Subject
Re: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd) (fwd)
From
Date
Body
------------------ I've always tended to take the teasing/mocking
interpretation, but with an edge to it. Lo knows from the start that HH is
susceptible, if not to guilt, at least to a terror of the cops. She watches
his awareness of his criminality grow, and she learns how to "work" it,
just as she ultimately learns how to put a car in gear. She first witnesses
HH's fear when a motorcycle cop pulls up beside them just as Lolita pushes
discretion to the limit in a big-screen-style kiss. The next morning, that
of the initial rape at the Hunters, HH is frightened enough to
painstakingly rearrange the bed before the arrival of the housekeeper (the
famous ex-con's saturnalia line). At this point, though, Lo is still
playing. Toward the end of her captivity, though, when she is sickened and
disgusted, she amuses herself by imitating her captor's "tic nerveux." The
power is shifting. HH is shaken at finding how thin the walls of the
cheaper motels are when he hears a man cough next door. He pictures post
office Wanted posters morphing into an image of his own face. He is not
chasing his pleasures as often as he is chasing pills with liquor. In
comparison with the cosmopolitan scholar, unsophisticated Lo has a
pathetically small arsenal of weapons. But she at least has the instinct,
and the guts, to tweak the madman's fear of the cops every chance she gets.
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd)
> ------------------ I'm thankful for all the comments that my own, perhaps
> ill-judged/expressed thought elicited, but perhaps that thought was
> itself too 'throwaway', so I'll have another go:
>
> What I was really trying to get across is that it seems to me that
> Lolita is referring to the rape in a playful or teasing way, which comes
> across as unrealistic to me, and indeed shocking, even though, as
> another lister has commented, it isn't the first such reference. But of
> course this is all filtered through the unreliable HH. Lolita may well
> be more sophisticated psychologically than HH is willing to admit,
> because he belittles her so much at every opportunty, but, on the other
> hand, we never get inside her head (we can't, of course, because of the
> way the narrative is structured). So how much of this is really Lolita
> saying it and saying it in this way (I guess this is my question)? I
> hope this goes some way to explaining why the (to me) casual reference to
> rape caught my attention so much, given that it occurs in a novel which
> is by its very subject matter jam-packed with still rather shocking
> (because so bold and unfettered) statements and desires. Having said all
> that, _Lolita_ is in many ways pretty non-explicit in its descriptions
> (please allow for the fact that my re-reading has only taken me just
> over two thirds of the way), and I may as well add that not the least of
> Nabokov's skill lies in finding so many ways to express HH's overriding
> aim and desire in so many different ways in almost every paragraph.
>
> Brian Howell
> --------------------------
> ED. I'm inclined to agree with Brian's "teasing/mocking" take. Readers are
> inclined to be "over protective" of LO. In part she may regard the night
> with HUM as a game much like her sport with Charly at Camp Climax.
>
>
>
> On Thu, 8 Jul 2004 21:54:05 -0700, "D. Barton Johnson"
> <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu> said:
> > ---------- Forwarded Message ----------
> > Date: Friday, July 09, 2004 12:10 AM -0400
> > From: STADLEN@aol.com Anthony Stadlen
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Re: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd) (fwd) (fwd)
> >
> > In a message dated 08/07/2004 19:47:09 GMT Standard Time,
> > chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu writes:
> >
> >
> > Of course Lo asks the question to learn the name of hotel, for the
> > reasons
> > Ms.
> > Krimmel states. But that wasn't the subject of Brian's message. He was
> > remarking on the "oddity" of Lo refering to the "Enchanted Hunters" as
> > the hotel "where you raped me," because he thought such a statement
> > suggested a "strangely mature psychology."
> >
> >
> >
> > But that thought is what is odd. As has been pointed out already, she is
> > speaking no more than the moral and legal truth, surely heightened for
> > her
> > by her knowledge that her stepfather has raped her while knowing, but
not
> > telling her, that her mother was dead.
> >
> > Anthony Stadlen
> >
> > ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
> >
> >
> >
> > D. Barton Johnson
> > NABOKV-L
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L