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QUERY: VN on compassion in PNIN
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Dennis Kelly writes:
A memoirist, who used to know Nabokov at Cornell in the nineteen-fifties,
recounts this characteristic anecdote:
“At a crowded party, I found myself pushed up against him. Feeling the need
to say something, an impulse I should have resisted, I told him that I had
just read Pnin, which I had liked very much. He could have said "Thank
you," but instead [he] asked, "Why?" I told him (and it was a truthful
remark) that I liked it for the compassion I found within it. He abruptly
turned away, as if I had slapped his face.”
James McConkey, "Nabokov and 'The Window of the Mint'," in The Achievements
of Vladimir Nabokov, eds. George Gibian and Stephen Jan Parker (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1984), p. 31. See Dmitri Nabokov's reaction in "A
Few Comments on the Cornell Festival Volume," Vladimir Nabokov Research
Newsletter, XIV (Spring 1985), p. 14.
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?
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A memoirist, who used to know Nabokov at Cornell in the nineteen-fifties,
recounts this characteristic anecdote:
“At a crowded party, I found myself pushed up against him. Feeling the need
to say something, an impulse I should have resisted, I told him that I had
just read Pnin, which I had liked very much. He could have said "Thank
you," but instead [he] asked, "Why?" I told him (and it was a truthful
remark) that I liked it for the compassion I found within it. He abruptly
turned away, as if I had slapped his face.”
James McConkey, "Nabokov and 'The Window of the Mint'," in The Achievements
of Vladimir Nabokov, eds. George Gibian and Stephen Jan Parker (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1984), p. 31. See Dmitri Nabokov's reaction in "A
Few Comments on the Cornell Festival Volume," Vladimir Nabokov Research
Newsletter, XIV (Spring 1985), p. 14.
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?
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/