''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
- 82 -. table throughout. From mild reproof he switches to ridicule and unsparing satire when he turns to groups who claim special attention; who pretend to superior knowledge and an enlightened mind; of whom one would expect spiritual openness and flexibility, but who prove by their attitudes that automation has penetrated into their fields and minds as well and that their minds are caught in a tiny circle of concepts into which they must perforce fit everything and everybody they encounter. Academic life at Waindell mirrors everyday life in that it cannot and does not want to accommodate Pnin. The Waindell scholars are harsh in their judgement of him: he is pronounced "not fit even to loiter in the vicinity of an American college,, (141). This is a surprising verdict in view of the fact that Pnin appears throughout as a devoted and true scholar with a great love of precision and detail and a rare and wonderful capacity for enthusiasm, and as an inspired, even though somewhat unorthodox, teacher. It emerges that the reason for his rejection is the very same that leaves him an outsider in everyday life. He is too much of an individual, and unpredictable, and consequently he upsets and endangers the fixed and predictable Waindell academic machinery, in which instructors can rely on superannuated articles (not available to students) for their lectures (141), and in which the Chairman of French Literature and Lan- guage "disliked Literature and had no French" (140). Again, it is of course not Pnin who is really comic
- 83 - but the group of academics with whom he is contrasted: "a lot of sterile and pretentious people... whose academic ambitions vastly exceed their intellectual capabilities. "28 Rejecting Pnin, they expose themselves and their narrowmindedness. Their inability to appreciate what is alive and original in the sphere of scholarship, and the methods of their own academic pursuits make it obvious that they have even in their academic fields become victims of the comic automatism that is characteristic of life as a whole. In the very sanctuary of the live human mind their minds have lost life and spontaneity and are suspicious of these qualities in others. Pretending to superiority and being in fact vastly inferior, they clearly qualify to be classed among the ridiculous. So, of course, do Liza and Eric Wind, in whose psychoanalytical efforts and practices the general mania for grouping and labelling and pigeonholing things and people finds its absurd culmination. Nabokov has in many places expressed his abhorrence of psychoanalysis and has in ironic and sarcastic passages dismissed its father as "the Viennese Quack"29 and itself as "voodooism". 30 He has declared it to be "one of the vilest deceits practised by people on themselves and on others" that can be tolerated only "by the ignorant, the conventional, or the very sick. " 31 But seldom has he allowed it quite so much room as in Chapter IV of Pnin. The passage about the Wind parents worriedly ana- lysing their little boy seems at first reading oddly
- 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 and 86: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 87: - 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
- 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
- Page 137 and 138: - 131 - her: "... -a life full of t
- 82<br />
-.<br />
table throughout. From mild reproof he switches to<br />
ridicule and unsparing satire when he turns to groups<br />
who claim special attention; who pretend to superior<br />
knowledge and an enlightened mind; of whom one would<br />
expect spiritual openness and flexibility, but who<br />
prove by their attitudes that automation has penetrated<br />
into their fields and minds as well and that their<br />
minds are caught in a tiny circle of concepts into<br />
which they must per<strong>for</strong>ce fit everything and everybody<br />
they<br />
encounter.<br />
Academic life at Waindell mirrors everyday life in<br />
that it cannot and does not want to accommodate Pnin.<br />
The Waindell scholars are harsh in their judgement of<br />
him: he is pronounced "not fit even to loiter in the<br />
vicinity of an American college,, (141). This is a<br />
surprising verdict in view of the fact that Pnin appears<br />
throughout as a devoted and true scholar with<br />
a great love of precision and detail and a rare and<br />
wonderful capacity <strong>for</strong> enthusiasm, and as an inspired,<br />
even though somewhat unorthodox, teacher. It emerges<br />
that the reason <strong>for</strong> his rejection is the very same<br />
that leaves him an outsider in everyday life. He is<br />
too much of an individual, and unpredictable, and<br />
consequently he upsets and endangers the fixed and<br />
predictable Waindell academic machinery, in which instructors<br />
can rely on superannuated articles (not<br />
available to students) <strong>for</strong> their lectures (141), and<br />
in which the Chairman of French Literature and Lan-<br />
guage "disliked Literature and had no French" (140).<br />
Again, it is of course not Pnin who is really comic
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