Twins or doubles can be deadly. John Shade bore a
fatal resemblance to Samuel Johnson and to Judge Goldsworth, in Pale
Fire.* Delusional similarities, as Hermann's in Despair,
or some of the Quiltys in disguise in Lolita, are
equally dangerous In Pnin however,
the matter gains a silent-movie comic twist, at least
in my eyes, because I cannot determine their connection
to the plot, only to the author's occasional humoristic
curlicues and recurrent themes.
"Pnin and I had long since accepted the disturbing but
seldom discussed fact that on any given college staff one could find not only a
person who was uncommonly like one's dentist or the local postmaster, but also a
person who had a twin within the same professional group, I know, indeed, of a
case of triplets at a comparatively small college where, according to its
sharp-eyed president, Frank Reade, the radix of the troika was, absurdly enough,
myself; and I recall the late Olga Krotki once telling me that... there
were as many as six Pnins, besides the genuine and, to me, unique article. It
should not be deemed surprising, therefore, that even Pnin...could not help
becoming aware ... that a lanky, bespectacled old fellow... — a person whom Pnin
knew as Professor Thomas Wynn, Head of the Ornithology Department, having once
talked to him at some party about gay golden orioles, melancholy cuckoos, and
other Russian countryside birds — was not always Professor Wynn. At times he
graded, as it were, into somebody else, whom Pnin did not know by name but whom
he classified, with a bright foreigner's fondness for puns as 'Twynn' (or, in
Pninian, 'Tvin')
Wynn's double was "Tristram W. Thomas (Tom to his
friends), Professor of Anthropology, [who] had obtained ten thousand
dollars from the Mandoville Foundation for a study of the eating habits of Cuban
fishermen and palm climbers." and poor Pnin "told himself it would be useless to ask anybody's assistance in
unravelling the T.Wynns.[ ] On the day of his party,...Wynn, or his
double,...suddenly sat down beside him and said:'I have long wanted to ask you
something — you teach Russian, don't you? Last summer I was reading a magazine
article on birds — ' ('Vin! This is Vin!' said Pnin to himself, and forthwith
perceived a decisive course of action).'— well, the author of that article — I
don't remember his name, I think it was a Russian one — mentioned that in the
Skoff region, I hope I pronounce it right, a local cake is baked in the form of
a bird. Basically, of course, the symbol is phallic, but I was wondering if you
knew of such a custom?' [ ] 'Sir, I am at your service,'
...'Yes, sir. I know all about those zhavoronki, those
alouettes, those — we must consult a dictionary for the English name. So I take
the opportunity to extend a cordial invitation to you to visit me this
evening...." To add spice to the misunderstanding,. there's Betty's query
to Thomas, about a
prof.Fogelman, an expert in bats, who lived in Cuba (Fogelman
suggests "Birdman")
And here is the coincidence!!! I just discovered that Prof.
Pnin's confusion could have been justified, in a prescient way
for years later, in 1977, a Prof. Thomas Wynn would earn his Ph.D. in
anthropology from the University of Illinois and, together with
psychologist Frederick Coolidge they'd publish How to Think Like a
Neanderthal, offering a psychological profile of Neanderthals
based on archeological evidence.
No phallic symbols nor any palm climbers having a lark,
though.
............................................................................................
* - "Take my own case," continued [Shade] "I have been said to
resemble at least four people: Samuel Johnson; the lovingly reconstructed
ancestor of man in the Exton Museum; and two local characters, one being the
slapdash disheveled hag who ladles out the mash..."[...] "I would rather
say," remarked Mr. Pardon — American History — "that she looks like Judge
Goldsworth" ("One of us," interposed Shade inclining his head), "especially when
he is real mad at the whole world after a good
dinner."