"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.
..............................................................................................................
*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.