Re: Pynchon & Nabokov: 2 questions

[MalignD at aol.com]

michel.ryckx at freebel.net writes:

> <<"Was there a direct, personal relationship between twenty-year-old 
> Pynchon and fifty-seven-year-old Nabokov? Probably not. ... [and all the rest]>>
> 
It's an odd cite, isn't it, this excerpt.   

These first two sentences (above) are probably the only thing that seem 
certain.   The rest of the excerpt continually shores up then pulls away whatever 
evidence it hopes to present.   There's no indication in Pynchon's transcript 
that he took Nabokov's courses, but the transcript is unreliable; and "of 
course," Pynchon might have audited Nabokov.   Etc.   Then in a footnote, he says, 
astonishingly, that the notion that Pynchon studied with Nabokov has been 
dispelled, then repeats the story about Vera Nabokov, only altered, saying she "
remembered someone, perhaps Pynchon, who had unusual handwriting."

This is a   distortion of what was reported in a more authoritative source:   
Alfred Appel's interviews with the Nabokovs in September 1966 at Montreux.   
The pertinent question and answer in full:

Appel:

What is your opinion of Joyce's parodies?   Do you see any difference in the 
artistic effect of scenes such as the maternity hospital and the beach 
interlude with Gerty Macdowell?   Are you familiar with the work of younger American w
riters who have been influenced by both you and Joyce, such as Thomas Pynchon 
(A Cornellian, Class of '59, who surely was in Literature 312), and do you 
have any opinion on the current ascendancy of the so-called parody-novel (John 
Barth, for instance)?

VN:

The literary parodies in the Maternal Hospital chapter are on the whole 
jejunish.   Joyce seems to have been hampered by the general sterilized tone he 
chose for that chapter, and this somehow dulled and monotonized the inlaid skits. 
  On the other hand, the frilly novelette parodies in the Masturbation scene 
are highly successful; and the sudden junction of its cliches with the 
fireworks and tender sky of real poetry is a feat of genius.   I am not familiar with 
the works of the two other writers you mention.*

To which Appel adds the following footnote:

Mrs. Nabokov, who graded her husband's examination papers, did remember 
Pynchon, but only for his "unusual" handwriting:   half printing, half script.

It is, of course, possible that Vera was mistaken; it was many years later 
and there were many student papers.   But what she said was that she remembered 
Pynchon, not "someone, perhaps Pynchon."   All of which is to say that 
Hollander seems to draw a conclusion his own evidence fails to support.

I would suggest an answer that results out of posing the question 
differently, which is, why on earth would Pynchon or any other fledgling writer, like 
Farina, pass up any opportunity to expose his budding talents and sensibilities 
to Nabokov?   Asked that way, I find it very difficult to believe Pynchon 
wasn't in Nabokov's class -- officially, auditing, or sneaking in with a bag over 
his head -- as often and as regularly as possible.   He'd have been a meathead 
not to.



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