How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The second part of the program consisted of an impressive Soviet documentary film, made in the late forties. It was supposed to contain not a jot of propaganda, to be all sheer art, merrymaking, and the euphoria of proud toil. Handsome, unkempt girls marched in an immemorial Spring Festival with banners bearing snatches of old Russian ballads such as "Ruki proch ot Korei" "Bas les mains devant la Coree," "La paz vencera a la guerra," "Der Friede besiegt den Krief." A flying ambulance was shown crossing a snowy range in Tajikistan. Kirghiz actors visited a sanatorium for coal miners among palm trees and staged there a spontaneous performance. In a mountain pasture somewhere in legendary Ossetia, a herdsman reported by portable radio to the local Republic's Ministry of Agriculture on the birth of a lamb. The Moscow Metro shimmered, with its columns and statues, and six would-be travelers seated on three marble benches. A factory worker's family spent a quiet evening at home, all dressed up, in a parlor choked with ornamental plants, under a great silk lampshade. Eight thousand soccer fans watched a match between Torpedo and Dynamo. Eight thousand citizens at Moscow's Electrical Equipment Plant unanimously nominated Stalin candidate from the Stalin Election District of Moscow. The latest Zim passenger model started out with the factory worker's family and a few other people for a picnic in the country. And then— "I must not, I must not, oh it is idiotical," said Pnin to himself as he felt—unaccountably, ridiculously, humiliatingly—his tear glands discharge their hot, infantine, uncontrollable fluid. (3.7.4)
We have two questions for you: what vision of Russia are these films attempting to depict, and why do they make Pnin cry? We'll even throw in a third question for good measure: why does Pnin think crying is "idiotical?"
Quote #5
It was, I recollect, a splendid summer day and we played, played, played until all the twelve balls were lost. You also will recollect the past with interest when old. (4.8.15)
Here, Pnin is talking to Victor about his childhood. It's interesting to see one of these few father-son moments, and also to think about the difference between this older man and this young teenager. We're sure that Victor is internally rolling his eyes at Pnin's story (we would be too), but this statement brings the difference between the two of them into light. Pnin's life is probably more full of interesting memories then good things happening in the present. On the other hand, Victor's life is all about the future.
Quote #6
He had fallen asleep at last, despite the discomfort in his back, and in the course of one of those dreams that still haunt Russian fugitives, even when a third of a century has elapsed since their escape from the Bolsheviks, Pnin saw himself fantastically cloaked, fleeing through great pools of ink under a cloud-barred moon from a chimerical palace, and then pacing a desolate strand with his dead friend Ilya Isidorovich Polyanski as they waited for some mysterious deliverance to arrive in a throbbing boat from beyond the hopeless sea. (4.9.1)
In case you thought Pnin's obsession with the past was just a waking preoccupation, here's a quote that shows you even his unconscious can't let go of what happened when he was in Russia.