----------------- Message requiring your approval (24 lines) ------------------


> From: esampson@post.harvard.edu
>
> Except that Punin's name is stressed on the first syllable, while the
> incorrectly disyllabic Puh-nin would have to be stressed on the second,
> and its first syllable would be schwah, not an "oo".  :-)


Picky, picky... Schwah notwithstanding, I actually still like my new
theory. I am not suggesting, mind you, that it was the primary reason for
naming Pnin Pnin, but it must have served as an additional Nabokovian
chuckle in choosing the name. The Akhmatova motif is, after all, so strong
with Liza; Akhmatova is mentioned by name in the beginning of the book
and then again towards the end where Liza is said to have written "the
kind of stuff that emigre rhymstrettes wrote after Akhmatova" after which
we are given yet another parody: "Samotsvetov krome o
chey..." (180-181).
Speaking of "samotsvety," I know that I already lost the "gem of the week"
competition to an entry from James Womack, but to me my little theory
looks gemmer and gemmer every hour! :-)

Galya Diment