How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #7
It is an hour's stroll from Weimar, where walked Goethe, Herder, Schiller, Wieland, the inimitable Kotzebue and others. "Aber warum—but why—" Dr. Hagen, the gentlest of souls alive, would wail, "why had one to put that horrid camp so near!" for indeed, it was near—only five miles from the cultural heart of Germany—"that nation of universities," as the President of Waindell College, renowned for his use of the mot juste, had so elegantly phrased it when reviewing the European situation in a recent Commencement speech, along with the compliment he paid another torture house, "Russia—the country of Tolstoy, Stanislavski, Raskolnikov, and other great and good men." (5.5.16)
Notice that even though Dr. Hagen is mostly talking about Germany, the narrator still manages to get in a dig against Russia. He calls it a "torture house." Why do you think he says that? How does that contrast with what Dr. Hagen says? And why the conflation of these two great, but sometimes tortured countries?
Quote #8
Pnin slowly walked under the solemn pines. The sky was dying. He did not believe in an autocratic God. He did believe, dimly, in a democracy of ghosts. The souls of the dead, perhaps, formed committees, and these, in continuous session, attended to the destinies of the quick. (5.5.17)
Even we're a little confused by what's going on here. One thing we do know is that the idea of an autocratic God probably comes from the Tsarist Autocracy that ruled the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution. It's actually kind of weird that Pnin rejects this form of God, since he was part of the White Army that fought against the revolutionaries who supported the Bolsheviks. Why do you think he has chosen democracy instead of autocracy?
Quote #9
My grandfather used to say that a glass of good wine should be always sipped and savored as if it were the last one before the execution. I wonder what you put into this punch. I also wonder if, as our charming Joan affirms, you are really contemplating buying this house? (6.12.4)
Really, Dr. Hagen is the worst. Here, he's trying to cheer up Pnin and let him have the bad news gently. We know that talking about death is definitely the best way to cheer us up.