Subject
ANSWERS TO "PNIN QUERIES"
Date
Body
Question #3:
Hints that something is wrong in the marriage of the Clements' daughter
(whose room Pnin rents).
Question #4:
A best-selling book of the era of the novel was called THE EGG AND I--I
believe it won the Pulitzer Prize, quite properly, since (Pullet
Surprise) it was about chicken farming. Why WE? Pnin takes Victor there;
the egg Victor came from has two males attached.
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From schiff@echonyc.com Sun Mar 9 16:19:14 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 15:06:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Schiff <schiff@echonyc.com>
I can help only on the easy ones. For instance, "The Egg and We" is a
reference to "The Egg and I," an enormously popular novel by Betty
MacDonald which, in 1947, became an even more enormously popular film
written and directed by Chester Erskine (with some screenplay help from
Fred Finklehoffe). The film was (and is) a broad comedy, ostensibly
about a game city gal (played by Claudette Colbert) to adjust to country
living when she marries a chicken farmer (played by Fred MacMurray). The
film made sadly indelible the characterizations of Marjorie Main and
Percy Kilbride, as Ma and Pa Kettle; they went on to make seven more "Ma
and Pa Kettle films, and Miss Main made another two after that.
As for the Yosemite hotel, I hope the interlocutor is aware of America's
magnificent (though beleaguered) Yosemite National Park along
California's Merced River. Since it is pronounced yo-SEM-i-tee, any pun
with anti-Semitism exists only on the page.
-----------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
From Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk Sun Mar 9 16:19:26 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 19:01:04 +0000
Subject: Re: PNIN QUERIES
>[motuweth frisas??]
MOnday, TUesday, WEdnesday, etc
>
>2. "Yosemite hotel" "A what?" (again no ref. sorry) Opposite of
>anti-semite???
a hotel in Yosemite [California]
>
>4. The Egg and We ... (ch.2, sec.2, p29, and elsewhere) I cannot believe
>this name is without allusive powers, but my brain's cogs are stuck.
"The Egg and I" was a popular novel [and a film] in the 1950s
>
>Peter
--
Roy Johnson - Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk
Manchester UK
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------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 18:24:21 -0500 (EST)
From: ESAMPVN@aol.com
On 3/7/97 Peter Clasen had several queries on _Pnin_. I write to respond
to
the one query that I can answer off the top of my head, without researching
(probably others have already by now responded more fully to his queries, but
just in case...). Mr. Clasen's question No. 3 was: "What has Pnin 'half
heard in the course of the day' (ch. 3, sec. 6, Penguin p. 66) that oppresses
him?"
The answer is in the previous section of the chapter (Doubleday p. 74), in
his conversation in the library with Mrs. Thayer/Fire. She wonders if "poor
Isabel" will get divorced (the Clements have flown West to visit their
daughter Isabel, ch 3, sec. 2), and comments: "I suppose we'll have to find
you another room, if they bring her back with them." It is this that is
oppressing Pnin, the half-suppressed thought that he might have to give up
the only Waindell lodgings where he has felt comfortable (ch. 3, sec. 2).
Barabtarlo, p. 141, while obliquely recognizing this connection, interprets
the passage Mr. Clasen is inquiring about on a different level, having to do
with the chapter's themes of birth(day) and death.
Earl Sampson (ESAMPVN@AOL.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------
From galya@u.washington.edu Sun Mar 9 16:21:00 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 09:49:41 -0800 (PST)
To: MFCX4PLC@fs1.art.man.ac.uk
Subject: Pnin/Yosemite
Dear Peter,
As Don Johnson stated, Gene Barabtarlo's book does provide most of the
answers to the queries, so it hardly makes sense to go over them here. But
one of the queries was on Yosemite, and it's so well known in this country
that I am not sure Barabtarlo comments on that.
Yosemite National Park, a U.S. wilderness preserve with an
> area of 308,062 ha (761,236 acres), is located in central California
> on the western edge of the SIERRA NEVADA range. At its center lies
> the 900-m-deep (2,750-ft) glacially carved Yosemite Valley of
> the Merced River, which feeds spectacular waterfalls along its
> route, including Yosemite Falls (740 m/2,425 ft), Ribbon Fall
> (491 m/1,612 ft), and Bridalveil Fall (189 m/620 ft). Granite peaks
> and domes rise around the valley, notably El Capitan (2,307 m/7,569
> ft), Half Dome (2,695 m/8,842 ft), and Mount Lyell (3,997 m/13,114
> ft), on the eastern boundary of the park. Three groves of ancient
> sequoias have been preserved, and the park provides a sanctuary for
> mule deer and black bears.
>
> The area held 22 villages of the Yosemite (meaning "grizzly
> bear") Indians when it was discovered by whites in 1851. The region
> was made a state park in 1864 and established as a national park in
> 1890. Approximately 3 million people visit Yosemite each
> year.
> Biblio: Bibliography: Medley, Steven P., The Complete Guidebook to
> Yosemite National Park (1991); Runte, Alfred,
> Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness (1990); Schaffer, Jeffrey
> P., Yosemite National Park, 3d rev. ed. (1992).
>
> Copyright notice: Copyright by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
Hints that something is wrong in the marriage of the Clements' daughter
(whose room Pnin rents).
Question #4:
A best-selling book of the era of the novel was called THE EGG AND I--I
believe it won the Pulitzer Prize, quite properly, since (Pullet
Surprise) it was about chicken farming. Why WE? Pnin takes Victor there;
the egg Victor came from has two males attached.
------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
From schiff@echonyc.com Sun Mar 9 16:19:14 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 15:06:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Schiff <schiff@echonyc.com>
I can help only on the easy ones. For instance, "The Egg and We" is a
reference to "The Egg and I," an enormously popular novel by Betty
MacDonald which, in 1947, became an even more enormously popular film
written and directed by Chester Erskine (with some screenplay help from
Fred Finklehoffe). The film was (and is) a broad comedy, ostensibly
about a game city gal (played by Claudette Colbert) to adjust to country
living when she marries a chicken farmer (played by Fred MacMurray). The
film made sadly indelible the characterizations of Marjorie Main and
Percy Kilbride, as Ma and Pa Kettle; they went on to make seven more "Ma
and Pa Kettle films, and Miss Main made another two after that.
As for the Yosemite hotel, I hope the interlocutor is aware of America's
magnificent (though beleaguered) Yosemite National Park along
California's Merced River. Since it is pronounced yo-SEM-i-tee, any pun
with anti-Semitism exists only on the page.
-----------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
From Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk Sun Mar 9 16:19:26 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 19:01:04 +0000
Subject: Re: PNIN QUERIES
>[motuweth frisas??]
MOnday, TUesday, WEdnesday, etc
>
>2. "Yosemite hotel" "A what?" (again no ref. sorry) Opposite of
>anti-semite???
a hotel in Yosemite [California]
>
>4. The Egg and We ... (ch.2, sec.2, p29, and elsewhere) I cannot believe
>this name is without allusive powers, but my brain's cogs are stuck.
"The Egg and I" was a popular novel [and a film] in the 1950s
>
>Peter
--
Roy Johnson - Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk
Manchester UK
--------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 18:24:21 -0500 (EST)
From: ESAMPVN@aol.com
On 3/7/97 Peter Clasen had several queries on _Pnin_. I write to respond
to
the one query that I can answer off the top of my head, without researching
(probably others have already by now responded more fully to his queries, but
just in case...). Mr. Clasen's question No. 3 was: "What has Pnin 'half
heard in the course of the day' (ch. 3, sec. 6, Penguin p. 66) that oppresses
him?"
The answer is in the previous section of the chapter (Doubleday p. 74), in
his conversation in the library with Mrs. Thayer/Fire. She wonders if "poor
Isabel" will get divorced (the Clements have flown West to visit their
daughter Isabel, ch 3, sec. 2), and comments: "I suppose we'll have to find
you another room, if they bring her back with them." It is this that is
oppressing Pnin, the half-suppressed thought that he might have to give up
the only Waindell lodgings where he has felt comfortable (ch. 3, sec. 2).
Barabtarlo, p. 141, while obliquely recognizing this connection, interprets
the passage Mr. Clasen is inquiring about on a different level, having to do
with the chapter's themes of birth(day) and death.
Earl Sampson (ESAMPVN@AOL.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------
From galya@u.washington.edu Sun Mar 9 16:21:00 1997
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 1997 09:49:41 -0800 (PST)
To: MFCX4PLC@fs1.art.man.ac.uk
Subject: Pnin/Yosemite
Dear Peter,
As Don Johnson stated, Gene Barabtarlo's book does provide most of the
answers to the queries, so it hardly makes sense to go over them here. But
one of the queries was on Yosemite, and it's so well known in this country
that I am not sure Barabtarlo comments on that.
Yosemite National Park, a U.S. wilderness preserve with an
> area of 308,062 ha (761,236 acres), is located in central California
> on the western edge of the SIERRA NEVADA range. At its center lies
> the 900-m-deep (2,750-ft) glacially carved Yosemite Valley of
> the Merced River, which feeds spectacular waterfalls along its
> route, including Yosemite Falls (740 m/2,425 ft), Ribbon Fall
> (491 m/1,612 ft), and Bridalveil Fall (189 m/620 ft). Granite peaks
> and domes rise around the valley, notably El Capitan (2,307 m/7,569
> ft), Half Dome (2,695 m/8,842 ft), and Mount Lyell (3,997 m/13,114
> ft), on the eastern boundary of the park. Three groves of ancient
> sequoias have been preserved, and the park provides a sanctuary for
> mule deer and black bears.
>
> The area held 22 villages of the Yosemite (meaning "grizzly
> bear") Indians when it was discovered by whites in 1851. The region
> was made a state park in 1864 and established as a national park in
> 1890. Approximately 3 million people visit Yosemite each
> year.
> Biblio: Bibliography: Medley, Steven P., The Complete Guidebook to
> Yosemite National Park (1991); Runte, Alfred,
> Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness (1990); Schaffer, Jeffrey
> P., Yosemite National Park, 3d rev. ed. (1992).
>
> Copyright notice: Copyright by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>