Subject
QUERY: The image of an "ancient town" in PNIN
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Date
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Carolyn Kunin writes:
No one responded to my Pnin query - so I googled up the answer -- it's my
own, but I had forgotten it:
----- Original Message -----
*From:* [log in to
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in to unmask]">Carolyn Kunin
*To:* [log in to
unmask]<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind0210%26L%3DNABOKV-L%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D597991%26B%3D------%253D_NextPart_000_0026_01C2774E.2AFD4130%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3Diso-8859-1>href="mailto:[log
in to unmask]">Vladimir Nabokov Forum
*Sent:* Friday, October 18, 2002 9:19 PM
*Subject:* Tim and Joan in Istanbul
The way my alternate reading of *Pale Fire* has developed really comes from
an incident in the second chapter of Pnin. I was reminded of it while
reading G. Barabtarlo's article on *Pnin* on the Zembla web site. I read
the interlude slightly differently, however, and it is a technique that I
used again in trying to understand Pale Fire.
Professor Barabtarlo points out an odd insertion into the narration :
Technically speaking, the narrator's art of integrating telephone
conversations still lags behind that of rendering dialogues conducted from
room to room, or from window to window across some narrow blue alley in an
ancient town with water so precious, and the misery of donkeys, and rugs
for sale, and minarets, and foreigners and melons, and the vibrant morning
echoes.
This oriental town-scene will remain dangling until much later in the
chapter it dawns upon the reader that it describes a particular water-color
in the hallway and that N. is reproducing what Joan's "roaming eyes" scan
as she is answering Pnin's call.
But for me the "rest of the story" came very quickly, within a page or two
in my text. When Joan Clements and Pnin meet, she points out that they were
in Istanbul at the same time. "We might have met!" Might have? They did.
Joan and Timosha first spoke to each other from one window to the other
across the alley and later one was invited to the other's home where the
conversation continued from room to room. Or they might have been
introduced by their parents first and then continued their conversation
across the alley.
Admittedly, this requires some filling in on the part of the reader and I
can't prove that this is what Nabokov intended, but it did give me pleasure
to discover it and I have to suppose that this was intended by the author.
A similar way of linking and filling in seems to work in *Pale Fire,* and I
hope some one besides me is willing to try this way of reading the novel.
***
Dear Alexey and the List,
So Krolik (poor sod) was born in Turkey. Not sure, nor do I care, what
relevance, if any, this has. However, it does recall to my memory the scene
in
Pnin where a young Pnin and a younger (?) young lady call to each other
across
the small byway in a town I took to be Istambul. Aside from the bulbul
resonance, has anyone else assumed that this was a clue of some kind? I am
almost certain, that there is a later reference to this scene, which proves
to
the curious reader that Pnin and someone (who?) had met before. My memory
grows
dim at this point.
Carolyn
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No one responded to my Pnin query - so I googled up the answer -- it's my
own, but I had forgotten it:
----- Original Message -----
*From:* [log in to
unmask]<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind0210%26L%3DNABOKV-L%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D597991%26B%3D------%253D_NextPart_000_0026_01C2774E.2AFD4130%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3Diso-8859-1>href="mailto:[log
in to unmask]">Carolyn Kunin
*To:* [log in to
unmask]<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A3%3Dind0210%26L%3DNABOKV-L%26E%3Dquoted-printable%26P%3D597991%26B%3D------%253D_NextPart_000_0026_01C2774E.2AFD4130%26T%3Dtext%252Fhtml%3B%2520charset%3Diso-8859-1>href="mailto:[log
in to unmask]">Vladimir Nabokov Forum
*Sent:* Friday, October 18, 2002 9:19 PM
*Subject:* Tim and Joan in Istanbul
The way my alternate reading of *Pale Fire* has developed really comes from
an incident in the second chapter of Pnin. I was reminded of it while
reading G. Barabtarlo's article on *Pnin* on the Zembla web site. I read
the interlude slightly differently, however, and it is a technique that I
used again in trying to understand Pale Fire.
Professor Barabtarlo points out an odd insertion into the narration :
Technically speaking, the narrator's art of integrating telephone
conversations still lags behind that of rendering dialogues conducted from
room to room, or from window to window across some narrow blue alley in an
ancient town with water so precious, and the misery of donkeys, and rugs
for sale, and minarets, and foreigners and melons, and the vibrant morning
echoes.
This oriental town-scene will remain dangling until much later in the
chapter it dawns upon the reader that it describes a particular water-color
in the hallway and that N. is reproducing what Joan's "roaming eyes" scan
as she is answering Pnin's call.
But for me the "rest of the story" came very quickly, within a page or two
in my text. When Joan Clements and Pnin meet, she points out that they were
in Istanbul at the same time. "We might have met!" Might have? They did.
Joan and Timosha first spoke to each other from one window to the other
across the alley and later one was invited to the other's home where the
conversation continued from room to room. Or they might have been
introduced by their parents first and then continued their conversation
across the alley.
Admittedly, this requires some filling in on the part of the reader and I
can't prove that this is what Nabokov intended, but it did give me pleasure
to discover it and I have to suppose that this was intended by the author.
A similar way of linking and filling in seems to work in *Pale Fire,* and I
hope some one besides me is willing to try this way of reading the novel.
***
Dear Alexey and the List,
So Krolik (poor sod) was born in Turkey. Not sure, nor do I care, what
relevance, if any, this has. However, it does recall to my memory the scene
in
Pnin where a young Pnin and a younger (?) young lady call to each other
across
the small byway in a town I took to be Istambul. Aside from the bulbul
resonance, has anyone else assumed that this was a clue of some kind? I am
almost certain, that there is a later reference to this scene, which proves
to
the curious reader that Pnin and someone (who?) had met before. My memory
grows
dim at this point.
Carolyn
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/