Subject
Fw: Fw: Salon article on Sergey Nabokov
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mikhail Avrekh" <ami@ocf.berkeley.edu>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (26
lines) ------------------
> What struck me in Lev Grossman's article is the description of Sergey's
> last days at Neuengamme, for it is surprisingly similar to the description
> of Mira Belochkin's presumed end as imagined by Pnin ("Pnin, "end of
> chapter 5) -- he doesn't know how exactly she died, and therefore "kept
> dying a great number of deaths in one's mind, and undergoing a great
> number of resurrections, only to die again and again, led away by a
> trained nurse, inoculated with filth, tetanus bacilli, broken
> glass...". Lev Grossman points out that "the camp was a center for medical
> treatment, and the Nazis used the prisoners to conduct research on
> tuberculosis." Furthermore, "he [Sergey] gave away lots of packages he was
> getting, of clothes and food, to people who were really suffering", just
> like Mira, although too weak to work, continued to help other Jewish
> women.
>
> Would anyone care to comment on this apparent connection ? I
> personally wonder whether the details of his brother's end reached VN
> before "Pnin" was written, or, possibly, if VN was just as uninformed
> about the fate of his brother as poor Pnin was about the death of his
> first love, and therefore whether this part of the novel is not
> implicitly dedicated to Sergey.
>
> M. Avrekh
>
>
>
>
From: "Mikhail Avrekh" <ami@ocf.berkeley.edu>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (26
lines) ------------------
> What struck me in Lev Grossman's article is the description of Sergey's
> last days at Neuengamme, for it is surprisingly similar to the description
> of Mira Belochkin's presumed end as imagined by Pnin ("Pnin, "end of
> chapter 5) -- he doesn't know how exactly she died, and therefore "kept
> dying a great number of deaths in one's mind, and undergoing a great
> number of resurrections, only to die again and again, led away by a
> trained nurse, inoculated with filth, tetanus bacilli, broken
> glass...". Lev Grossman points out that "the camp was a center for medical
> treatment, and the Nazis used the prisoners to conduct research on
> tuberculosis." Furthermore, "he [Sergey] gave away lots of packages he was
> getting, of clothes and food, to people who were really suffering", just
> like Mira, although too weak to work, continued to help other Jewish
> women.
>
> Would anyone care to comment on this apparent connection ? I
> personally wonder whether the details of his brother's end reached VN
> before "Pnin" was written, or, possibly, if VN was just as uninformed
> about the fate of his brother as poor Pnin was about the death of his
> first love, and therefore whether this part of the novel is not
> implicitly dedicated to Sergey.
>
> M. Avrekh
>
>
>
>