The other day, I was re-reading ‘Pnin’, and paused upon reference to committees of spirits at the end of chapter 5. While walking under pines of Onkwedo resort, Timofey relives Mira’s brutal death in Buhenwald, so close to cultural center of ‘that nation of universities’. He does not believe in omnipotent G-d but, vaguely, in democracy of spirits who constantly meet in committees deciding fate of living. Mira, her and Pnin’s parents deciding Timofey’s fate? In a strange way I find similarity between Pnin and Hugh Person, as between Liza and Armande. Pnin is quite transparent to Waindell academia too, although with different result and they are no spirits, of course.
BTW I just came upon quite complete (50 titles, many hard-covers, Pnin included) selection of VN works on the web site of our neighborhood WalMart store, and for good price too:
George Shimanovich