Book Review: Pnin (Nabokov)
Have I read this before: Nope. But apparently I’m in a Nabokov mood right now, so let’s go.
Review: Pnin is like academia personified. He’s strange, he’s kind of odd-looking, he’s a bit socially awkward but also socially graceful in certain situations, he makes little absent-minded mistakes…he’s an old prof, basically. I like how we get an idea of who he is through these little snippets of incidents throughout his life.
My biggest issue was not knowing how “Pnin” was supposed to be pronounced, but then I found the most Nabokov way of explaining how it should be pronounced:
“In one of his essays Nabokov said it should be pronounced like “Up, Nina!” without the first and last letters.”
Favorite Part: Story-wise? Pnin not being sure if there is one professor with a certain last name or two different profs who look similar and have similar names. So he invites one of them to his housewarming party, calling him one of the names, and then that prof, upon leaving, is super confused because he’s a totally different dude than the two Pnin is confusing, haha.
Writing-wise? That good old Nabokov sentence that connects the very physical to the very cosmic:
“With the help of the janitor he [Pnin] screwed onto the side of the desk a pencil sharpener—that highly satisfying, highly philosophical implement that goes ticonderoga-ticon-deroga, feeding on the yellow finish and sweet wood, and ends up in a kind of soundlessly spinning ethereal void as we all must.”
(like ALL of Lolita was written like this; hence why it’s one of my favorites.)
Rating: 6/10
Book Review: Pale Fire (Nabokov)
Have I read this before: Nope. This is only my second Nabokov, which is surprising given how much I LOVE his writing style.
Review: I’ve always enjoyed books with an unconventional structure. This definitely has that. It starts with a four-canto poem by fictional poet John Shade, then is followed by a long commentary by his (fictional) neighbor and colleague, Charles Kinbote. He examines the poem nearly line-by-line, interjecting commentary in the form of three main stories: his personal interactions with and knowledge of Shade, a story about the deposed king of Zembla, and Gradus, an assassin from Zembla sent to kill the old king.
Favorite Part: Y’all know I like it when everything builds beautifully to a final point in a story. So few stories pull this off very well, in my opinion, but this one does it nicely. Also, because it’s Nabokov, I have to mention the way he explains how Kinbote took all the index cards on which Shade had written the lines of his poems and hid them on his person to keep them safe:
Some of my readers may laugh when they learn that I fussily removed it from my black valise to an empty steel box in my landlord’s study, and a few hours later took the manuscript out again, and for several days wore it, as it were, having distributed the ninety-two index cards about my person, twenty in the right-hand pocket of my coat, as many in the left-hand one, a batch of forty against my right nipple and the twelve precious ones with variants in my innermost left-breast pocket. I blessed my royal stars for having taught myself wife work, for I now sewed up all four pockets. Thus with cautious steps, among deceived enemies, I circulated, plated with poetry, armored with rhymes, stout with another man’s song, stiff with cardboard, bullet-proof at long last.
I LIKE THE WAY HE WRITES I’M SORRY.
Rating: 5/10
Book Review: Lolita (Nabokov)
Alrighty, book time! Today we’re looking at Nabokov’s Lolita.
(Yes, it’s another installment of “Claudia’s Too Anxious to Check Out a New Book from the Library so She’s Re-Reading One She Owns.” Hopefully someday soon I’ll stop being a loser.)
Have I read this before: See above.
Review: Don’t call me a pervert, but I freaking love this book. I honestly love it more for the way it’s written than the actual story.
Edit: holy crap, I didn’t know it was written in English. I thought it was originally in French and just translated (yes I know I’m dumb, shut up).
Edit edit: He could speak English before he could speak either Russian or French. The more you know!
Edit edit edit: This isn’t so much a review as me freaking out about Nabokov. Sorryz.
Favorite part: Can I just say “the language” for this? ‘Cause holy gods.
“The two voices parted in an explosion of warmth and good will, and through some freak mechanical flaw all my coins came tumbling back to me with a hitting-the-jackpot clatter that almost made me laugh despite the disappointment at having to postpone bliss. One wonders if this sudden discharge, this spasmodic refund, was not correlated somehow, in the mind of McFate, with my having invented that little expedition before ever learning of it as I did now.”
The whole damn book is like that: beautifully written. Flawless Nabokov is flawless.
Rating: 9/10
Old McDonald had a blog, L-M-F-A-O!
Blaaaaaaaaahldfjasgiga I hate change. Stressful week shall be stressful. Engage random frivolity!
ANORAK…Do you have a sad side?
It is unfortunately one of my prominent sides.
BODY…What physical attribute would you most like to change?
I’d like to be taller. Like even just an inch or so. I have a very short torso. I’d like to be able to put more than two fingers between my lowest rib and my hip bone.
CELEBRITY…Which one would you most like to date and why?
Do they have to be living?
DEBUT …Tell us about your first ever blog post.
Hahaha. My high school friends finally convinced me to get a MySpace, and my first blog post was basically “here, are you happy? Now that I’ve got a blog, though, why not try to blog once a day?” DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!
ERROR …What’s been your biggest regret?
UBC.
FUNNY…who’s making you laugh?
No one at the moment.
GRAND…If we gave you one right now what would you spend it on?
Pay off my credit card ‘cause it’s right at its limit.
HOLIDAY… What’s your favorite destination?
Antarctica, even though I’ve never been there.
IRRITATE… What’s your most annoying habit?
We’re not going to get into that.
JOKER…Whats your favorite joke {the one that makes you laugh every time you hear it}?
Brian Regan’s UPS routine, Brian Regan’s airplane routine, Brian Regan’s emergency room routine. So basically anything by Brian Regan.
KENNEL… Do you have any pets?
I have my kitten Annabelle back home. She’s totally not a kitten, she’s like 13, but she’s small and my baby.
LOVE…Are you single, married, engaged, living with a long term partner?
Single. Single, single, single.
MEAL… Whats your ultimate starter, main and dessert?
Starter: Caesar salad
Main: fries/onion rings and chicken from Cougar Country
Dessert: German chocolate cake!
NOW…If you could be anywhere right now where would you be and who with?
I’d like to be down in Arizona with my mom, ‘cause we both need each other right now.
OFF DUTY…What do you do in your spare time?
Blog, do stats, read, listen to music, try not to die of boredom.
PROUD MOMENTS …What are you most proud of?
Nothing.
QUEASY …What turns your stomach?
Not much, really. Pepto Bismol used to make me violently ill, though.
RELAX…How do you relax?
I don’t. I’m a Viking.
SONG…Whats your favorite song of all time?
SLEEPYHEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!
TIME …If you could go back in time and relive it again, when would you choose?
All the way back to the beginning.
UNKNOWN…Tell us something about yourself that no one else knows?
I dream about linear algebra freakishly often.
VOCAL…. Who is your favorite artist?
Like vocal artist? Imogen Heap rocks.
WORK….. What is your dream job, and are you doing it now?
I would LOVE to fit statistical models to internet trends, or to study the internet in some way. It’s fascinating to me. I also wouldn’t mind teaching stats. Unfortunately, I am doing neither of these things right now.
XRAY…Any broken bones?
I had a hairline fracture in my tibia thanks to playing Wombat in junior high PE. That’s the worst it’s been.
YIKES…What’s been your most embarrassing moment?
In elementary school we used to put on school-wide Christmas and Spring musicals. I was always just given a small singing solo part until fifth grade, when our music teacher finally gave me an acting part. It was small, but it was an acting part. I was super happy and determined to show her that I could take on a bigger part next year. However, because I suck at everything I do, I got my lines mixed up and accidentally caused us all to skip like a fourth of the musical. We actually had to go back and add it at the end. Needless to say, another acting part was never offered to me.
ZOO…. If you were an animal, which one would you be?
I’d probably be a hippo or something equally awesome.
Also this, though I seriously doubt its ability to accurately judge writing style. If I were half as brilliant as Nabokov I’d have like forty books published by now, anyway. Clicky-clicky on pic to analyze your own writing.
30-Day Meme – Day 11: Share a story from your childhood.
A long time ago (1995) in a galaxy far, far away (Catholic elementary school), my friends and I attended an in-school after school program in which we sat in the cafeteria from 3 PM until our parents came to pick us up after work. I guess “cafeteria” is a misleading word, as the room was more of a multi-purpose room. It had a closet that was housed beneath the stairs that led up to the upper floor of the school. In it, we stored the stands for band as well as racks of those metal auditorium chairs. One day, my friends George, Mitchell, and I got the brilliant idea to hide from the after school teacher by ducking into the closet right after school ended. We were in there for like an hour and a half before we were discovered. We had to write apology letters, either to our parents or the after school teacher (I can’t remember). That was the most defiant I ever was as a kid, haha.
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