Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0022710, Mon, 16 Apr 2012 02:22:24 -0300

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Re: SIGHTINGS: Victor's poem in PNIN and other observations
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PS to: "When I returned to Nabokov's original this time, there was one word that, again, struck a chord. Namely "skiagrapher." This time, instead of exploring the techniques of skiagraphy in painting and in medicine, I decided to explore its synonimous "shadowgraph" (keeping in mind Pnin's "shadow behind the heart").

Although there are references to squirrels in various works by Nabokov, it's in "Pnin" that their appearance and behavior is more conspicuous. I only remembered, after having posted the message about "shadows," "aureoles" and "aura," that the word squirrel is related to shade. This is what I found in the internet in a quick search:
"I don't know exactly why evolution has chosen to favour squirrels with big fluffy tails but an interesting fact is the name squirrel comes from its latin name; Sciurus. The latin name however has Greek origins. It is derived from the Greek word skiouros, which means shade-tail. This is because when squirrels sit upright their long fluffy tail curls up behind them and shades them from the sun. Possibly this is also the reason they have fluffy tails, or it may be to add stability when jumping from limb to limb."
Read more: Why do squirrels have such big fluffy tails? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/12217#ixzz1sAxf0FDf *

It's also in Pnin that we find a reference to the "monopods," fictional beings that are equally related to "shade" (there are lots of past VN-L postings about this subject). "A race was run between the doctor's fat golden watch and Timofey's pulse (an easy winner). Then Timofey's torso was bared, and to it Belochkin pressed the icy nudity of his ear and the sandpapery side of his head. Like the flat sole of some monopode, the ear ambulated all over Timofey's back and chest, gluing itself to this or that patch of skin and stomping on to the next. No sooner had the doctor left than Timofey's mother and a robust servant girl with safety-pins between her teeth encased the distressed little patient in a straitjacket-like compress." **

So, it seems that there are sufficient references to shades and shadows in Pnin and also various articles dedicated to explore them and the possible additional significations related to Pnin's "shadow behind the heart," his fainting fits, the horrors of the Holocaust and Mira Belochkin.

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*Cf. Gennady Barabtarlo in www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/barab22.htm (excerpt): "Another emblematic image gracing every chapter with scheduled regularity is the squirrel. Its appearances in Pnin assemble into a pattern more complete than the one formed by a posy of violets inThe Real Life of Sebastian Knight, or by the oblong puddle in Bend Sinister, or by the sunglasses in Lolita. There are readers who see in the squirrel a metempsychic incarnation of Pnin's dead fiancée whose specter interferes in his life at critical turns.Others have proposed that the pattern of the rodent's appearances offers "a number of possible metaphysical answers to the problem of human pain," no doubt a cardinal problem in Pnin."

I couldn't find a special copy about G.Barabtarlo's special record of squirrel references and links, nor do I have easy access now to many items mentioned in his bibliography as it is presented in the Zembla site:
(a)Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin Annotated. Ph.D., 1986.(b) Barabtarlo, Gennady. "Calendar in Pnin." The Vladimir Nabokov Research Newsletter, Spring 1984, 12, pp. 44-50.(c) Barabtarlo, Gennady. "Beautiful Soup: Psychiatric Testing in Pnin."The Nabokovian, Spring 1988, 20, pp. 36-44.(d) Barabtarlo, Gennady: Phantom of Fact: A Guide to Nabokov'sPnin. Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis, 1989/(e) Barabtarlo, Gennady: "Pnin". In: The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov (ed. Vladimir E. Alexandrov), New York: Garland, 1995, pp. 599-608/ Barabtarlo, Gennady. "A Resolved Discord (Pnin)," Zembla, June 7, 2001. (Originally appeared in the author's Aerial View: Essays on Nabokov's Art and Metaphysics [New York: Peter Lang, 1993].) "Phantom of Fact: A Guide to Nabokov's Pnin (Ann Arbor: Ardis 1989)

** - Monopods (also sciapods, skiapods, skiapodes, Monocoli) are mythological dwarf-like creatures with a single, large foot extending from one thick leg centered in the middle of their body. The name Skiapodes is derived from σκιαποδες - "shadow feet" in Greek,monocoli from μονοκωλοι - 'one legged' in Greek.

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