PNIN-summary - mandatory assignment vakstudie 3 PDF

Preview

Summary

Samenvatting voor VS3 - Te lezen boeken tijdens semester drie...

Description

PNIN – VLADIMIR NABOKOV SUMMARY All right, let's break down this sob story. Professor Timofey Pnin (yes, that's Timofey, not Timothy) is a 52-year-old Russian émigré teaching at (made-up) Waindell College. When we meet him, he's on the wrong bus for an event that he's speaking at, and ends up being hours late. He gets there eventually, but along the way we learn a lot about him. We get the idea that this mix-up is not an isolated incident for Pnin, he's not much of a professor, he's pretty bad at speaking English, he has some kind of heart condition, and he's pretty weird overall. So whoop-de-doo: that's the basic setup for the rest of this novel. By the way, Pnin is basically a wandering vagrant. When we meet him, he's living with some folks named the Clements, who have a spare room because their daughter Isabel has just gotten married. They don't get along at first, but eventually the three of them develop some kind of odd friendly relationship. That's when Pnin gets a letter from his ex-wife, Dr. Liza Wind. She left him a long time ago, but now she suddenly wants back into his life. Yeah, we'd be suspicious too, but Pnin is kind of ecstatic about it. He looks forward to the day she's supposed to visit with anticipation. But it doesn't turn out to be exactly what he expected. Liza appears, insults Pnin and his new lodgings, and then finally tells him what she wants. Money. For the child that she tried to pass off as Pnin's when the two of them were coming to America. He's never so much as met the kid, but now that Liza's getting divorced she needs some more money to take care of him. The whole thing leaves Pnin heartbroken. Later, there is some more excitement in Pnin's life. It turns out somebody recalls his library book, and Pnin is not very happy about it. Like we said, huge excitement. Anyway, he accuses the only other Russian on the faculty of wanting it, but the guy totally denies it. Then Pnin goes to the library, only to find out that the person who wanted his library book was himself! After all of that, Pnin heads home. He reads a Russian book and snuggles into bed only to be woken up a few hours later. Like some kind of bad dream, Isabel has come home and it looks like Pnin is going to need a new place to stay. Fast forward: Pnin has a new room. More news: Victor, Liza's son, wants to meet with Pnin. The kid hates his parents (the ones he lives with) so he imagines Pnin (not his parent) as some kind of scholarly gentleman. Pnin on the other hand, is just excited to meet his "son." After Pnin meticulously prepares the room where Victor will stay, the two of them meet, a day later than they'd originally planned. Pnin obviously thought this 14-year-old boy was five years old or something. It's awkward. After a few moments of not really knowing what to talk about, they go to sleep. Fast forward again, and it's summer. Victor is gone, and Pnin is going to hang out with some of his friends. Didn't think he had friends, did you? Actually, this is the only part of the novel that seems to portray Pnin in a positive light. All is going well, and Pnin is actually winning a croquet match when he gets a heart attack, or maybe it's a seizure. Nabokov doesn't tell us. Anyway, that makes him remember basically the worst thing

that has ever happened in his life. And it's no joke: the murder of his first love, Mira, by Nazis in a concentration camp. This is definitely the saddest part of the whole novel. And right when he was about to give a croquet beat-down! Back to school, and more bad news for Pnin. Dr. Hagen, who's in charge, is leaving the University, which means that someone else will take over his position. The only problem with that is everyone else hates Pnin. So basically that means he'll be fired by the end of the year. But Pnin, of course, has no idea this is happening and assumes that he'll get tenure soon. He's so happy about it that he even decides to buy a house and throw a housewarming party. It's actually a nice party, and everyone enjoys themselves. At least until Dr. Hagen arrives. Then Pnin learns the bad news. He's fired. The last chapter of the novel is dedicated to the kind of weird memories of the narrator. He insists that he has met Pnin several times, but Pnin denies it all. If you look closely, you'll notice there are a lot of historical discrepancies. But the point is, Pnin is being fired and he's going to be replaced by this narrator guy. The last thing we see of Pnin is his dinky car riding off into the sunset.

CHAPTER 1 

   

  



 



Meet Prof. Timofey Pnin: he's bald, tan, and kind of weird-looking. From what we can gather, Pnin is a Russian émigré who is now living in America at the age of 52. But that's not what's important right now. What's important is that he is on a train and he's going the wrong way. You see, he supposed to be giving a speech at Cremona, but instead of taking the correct route, he relied on a five-year-old timetable that was completely obsolete. More about Pnin: he is a professor of Russian at Waindell College. Which apparently has the tiniest Russian department in the world. Seriously, he only has four students. Considering this was the Cold War era, you'd think at least a couple more folks would want to study the Reds. Pnin isn't a great teacher, but he's lucky enough to have everyone sort of like him anyway. What's special about him is how he likes to have nostalgic interludes right in the middle of class that make him double over with laughter. As ridiculous as that sounds, he ends up making his whole class laugh right along with him. But back to that train. He's still going the wrong way. Why? Well, Pnin isn't exactly an absent-minded professor, but he sure isn't a very competent one either. Everything seems to amaze, delight, and completely confuse him. Let's just say you don't want to leave him alone with your laptop. In addition to all of his problems with the physical world, Pnin has language issues. Even after 10 years of studying English, he still speaks the language of his new homeland with many errors. He can't even deliver a speech without staring at the carefully translated and edited English version. Which brings us back to that train. On the train, Pnin is wondering what to do with his papers for the lecture. Should he keep them in his pocket, or should he put it in his luggage? Pnin has been agonizing over this question for 20 minutes, when the conductor notices there's something weird about his tickets. His stop had been abolished two years before, and he's going to be two hours late. But there is nothing to do about it, so Pnin follows the directions the conductor gives to him.

 





  





Unfortunately, that's not the end of Pnin's problems. He checks in his bag, but by the time the next bus comes he's not able to get it back. Okay, whatever, he just decides to leave it and head to the lecture. But once he's on the bus, there's another problem. Pnin forgot his papers. He jumps off the bus and finds himself in the middle of the town he's never seen before in his entire life. Oh, and then he has a seizure. Apparently Pnin has had a long history of heart problems, but none of his doctors can figure out what was wrong with him. Anyway, whatever is going on with his heart makes him feel like he's dying. So Pnin starts to think of his childhood. He came from a well-to-do family, and his dad was an eye doctor. One day he got a fever that was so bad it made him delusional. Little Pnin starts to think that there is some kind of evil designer that is trying to destroy his mind and has concealed the key to his happiness in the pattern of his wallpaper. In other words, it's a pretty bad fever. Eventually, Pnin's seizure and his memory of his childhood fever leave him and he heads back to the station. He's missed the bus, but at least he can get his bag back now. Finally, Pnin gets a ride from some guys in a truck and arrives just in time for dinner. After stuffing himself with sweets, Pnin has to sit through (and we do too, unfortunately) a long and rambling introduction, which doesn't seem to have very much to do with him at all. But it doesn't matter, because Pnin isn't listening (if only we could feel the same). He's experiencing some after-effects from that seizure, and dead people from his past are appearing in the audience. Even his parents, who are looking at him with pride. That's nice, at least. But it's all over when the introduction is finished and the audience starts to clap.

CHAPTER 2 













It's spring at Waindell College. While you would expect people to be happy about that, the Clements, whom we're meeting for the first time, are missing their daughter Isabel. She's just gotten married, and they hardly know anything about their in-laws. When we meet the Clements they are arguing over the guests coming to dinner. The yelling is interrupted by a phone call from somebody with pretty terrible English. We bet you can guess who it is. It's Pnin, and he wants to know about the room they have for rent. Our protagonist arrives half an hour later, sits himself down, and tells them his entire life story. You know, the way you always do to strangers. Anyway, he gets the room and starts to make himself at home immediately. Meanwhile, the Clements are having a party and they invite Pnin. He says no thanks, but when there's confusion about a cup in the bathroom (we're always confused by those, too) he ends up joining everyone else downstairs. How nice! The next day, Pnin gets all of his teeth removed. Yeah, they must be pretty rotten. He's in pretty good spirits while the anesthesia is still effective, but by the time it wears off the pain is incredible. Not only that, but it's just weird. He was used to having teeth in his mouth, and all that's left are his sore gums. But somehow, after 10 days and the pain wearing off, everything changes. Pnin loves his new dentures and sees them as some kind of pristine symbol of America. Hey, whatever floats your boat. He even tries to convince Lawrence Clements to get his teeth taken out too. Even though Pnin is a pretty terrible lodger (wouldn't you have doubts about someone who tried to convince you to take your teeth out?), the Clements seem to like him. Lawrence even





 







   



   

strikes up some kind of scholarly friendship with this silly Russian who likes to put muddy shoes in his wife's washing machine. The two of them start to create an encyclopedia of Russian nonverbal communication, and even end up recording it on film. They show it to some students who only seem to notice that Pnin kind of looks like Buddha. Not that they're about to worship him or anything. There is one girl in particular, Betty Bliss, who seems to have more than a teacher-student relationship with our professor Pnin. He imagines her as his wife, and even reads her poetry, but nothing can happen between them. Not because that's immoral, but because he's still in love with someone. His first wife, Dr. Liza Wind. When they met in 1925, Pnin was a young scholar and Liza was a medical student working in a sanatorium. They got married, but that didn't stop her from flirting with basically every guy around. As usual, our poor Pnin was totally clueless. His blushing bride ends up running away with a guy called Eric Wind. They make plans to head to America to start their new life together and leave Pnin all on his own. Lucky for him, he has his own traveling to take his mind off the situation. But guess what? A few months later Liza storms back into Pnin's apartment and claims that the whole thing was a mistake. She's seven months pregnant (which means she's been cheating for three months before leaving Pnin, by the way) and getting ready to make her way to America. A little weird, but Pnin's not complaining. Then everything goes wrong. One night on the boat to America, Pnin gets involved in a strange chess game. He's playing with a German when someone else comes along and starts commenting on the game. When Pnin loses (predictably), the commentator reveals himself. It's Dr. Eric Wind. The whole thing is a sham. And he's going to marry Liza once they get to America. Pnin is devastated. But everything goes just as the future Mr. and Mrs. Wind planned. Lucky for them, we guess. After that, Pnin rarely saw or heard from Liza. Well, except for her weird psychological experiments that involved women talking about their "marital problems." But back to the actual time of the novel. Flashback officially over. So he's reading her letter. In it, Liza says she's coming to see him. Pnin is so happy you'd think he was going on a first date, but we can't help wondering what Liza wants. She doesn't sound like the greatest of former wives. Instead of finding out right away, we get to listen to her blather on about herself and insult Pnin. We know he's kind of weird, but somehow it hurts to hear her say what we already know. Finally, she comes out with it. Liza wants money from Pnin to send to her son, Victor. Again, our absent-minded professor is devastated. A while later, Joan Clements comes home. She finds Pnin in a heap on the floor, bawling his eyes out and looking for whiskey and soda. Not exactly a pretty picture. She tries to cheer him up by showing him a funny advertisement, but it's not working. Pnin isn't playing along with her game, and he ends up a sobbing mess. Nice of her to try, at least. Meanwhile, Joan (also called John, in Pnin's funny accent) has received a letter from her daughter talking about how awesome her new marriage is. But all she can think is, why won't she come home for a visit? Geez, there's newlyweds for you.

CHAPTER 3  





 



 





 





For eight years, Pnin has been changing his apartment every semester. Mostly because of noise problems, not just because his landlords don't like him. Every time he moves, he gets a little bit pickier, but by now he has the best rooms he's ever had. His place at the Clements' house is bigger and nicer than any of the other ones he's ever stayed in. It's the first one he's really liked, and he has stayed there for more than a semester. And now Pnin is all alone in his favorite house because Joan and Lawrence have suddenly disappeared to visit their daughter Isabel. We have a feeling something is up with that marriage of hers. Our professor is finally going to do some professor-ing. Even though it's his birthday, he heads to class to deliver a lecture. And, even though he's only teaching elementary Russian, the subject of class today is Pushkin (basically the Russian version of Shakespeare). Oh, and death. Totally an appropriate topic for Russian 101. The lecture is over when Pnin leans back and breaks his chair. Class dismissed! Pnin doesn't go to his office between his classes. You see, it's basically in the middle of nowhere. He used to have a nice office in the German department, but a newly hired Austrian professor basically kicked him out. It's lunchtime now, and Pnin heads out for lunch. He sits down right next to Komarov, who seems to be the only other Russian on the faculty and the complete opposite of Pnin. Our professor accuses this guy of wanting his library book, but Komarov completely denies it. There goes that theory. After lunch, Pnin heads over to Waindell College Library, his favorite place to hang out. But this time he has something important to figure out. Just who is it that requested his book? He asks the librarian, and after a hint gets dropped (that Pnin completely ignores) warning him that the Clements will kick him out when their daughter returns, Pnin finds the answer. Why would he think about housing when he's tracking down a mysterious book, anyway? So who's the book thief? Drumroll, please… It was him. And we just can't resist a duh. Who else would want that old collection of Russian literature? And who else would recall a book from himself? So Pnin leaves in a huff. He heads over to the periodicals room to read the latest edition of a Russian language daily newspaper. After reading about the most ridiculous editorial argument you've ever heard of, Pnin starts on his research. You see, our professor has been preparing to write a short history of Russian culture. In case that sounds normal to you, you should know that "short" and "Russian" are basically completely mutually exclusive. Anyway, every day he's been collecting material for his dream project. Today, it's a book on Russian myth that talks about a tradition practiced in the Upper Volga. Pnin gets really intense about his research, and before you know it, it's dinnertime. After some debate about what he should do, Pnin decides to go to a program presented by some of the members of the college. The first part includes some films from Charlie Chaplin that Pnin doesn't get at all. But things start getting really interesting during the second part. That's when they decide to show a Soviet documentary film, that seems to be nothing more than a bunch of feel-good propaganda. Pnin knows this. He's a smart guy. So why does he start bawling like a baby while he is watching? Anyway, after that he heads home to get ready for bed. The chapter is almost over, and we're pretty sure that we'll see him falling off into dreamland when something unexpected happens.



There's a noise outside, people yelling about a broken bronze wheel. Pnin is awake and has no idea what's going on. Someone is running upstairs, and almost makes their way to the door before John (Joan) Clements yells. It's Isabel. She's come home.

CHAPTER 4    





  











This chapter starts with a kind of weird passage about a king. Who is this King? Victor Wind's father. Well, not his real father. His real father is Eric Wind. But anyway, that's not important. What's important is the King has not abdicated. Instead, he chooses exile while looking at the picture of his dead wife. Of course, Victor's mom isn't dead. She's just divorcing from his dad to marry some guy named Church in Buffalo. But you know, whatever gets Victor to go to sleep. Anyway, even though he knows it's not true, Victor thinks of these stories every night to help himself go to sleep. The fantasies were probably based in the real stories his parents told him of fleeing from Lenin's regime, but now they're nothing more than fairytales in Victor's kind of strange imagination. About Victor: he's 14, but looks a bit older, and is lanky and tall. He's condescending towards his mom and hates his dad. Oh, and he has some kind of weird fantasy where Pnin is some kind of scholarly genius with a mysterious charm. Definitely in delusion-ville. Here's the thing about Victor: his parents think there's something wrong with him. Now, we're not saying that there's actually anything wrong with Victor. For all we know, he's an artistic genius. But Eric and Liza Wind are troubled by the nonconformity of their son. They give him every psychiatry test in the book, and he manages to subvert them all. After a while they just give up. So at 12 years old, Victor is sent to St. Bartholomew's Catholic school. He hates everyone there except for one guy, an art professor named Lake. Who is, by the way, a little crazy. Inspired by him, Victor attempts to paint a car in a way that seems like you would never recognize it. Definitely the inspiration of an eccentric. There could be a lot of ways to explain Victor's demeanor, but we'll make it really easy for you. He's a hipster artist. He makes silly references and attempts to imitate long-gone art trends because he thinks they're so much cooler than the ones around today. If only he had a flannel shirt and some oversized glasses. Back to Pnin. The da...