Subject
Still Pnining . . . (VN's wordplay and rhymes)
From
Date
Body
Pnin, with his "nostalgic excursions in broken English" would describe
with
great mirth how he questioned his examiners on the ship before arriving
in
the US ( Vintage page 11):
- ' "First what do we understand under "Anarchism"? Anarchism
practical,
metaphysical, theoretical, mystical, abstractical, individual, social?'
In the quotation above the quaint word is "abstractical" and its listing
invites a rhyming insertion - just like a Gilbert and Sullivan
enumeration
of items ( "You shall quickly be parsonified,conjugally matrimonified"
as in
The Pirates of Penzanze, for example, and "I am the very model of a
modern
Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,/ I know the kings of
England, and I quote the fights historical/ From Marathon to Waterloo,
in
order categorical;/I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters
mathematical, I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news? With many
cheerful
facts about the square of the hypotenuse...I'm very good at integral and
differential calculus;I know the scientific names of beings
animalculous:In
short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,/I am the very model of
a
modern Major-General.")
- something VN often takes up with, this time with a different spirit
and
cadence:
... "and the tears, and the stars, and the warm rose-red silk lining of
her
karakul muff"( Pnin) or
... "and the stars, and the cars, and the bars, and the barmen";2.
"barmen,
alarmin', my charmin', my carmen, ahmen, ahahamen";3."Who is your hero,
Dolores Haze? Still one of those blue-caped star-men? Oh the balmy days
and
the palmy bays, and the cars, and the bars, my Carmen! "; 4."The stars
that
sparkled, and the cars that parkled, and the bars, and the barmen".
Pnin also created the term "sonic reasons" to explain some of his
"plaints". He scoured the pantry after "viscous and sawdust" (in the
narrator's rendering for Pnin's demand for "whisky and soda" ), or
gesticulated in an "amphoric motion". At other times these uncommon
words
belong to another of the novel's distinct "narrators", when they
mostly
reveal a French dominance. I found:
" circular volitation", "paradisal" ( page 98); to "regale" brought in
connection with word-plays with Solus Rex, Kings and regalia ( which
bear
no direct relation to "regale"); "prosperious" ( for French prospereous
and
English prosperous, page 116).
The correct "surds" (irrational or deaf) also derives from romance
languages (according to my dictionary) in the same way as Pavel Pnin's "
waxlike cavity".
Misspellings may also serve to call attention to certain word-plays.
There
is Victor suffering from "olefactory phobias" that he keeps hidden from
the..."Winds"! ( "Olefactory" in the Vintage ed, page 101. Also on page
369
in The Library of America collection - instead of correct "olfactory" )
And yet, sometimes I cannot understand the point of some of VN's
repetitions. Old Pnin suffered "pain and panic" (page 21) and as a young
feverish boy he also suffered from a similar "pain and panic" (page 23).
The sound of "Pnin" doesn't lead us to the sound of "pain", but he is
one
long pining dolorous guy - so, perhaps, the rumbling pain serves to
stress
the frequency that pain attacks our Pnin.
Jansy Mello
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net
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with
great mirth how he questioned his examiners on the ship before arriving
in
the US ( Vintage page 11):
- ' "First what do we understand under "Anarchism"? Anarchism
practical,
metaphysical, theoretical, mystical, abstractical, individual, social?'
In the quotation above the quaint word is "abstractical" and its listing
invites a rhyming insertion - just like a Gilbert and Sullivan
enumeration
of items ( "You shall quickly be parsonified,conjugally matrimonified"
as in
The Pirates of Penzanze, for example, and "I am the very model of a
modern
Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,/ I know the kings of
England, and I quote the fights historical/ From Marathon to Waterloo,
in
order categorical;/I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters
mathematical, I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news? With many
cheerful
facts about the square of the hypotenuse...I'm very good at integral and
differential calculus;I know the scientific names of beings
animalculous:In
short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,/I am the very model of
a
modern Major-General.")
- something VN often takes up with, this time with a different spirit
and
cadence:
... "and the tears, and the stars, and the warm rose-red silk lining of
her
karakul muff"( Pnin) or
... "and the stars, and the cars, and the bars, and the barmen";2.
"barmen,
alarmin', my charmin', my carmen, ahmen, ahahamen";3."Who is your hero,
Dolores Haze? Still one of those blue-caped star-men? Oh the balmy days
and
the palmy bays, and the cars, and the bars, my Carmen! "; 4."The stars
that
sparkled, and the cars that parkled, and the bars, and the barmen".
Pnin also created the term "sonic reasons" to explain some of his
"plaints". He scoured the pantry after "viscous and sawdust" (in the
narrator's rendering for Pnin's demand for "whisky and soda" ), or
gesticulated in an "amphoric motion". At other times these uncommon
words
belong to another of the novel's distinct "narrators", when they
mostly
reveal a French dominance. I found:
" circular volitation", "paradisal" ( page 98); to "regale" brought in
connection with word-plays with Solus Rex, Kings and regalia ( which
bear
no direct relation to "regale"); "prosperious" ( for French prospereous
and
English prosperous, page 116).
The correct "surds" (irrational or deaf) also derives from romance
languages (according to my dictionary) in the same way as Pavel Pnin's "
waxlike cavity".
Misspellings may also serve to call attention to certain word-plays.
There
is Victor suffering from "olefactory phobias" that he keeps hidden from
the..."Winds"! ( "Olefactory" in the Vintage ed, page 101. Also on page
369
in The Library of America collection - instead of correct "olfactory" )
And yet, sometimes I cannot understand the point of some of VN's
repetitions. Old Pnin suffered "pain and panic" (page 21) and as a young
feverish boy he also suffered from a similar "pain and panic" (page 23).
The sound of "Pnin" doesn't lead us to the sound of "pain", but he is
one
long pining dolorous guy - so, perhaps, the rumbling pain serves to
stress
the frequency that pain attacks our Pnin.
Jansy Mello
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm