Pynchon and Nabokov at Cornell

[jbor]

Thanks to David and Malignd for taking the time to post these two cites. The
Pynchon/Nabokov connections seem pretty rock solid to me, and it was
disturbing to see it insinuated that Vera Nabokov might have lied.

I guess the other pertinent quote is Pynchon's comment in the _SL_ Intro:

    I think, looking back, that there might have been a general
    nervousness in the whole college-age subculture. A tendency
    to self-censorship. It was also the era of _Howl_, _Lolita_,
    _Tropic of Cancer_, and all the excesses of law enforcement
    that such works provoked. (p. 6)

The reference comes in the context of an assessment of the preciousness of
his own writing when depicting the sexual encounter in 'The Small Rain', his
"first published story" and one which appeared in the _Cornell Writer_ of
March 1959. I think it is implied in the passage above that Pynchon read the
three mentioned works while part of a "college-age subculture", i.e., while
he was at Cornell. If not, it certainly states that he was alert to the
controversies surrounding and the bans applied to the three texts he
mentions. (It also reiterates his ongoing disdain for "excesses of law
enforcement".) That Nabokov was actually lecturing at Cornell at this time
makes it seem incredibly unlikely that Pynchon wouldn't have sat in on some
of the then-notorious author's lectures if he was able to, even if he wasn't
actually enrolled in his courses (but I've seen nothing definitive to say
that he didn't and, again, I'm pretty certain Pynchon would have taken the
opportunity to study under Nabokov if it was at all possible for him to do
so). Finally, there seems no reason to doubt Jules Siegel's anecdote in his
1977 'Playboy' piece, where he recalls Pynchon telling him that Nabokov's
"Russian accent was so thick he could hardly understand what he was saying":

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9505&msg=1496

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9505&msg=1497

I'd say that it's pretty obvious that, despite the accent, Pynchon
persevered and did in fact "understand" quite a lot of what Professor
Nabokov said.

best

on 13/7/03 4:00 AM, MalignD at aol.com wrote:
> 
> 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 writers 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."

on 12/7/03 5:59 AM, David Morris wrote:

> He [TRP] graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1953 at the age of
> sixteen, salutatorian of his class and winner of the Julia L. Thurston award
> for "the senior attaining the highest average in the study of English." A
> scholarship to Cornell University and enrollment in the division of
> Engineering
> Physics followed. At the end of his sophomore year [1955 - the year Lolita was
> pulblished when Pynchon was then 18 years old] he left Cornell for service in
> the Navy. 
> He returned to Cornell in the fall of 1957 transferring to the College of
> Arts an Sciences [where at that time Nabokov was a "celebrity" professor
> because of Lolita's success] from which he would attain his degree in English.
> During this time, he was on the editorial staff of the The Cornell Writer ,
> and
> also published his first short story: "The Small Rain" (The Cornell Writer,
> March 1959). He received his B.A. in June of 1959 with "distinction in all
> subjects."
>
> http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html