he also shakes our belief and trust in old and established norms, in the very norms indeed, against which Pnin has so far been measured. For many purposes the "normal" approach that Waindell people and ourselves bring to things is undoubtedly reasonable and practical, as Pnin's difficulties prove by contrast. But from a superior point of view, from which practical ends become inessential, all actions that are prompted by habits, all those which have become simple reflex actions, and even those at the basis of which lie convention and ceremony, are seen to lack all freshness and originality ; people move and behave and think in fixed and rigid patterns and "give us the impression of puppets in motion. "25 "Campus dummies" (146) Nabokov very appropriately calls the population of Waindell College Campus. From that point of view a great part of "normal" human behaviour proves to be prompted by the very automatism and to be characterized by the very inflexibility that Bergson sees as the basic source of the comic. 26 From that point of view, then, not Pnin but the world around him is comic, insofar as it is absent-minded, and mindless, automatic and inflexible. These qualities are so prominent in the world around him that Pnin, when he leaves Waindell, "bears away with him all of the world's vitality. " 27 All this, as was said above, is implicit in the relation of Pnin's story rather than stated in the form of open criticism, but Nabokov is not so chari-
- Page 35 and 36: - 30 - "tr. ue reality" in that it
- Page 37 and 38: - 32 - the manner in which the subj
- Page 39 and 40: - 34 - The case is quite similar in
- Page 41 and 42: - 36 - lines of play 11120 will in
- Page 43 and 44: - 38 - him knowledge surpassing tha
- Page 45 and 46: - 40 - the present. This act of rec
- Page 47 and 48: - 42 - design in the life of Martin
- Page 49 and 50: - 44 - Martin's mother of her son's
- Page 51 and 52: - 46 - is blind where his wife and
- Page 53 and 54: - 48 - serious and profound experie
- Page 55 and 56: I. The Eye Pnin Lolita; Laughter*in
- Page 57 and 58: - 51 - novel. They illustrate how p
- Page 59 and 60: - 53 - tearing the banknote into li
- Page 61 and 62: - 55 - have before: after the suici
- Page 63 and 64: - 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
- Page 65 and 66: - 59 - deed been through an experie
- Page 67 and 68: - 61 - there must be some "model" a
- Page 69 and 70: - 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
- Page 71 and 72: - 65 - For the sake of convenience
- Page 73 and 74: - 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
- Page 75 and 76: - 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
- Page 77 and 78: - 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
- Page 79 and 80: - 73 - is going to give, on his per
- Page 81 and 82: - 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
- Page 83 and 84: - 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
- Page 85: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 89 and 90: - 83 - but the group of academics w
- Page 91 and 92: - 85 - "schools and trends", and is
- Page 93 and 94: - 87 - which induces the reader to
- Page 95 and 96: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- Page 97 and 98: - 91 - More depth and reality are a
- Page 99 and 100: - 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
- Page 101 and 102: 95 - being accurate in every point,
- Page 103 and 104: - 97 - standing of a "truly human b
- Page 105 and 106: - 99 - eternal beauty, and his conv
- Page 107 and 108: - 101 - One luckless early critic w
- Page 109 and 110: - 103 - says "well-read" Humbert Hu
- Page 111 and 112: - 105 - surface, into the initial m
- Page 113 and 114: - 107 - age. She was the "initial g
- Page 115 and 116: - 109 - and implies in the parody t
- Page 117 and 118: - 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
- Page 119 and 120: - 113 - with Quilty; and, of course
- Page 121 and 122: - 115 - or to hold her on his knee
- Page 123 and 124: - 117 - ations ) (98). And he descr
- Page 125 and 126: - 119 - a strident, harsh high voic
- Page 127 and 128: - 121 - When Humbert talks of his d
- Page 129 and 130: - 123 -- could victimize her poor d
- Page 131 and 132: - 125 - this twelve-year-old girl s
- Page 133 and 134: - 127 - done her morning duty" (161
- Page 135 and 136: - 129 - experience, up to a certain
-<br />
80<br />
-<br />
one-'s own prejudices and insinuate his vision into<br />
23<br />
one's own consciousness.<br />
With him, one can discover<br />
new and surprising aspects of reality and discoverthat<br />
there is more delight, more beauty and wonder,<br />
but also that there is more sadness than the "normal"<br />
approach discloses. As one critic has put it: "By the<br />
absurdities of his life, by his laughable preoccupation<br />
with the patently irrelevant, he persuades us to<br />
readjust our focus and to revise our own sight. "24<br />
However, this is not the attitude brought to Pnin<br />
at Waindell. No one there is persuaded by him to readjust<br />
his focus or to revise his sight. On the contrary,<br />
as has been seen, Pnin himself has become the victim<br />
of the conventional approach to the world. Once people<br />
have made up their minds about him and decided that<br />
he is an outsider and a freak., they do not let anything<br />
interfere with this notion. He has been labelled<br />
and behind the convenient label no one cares to look.<br />
This mindless approach is fatal when applied to<br />
human beings. It also reflects on those who exercise<br />
it and casts a new and surprising light on them. All<br />
along Nabokov has led the reader to believe that it<br />
is Pnin who is the comic figure of the novel, and so<br />
he is when he is measured against what is commonly<br />
accepted as the norm.<br />
However, without a word of open criticism, and<br />
.<br />
almost imperceptibly, Nabokov cuts the ground under<br />
our feet. Not only has he led us to realize that, com-<br />
pared with Pnin, we miss a great deal of what the<br />
world offers, and that, what we look at as reality is
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