Subject
Re: QUERY: VN on compassion in PNIN
From
Date
Body
I bet Stephen is absolutely correct. McConkey probably would have been
better off saying he hated *Pnin*. Not to say that VN couldn't have been
more charitable, but he did have a visceral aversion to platitudes.
On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
> I think this is a fascinating question and topic. Having thought a lot
> about *Pnin *lately, my own sense of it is that VN might have felt that
> "compassion" as a general first impression of *Pnin* ignored so many
> levels (and details) of what he was doing in the novel that he could not
> even engage in a discussion after such an opening. The things he wrote to
> the *New Yorker*'s Katharine White (if my memory is correct) about the *
> unpleasantness* of the narrator, what many have called his cruelty and
> his condescension towards Pnin, was probably much more important to him
> than the feeling of compassion--what may be a false compassion, or at any
> rate is a very complicated intertwining of compassion and mocking
> condescension. I'm sure also that the answer "compassion" uttered this way
> would have struck him as one of those "general ideas" that he loathed--or,
> put more modestly and accurately, that he felt were pernicious because
> antithetical to careful thought and attention. "Compassion" would also
> have signaled that his novel was perceived as a "human interest" novel,
> another pet peeve of his. I can imagine dozens or hundreds of responses to
> the question that would have pleased him, but "compassion", like
> "simplicity" and "sincerity" (see intro to *Lectures on Don Quixote*, I
> think) is one that was automatically out-of-bounds. I wonder if the word
> "tenderness" would have worked better for him, in an answer like: "I love
> it for the tenderness it makes the reader feel for its hero"---to which
> might be added: "almost in spite of itself". Other answers he would have
> valued might have been---for the variety of colors it describes, or for any
> specifically recalled passage's precision, for any particular minor detail
> that reader valued.
>
> It's interesting that the quoted anecdote resembles almost exactly in
> structure the recent *NYRB* piece by Jay Epstein, discussed on-list. In
> both, VN receives a hopelessly general response, and simply turns away. Is
> it because he wanted to teach precision of perception, thought, and
> expression only by example in his writings and in the classroom? Is it that
> he felt that turning away was itself a pedagogical answer--"You are so
> wrong I can't even reply; you must go back to the drawing board"? I
> wonder.
>
> Stephen Blackwell
>
>
>
>
> On 4/9/2013 10:39 PM, NABOKV-L, English wrote:
>
> Dennis Kelly writes:
>
>
> [. . .]
>
>
> Why did Nabokov abruptly turn away upon hearing McConkey say, at a noisy
> party, that he liked Pnin for its compassion? Did Nabokov think otherwise?
> If so, why?
>
>
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****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/
better off saying he hated *Pnin*. Not to say that VN couldn't have been
more charitable, but he did have a visceral aversion to platitudes.
On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:
> I think this is a fascinating question and topic. Having thought a lot
> about *Pnin *lately, my own sense of it is that VN might have felt that
> "compassion" as a general first impression of *Pnin* ignored so many
> levels (and details) of what he was doing in the novel that he could not
> even engage in a discussion after such an opening. The things he wrote to
> the *New Yorker*'s Katharine White (if my memory is correct) about the *
> unpleasantness* of the narrator, what many have called his cruelty and
> his condescension towards Pnin, was probably much more important to him
> than the feeling of compassion--what may be a false compassion, or at any
> rate is a very complicated intertwining of compassion and mocking
> condescension. I'm sure also that the answer "compassion" uttered this way
> would have struck him as one of those "general ideas" that he loathed--or,
> put more modestly and accurately, that he felt were pernicious because
> antithetical to careful thought and attention. "Compassion" would also
> have signaled that his novel was perceived as a "human interest" novel,
> another pet peeve of his. I can imagine dozens or hundreds of responses to
> the question that would have pleased him, but "compassion", like
> "simplicity" and "sincerity" (see intro to *Lectures on Don Quixote*, I
> think) is one that was automatically out-of-bounds. I wonder if the word
> "tenderness" would have worked better for him, in an answer like: "I love
> it for the tenderness it makes the reader feel for its hero"---to which
> might be added: "almost in spite of itself". Other answers he would have
> valued might have been---for the variety of colors it describes, or for any
> specifically recalled passage's precision, for any particular minor detail
> that reader valued.
>
> It's interesting that the quoted anecdote resembles almost exactly in
> structure the recent *NYRB* piece by Jay Epstein, discussed on-list. In
> both, VN receives a hopelessly general response, and simply turns away. Is
> it because he wanted to teach precision of perception, thought, and
> expression only by example in his writings and in the classroom? Is it that
> he felt that turning away was itself a pedagogical answer--"You are so
> wrong I can't even reply; you must go back to the drawing board"? I
> wonder.
>
> Stephen Blackwell
>
>
>
>
> On 4/9/2013 10:39 PM, NABOKV-L, English wrote:
>
> Dennis Kelly writes:
>
>
> [. . .]
>
>
> Why did Nabokov abruptly turn away upon hearing McConkey say, at a noisy
> party, that he liked Pnin for its compassion? Did Nabokov think otherwise?
> If so, why?
>
>
>
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****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/