Discussion - Week One - Lolita - Foreword and Part One

[Tracy]

Yeah, Jen! That is my feeling, exactly! Resent the condescending manipulation! And yet...

[Jim]

Jen wrote: "I am popping in here, having not read through the thread yet, to say i've finished part 1 (now well into part 2) and am completely blown away by this book. I don't think anything I've read has made..."

Glad to hear that Nabokov/Humbert are working their black magic so well for you. There is a reason why so many critics and academics rate this among the great novels of the 20th century, and it sounds like you may be joining their ranks.

[Jen]

Jim wrote: "Jen wrote: "I am popping in here, having not read through the thread yet, to say i've finished part 1 (now well into part 2) and am completely blown away by this book. I don't think anything I've r..."

'Black magic' is an apt description, Jim! I look forward to learning more from those lectures you posted. This strikes me as a powerful social commentary and I'd like to hear what the scholars have to say on that.

[Zadignose]

I haven't been disappointed by much in the book so far, and mostly the book has greatly exceeded my expectations. I personally can't imagine finding anything in the book tedious. If the reader has any element of sociopathy or extreme cynicism (granted, there may be some readers who don't have these qualities), then it's easy to be entertained by virtually every paragraph.

One level on which I appreciated the book is the degree to which it's a constant frustration to Humbert. Even in his realization of his darkest fantasies, when he's truly reached his goal, there's frustration and a heaping measure of hell in it for him.

Regarding his *not* drowning Mrs. Hazebert, I appreciated that scene and all that went through his mind, and the fact that he fundamentally was not capable of going through with his desired plan. Generally, I like the fact that he is largely controlled by the social roles he has established in his relations with women. 90% of the time, the worst of what he's "capable of" is mere thought. I liked his admission that the image he'd developed for himself in the early days as boarder in Mrs. Haze's house put him into the position of having to maintain the role he's created. I.e., he's a very inhibited person, and the barriers to his action are largely illusory. It's similar to his earlier relationship with his first wife, whom he'd have liked to slap around, ("To beat her up in the street, there and then, as an honest vulgarian might have done, was not feasible") but is reduced to having to endure her boyfriend's presence in their apartment as she gathers up everything to move out... and is degraded by the man's pissing in his toilet and not flushing... Humbert had had the fantasy of punishing his wife's legs a bit... it was a kind of Doestoevskian dilemma, I think, rather like how the protagonist in Notes from Underground spends months planning how to carry out his revenge plot of bumping into his enemy's shoulder and not apologizing. It's so horribly petty and painful in its pathos... the kind of thought process that one generally does not admit to. But so it goes. Until nearly the end of Part One in Lolita, Humbert's horrible nature is entirely in his thoughts, not his actions. But we are privy to his thoughts.

My ideas are kind of disjointed at the moment, I'm not really assembling quite what I have to say about it. Instead, here are some zingers to enjoy in memory:

"The plump, glossy little Eskimo girls with their fish smell, hideous raven hair and guinea pig faces, evoked even less desire in me than Dr. Johnson had. Nymphets do not occur in polar regions."

Also, I love his alternating self image. He routinely refers to his rugged handsomeness, and portrays himself as a dreamboat, but occasionally runs himself down as Lolita might see him: "I am lanky, big-boned, woolly-chested Humbert Humbert, with thick black eyebrows and a queer accent, and a cesspoolful of rotting monsters behind his slow boyish smile."

Great moment (as Lolita rushes up to say goodbye before going off to camp): "My heart expanded with such force that it almost blotted me out. I hitched up the pants of my pajamas, flung the door open: and simultaneously Lolita arrived, in her Sunday frock, stamping, panting, and she was in my arms, her innocent mouth melting under the ferocious pressure of dark male jaws, my palpitating darling! The next instant I hear her--alive, unraped-- clatter downstairs. The motion of fate was resumed."

LOL to the hitching up of the pajamas. And how generous of him to leave her alive and unraped. So, we can see of course how utterly innocent he is.

Interesting foreshadow... or hint that Charlotte suspects the truth deep down... in her letter of proposal: "...if, after reading my 'confession,' you decided, in your dark romantic European way, that I am attractive enough for you to take advantage of my letter and make a pass at me, then you would be a criminal--worse than a kidnapper who rapes a child..."

His bitter and cruel descriptions are amazing, as in the case of Jean Farlow, with her carved-Indian handsomeness, her red polyp lips, barking laugh, dull teeth and pale gums, history of miscarriages and as-yet-undetected fatal cancer. What's further amazing is how his bitterness is even directed at inanimate objects, such as a fire hydrant, if that's his mood:

"A hideous thing, really, painted a thick silver and red, extending the red stumps of its arms to be varnished by the rain which like stylized blood dripped upon its argent chains. No wonder that stopping beside those nightmare cripples is taboo."

Ah, one more reflection. I think the book shows real psychological insight, (and the calculation based on knowing this is very damning for Humbert), that the author recognizes the need to dangle little promises of "fun" in front of Lolita--though the fun is hardly much to get worked up about--just to help her maintain the will to live. The passion does not hide the glimpses of cruelty, and the hell in the book doesn't scream, but it is an insidious and painful presence that lurks behind the tomfoolery.

[Tracy]

Zadignose wrote: "I haven't been disappointed by much in the book so far, and mostly the book has greatly exceeded my expectations. I personally can't imagine finding anything in the book tedious. If the reader has ..."

Funny, how when I see excerpts from this book, they always appear as brilliant, multi-dimensional diamonds--there is no denying the loveliness and high quality of the writing and insight. Zad, you picked some great ones, some of my favorites.I too was taken with his descriptions ,as you say, so bitter and projectorial, I would add, of others, especially the women around him. He can make you picture them in your mind's eye with great detail in two sentences, like the one you chose of Jean. You want to say, I've seen that woman, at the market, on a sidewalk in NOHO, at a meeting sitting two seats away, somewhere!

I don't know if anyone else thought this, but when he made these almost cartoonish, bluntly subjective descriptions--like Sardi's caricatures, almost at times--I wondered if I was really in the presence of this person would I see them that way? It's part of the layering nature of this book, I think.

I too liked the description of the poor little hydrants---great insights you gave into our narrator!

[Alex]

Hi Jim,

Would you elaborate on what you mean by "He drops it into a sentence with no inflection."

Thanks

[Jim]

Alex wrote: "Hi Jim,

Would you elaborate on what you mean by "He drops it into a sentence with no inflection."

Thanks"

I can't locate a good example at the moment, but something like this from Part One, chapter 5:

Taboos strangulated me. Psychoanalysts wooed me with pseudoliberations and pseudolibidoes. The fact that to me the only objects of amorous tremor were sisters of Annabel's,

He mentions his experiences in therapy very briefly, when he mentions it at all. There is an exception in Part One, chapter nine, last paragraph where he details one stay at a sanatorium and his intentional manipulation of the doctors.

And so, what I mean is he leaves many hints about his psychological state without necessarily expanding on what the hints might mean.

[Tracy]

So. What if...we are all wrong about the people INSIDE the sanitariums. ??

[Zadignose]

Tracy wrote: "So. What if...we are all wrong about the people INSIDE the sanitariums. ??"

We probably are, but they're more wrong about us, so fair is fair.

[Tracy]

Zadignose wrote: "Tracy wrote: "So. What if...we are all wrong about the people INSIDE the sanitariums. ??"

We probably are, but they're more wrong about us, so fair is fair."

xaaxaxaxa. (Russian laugh....).