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Re: SIGHTING: Nabokov and Jack London
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I don't think there are any overt references in the novel that point to
Pnin as Victor's real father. I've been paging through the novel, trying to
find the exact wording, but I know Dr. Wind, at one point, refers to
himself as the earth father, and Pnin as the water father. In his article,
"Pnin's History", Charles Nicol writes, "Pnin's triumph is that eventually
he and Victor qualify as father and son under every test but flesh itself".
On Jan 18, 2014 10:34 PM, "Samuel Newhouse" <snewhouse9@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I recall, it's one of the novel's quiet, almost secret joys, that Pnin
> himself, not Dr. Wind, is the father of Victor.
>
> There's some confusion on the subject early on but eventually Nabokov
> quite clearly states that Victor is Pnin's, in the segment detailing
> Victor's life, to my recollection.
>
> Unfortunately, at the present moment I cannot find my copy of Pnin to
> obtain a citation. Can anyone verify?
>
> Thank you
> On Jan 18, 2014 7:48 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ice Palace ... Date: Fri,
>> 17 Jan 2014 21:05:45 -0500 From: Sandy Pallot Klein
>> <spklein52@gmail.com> <spklein52@gmail.com> To: Nabokov List
>> <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu> <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu> CC: Nabokv-L
>> <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
>>
>>
>>
>> The Weekly Standard BOOK REVIEW
>>
>>
>> Complete article at following URL:
>> http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ice-palace_774765.html#
>>
>> The Ice Palace Jack London’s thousand words a day.
>> JAN 27, 2014, VOL. 19, NO. 19 • BY WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD<http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/william-h.-pritchard>
>> <http://www.weeklystandard.com/rss/william%20h.%20pritchard/rss.xml>
>>
>>
>> Smaller Text<http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ice-palace_774765.html#>
>>
>> In one of the most charming moments of Vladimir Nabokov’s *Pnin *(1957),
>> our hero is about to be visited by a 14-year-old American boy, son of
>> Pnin’s former (and dreadful) wife and her fraudulent lover, Dr. Eric Wind.
>> Pnin wonders what gifts of welcome he can give young Victor, and decides
>> that along with a football, he will provide some pleasurable reading. Since
>> Pnin believes everyone in his native Russia knows Jack London’s work, Pnin
>> asks a bookstore employee for London’s autobiographical novel *Martin
>> Eden *(1909), to which the lady responds “Eden, Eden, Eden . . . let me
>> see, you don’t mean a book on the British statesman? Or do you?”
>> [image: Jack Oakie, Loretta Young, Clark Gable in ‘The Call of the Wild’
>> (1935)]
>>
>> JACK OAKIE, LORETTA YOUNG, CLARK GABLE IN ‘THE CALL OF THE WILD’ (1935)
>>
>> 20TH CENTURY PICTURES / EVERETT COLLECTION
>>
>> When the confusion is cleared up, the only book of London’s to be found
>> is an old edition of *The Son of the Wolf *(1900), a collection of
>> stories and London’s first published book. Pnin decides to buy it, though
>> it is inferior to *Martin Eden*: “Not his best book but O.K. O.K, I will
>> take it.” It turns out that Victor doesn’t like sports and believes the
>> London volume is a translation from Russian, Pnin’s mother tongue.
>> Politely, Victor says he’s sure he will like the book and reveals, “Last
>> summer I read *Crime and*”—at which point he yawns and doesn’t complete
>> the title of a novel by a writer whom Nabokov, if not Pnin, abhors.
>> ( ... )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
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>> Search the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
>> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>>
>> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>>
> Google Search
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> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
> Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
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> Search the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
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Pnin as Victor's real father. I've been paging through the novel, trying to
find the exact wording, but I know Dr. Wind, at one point, refers to
himself as the earth father, and Pnin as the water father. In his article,
"Pnin's History", Charles Nicol writes, "Pnin's triumph is that eventually
he and Victor qualify as father and son under every test but flesh itself".
On Jan 18, 2014 10:34 PM, "Samuel Newhouse" <snewhouse9@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I recall, it's one of the novel's quiet, almost secret joys, that Pnin
> himself, not Dr. Wind, is the father of Victor.
>
> There's some confusion on the subject early on but eventually Nabokov
> quite clearly states that Victor is Pnin's, in the segment detailing
> Victor's life, to my recollection.
>
> Unfortunately, at the present moment I cannot find my copy of Pnin to
> obtain a citation. Can anyone verify?
>
> Thank you
> On Jan 18, 2014 7:48 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ice Palace ... Date: Fri,
>> 17 Jan 2014 21:05:45 -0500 From: Sandy Pallot Klein
>> <spklein52@gmail.com> <spklein52@gmail.com> To: Nabokov List
>> <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu> <NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu> CC: Nabokv-L
>> <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
>>
>>
>>
>> The Weekly Standard BOOK REVIEW
>>
>>
>> Complete article at following URL:
>> http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ice-palace_774765.html#
>>
>> The Ice Palace Jack London’s thousand words a day.
>> JAN 27, 2014, VOL. 19, NO. 19 • BY WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD<http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/william-h.-pritchard>
>> <http://www.weeklystandard.com/rss/william%20h.%20pritchard/rss.xml>
>>
>>
>> Smaller Text<http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/ice-palace_774765.html#>
>>
>> In one of the most charming moments of Vladimir Nabokov’s *Pnin *(1957),
>> our hero is about to be visited by a 14-year-old American boy, son of
>> Pnin’s former (and dreadful) wife and her fraudulent lover, Dr. Eric Wind.
>> Pnin wonders what gifts of welcome he can give young Victor, and decides
>> that along with a football, he will provide some pleasurable reading. Since
>> Pnin believes everyone in his native Russia knows Jack London’s work, Pnin
>> asks a bookstore employee for London’s autobiographical novel *Martin
>> Eden *(1909), to which the lady responds “Eden, Eden, Eden . . . let me
>> see, you don’t mean a book on the British statesman? Or do you?”
>> [image: Jack Oakie, Loretta Young, Clark Gable in ‘The Call of the Wild’
>> (1935)]
>>
>> JACK OAKIE, LORETTA YOUNG, CLARK GABLE IN ‘THE CALL OF THE WILD’ (1935)
>>
>> 20TH CENTURY PICTURES / EVERETT COLLECTION
>>
>> When the confusion is cleared up, the only book of London’s to be found
>> is an old edition of *The Son of the Wolf *(1900), a collection of
>> stories and London’s first published book. Pnin decides to buy it, though
>> it is inferior to *Martin Eden*: “Not his best book but O.K. O.K, I will
>> take it.” It turns out that Victor doesn’t like sports and believes the
>> London volume is a translation from Russian, Pnin’s mother tongue.
>> Politely, Victor says he’s sure he will like the book and reveals, “Last
>> summer I read *Crime and*”—at which point he yawns and doesn’t complete
>> the title of a novel by a writer whom Nabokov, if not Pnin, abhors.
>> ( ... )
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
>> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
>> Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
>> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>> AdaOnline <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft
>> Search the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
>> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>>
>> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
> Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
> AdaOnline <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft
> Search the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
