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Fw: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Stringer-Hye, Suellen" <suellen.stringer-hye@vanderbilt.edu>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (112
lines) ------------------
> or how about Humbert's girlfriend Rita, always outside but fatally
> drawn to Grainball City or Rita's Norman Vincent Peal brother for
> whom everything is "great"? These two always seem almost
> preternaturally observed to me.
>
> --On Monday, December 15, 2003 10:33 AM -0800 "D. Barton Johnson"
> <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
> >>
> >> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (72
> > lines) ------------------
> >> I'm no literary scholar, but wouldn't the picaresque be a
> >> subcategory of
> > the
> >> "quest", so to speak? Some of the most ancient literature we
> >> have relates the tale of the hero's journey to a far land, and
> >> the adventures the
> > befell
> >> him or them along the way: The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey,
> >> The Aneied, the Pentateuch, many of the Sagas, etc. It seems
> >> that people have been
> > "on
> >> the road," and writing about it, for a long time. And I wholly
> >> agree that it is very curious that any immigrant should write
> >> one of the quintessentially "American" novels, but that is
> >> exactly what VN did. The achievement is quite amazing, but, of
> >> course, the readers of this list
> > would
> >> probably need no convincing of that. Apparently VN netted the
> >> whole
> > country
> >> during those yearly butterfly hunts, and pinned it to the board
> >> in Lolita. I've always been particularly impressed with
> >> Charlotte: VN absolutely
> > NAILS
> >> her character, which, while perhaps universal in form, is as
> >> American as April in Arizona in its details. How did he do it?
> >> Lo' makes a little
> > more
> >> sense, but where did VN meet Lotte's prototypes? Was it during
> >> his
> > reading
> >> tours of women's book clubs, described by Brian Boyd? If so, it
> >> speaks volumes for VN's powers of observation that from these
> >> brief encounters he obtained the information necessary to make
> >> it appear, in the creation of Charlotte Haze, that he had been
> >> around such women all his life. Remarkable.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> >> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 3:46 PM
> >> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> >> Subject: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
> >>
> >>
> >> EDNOTE. The "road novel" exchange set me to musing. My first
> >> thought was that it was a major AMERICAN ( or primarily so)
> >> genre probably connected with the early predominance of the car
> >> in U.S. life. And how curious that one of its preeminent
> >> examplars would be by a Russian emigre to the U.S. That aspect
> >> of LOLITA derived of course from VN's butterfly expeditions
> > west
> >> (driven by Vera). The Nabokovs never had a car in Europe and
> >> always travelled by train. I suspect a set if subdefinitions are
> >> in order. Subcategory of the picaresque? Quixote? Gogol's Dead
> >> Souls?
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
> >> To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> >
> >> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (29
> >> lines) ------------------
> >> > If the definition is stretched but a little, even "Huckleberry
> >> > Finn" and "Moby Dick" might be described as "road novels"
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (16
> >> > lines) ------------------
> >> > > Dear Don and List,
> >> > >
> >> > > There must be thousands of "road novels," and hundreds with
> >> > > roadside culture and motels in them. When cornered, even
> >> > > Rabbit Angstrom took to
> >> > the
> >> > > road, like Kerouac and Cassady. There are probably dozens of
> >> > "transgressive
> >> > > sex road novels." Movies too; one thinks of "Easy Rider,"
> >> > > "Sugarland Express," or "Thelma and Louise." After all, in
> >> > > the USA, where's the only place you can go when your dirty
> >> > > secret forces you to get out of town? I believe that
> >> > > Patricia Highsmith could never have been VN's muse -- not
> >> > even
> >> > > as Yolande Kickshaw!
> >> > >
> >> > > Regards,
> >> > >
> >> > > Tom (Rymour)
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Stringer-Hye, Suellen
> Vanderbilt University
> Email: suellen.stringer-hye@Vanderbilt.Edu
From: "Stringer-Hye, Suellen" <suellen.stringer-hye@vanderbilt.edu>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (112
lines) ------------------
> or how about Humbert's girlfriend Rita, always outside but fatally
> drawn to Grainball City or Rita's Norman Vincent Peal brother for
> whom everything is "great"? These two always seem almost
> preternaturally observed to me.
>
> --On Monday, December 15, 2003 10:33 AM -0800 "D. Barton Johnson"
> <chtodel@cox.net> wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
> >>
> >> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (72
> > lines) ------------------
> >> I'm no literary scholar, but wouldn't the picaresque be a
> >> subcategory of
> > the
> >> "quest", so to speak? Some of the most ancient literature we
> >> have relates the tale of the hero's journey to a far land, and
> >> the adventures the
> > befell
> >> him or them along the way: The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey,
> >> The Aneied, the Pentateuch, many of the Sagas, etc. It seems
> >> that people have been
> > "on
> >> the road," and writing about it, for a long time. And I wholly
> >> agree that it is very curious that any immigrant should write
> >> one of the quintessentially "American" novels, but that is
> >> exactly what VN did. The achievement is quite amazing, but, of
> >> course, the readers of this list
> > would
> >> probably need no convincing of that. Apparently VN netted the
> >> whole
> > country
> >> during those yearly butterfly hunts, and pinned it to the board
> >> in Lolita. I've always been particularly impressed with
> >> Charlotte: VN absolutely
> > NAILS
> >> her character, which, while perhaps universal in form, is as
> >> American as April in Arizona in its details. How did he do it?
> >> Lo' makes a little
> > more
> >> sense, but where did VN meet Lotte's prototypes? Was it during
> >> his
> > reading
> >> tours of women's book clubs, described by Brian Boyd? If so, it
> >> speaks volumes for VN's powers of observation that from these
> >> brief encounters he obtained the information necessary to make
> >> it appear, in the creation of Charlotte Haze, that he had been
> >> around such women all his life. Remarkable.
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> >> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 3:46 PM
> >> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> >> Subject: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
> >>
> >>
> >> EDNOTE. The "road novel" exchange set me to musing. My first
> >> thought was that it was a major AMERICAN ( or primarily so)
> >> genre probably connected with the early predominance of the car
> >> in U.S. life. And how curious that one of its preeminent
> >> examplars would be by a Russian emigre to the U.S. That aspect
> >> of LOLITA derived of course from VN's butterfly expeditions
> > west
> >> (driven by Vera). The Nabokovs never had a car in Europe and
> >> always travelled by train. I suspect a set if subdefinitions are
> >> in order. Subcategory of the picaresque? Quixote? Gogol's Dead
> >> Souls?
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
> >> To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >> >
> >> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (29
> >> lines) ------------------
> >> > If the definition is stretched but a little, even "Huckleberry
> >> > Finn" and "Moby Dick" might be described as "road novels"
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (16
> >> > lines) ------------------
> >> > > Dear Don and List,
> >> > >
> >> > > There must be thousands of "road novels," and hundreds with
> >> > > roadside culture and motels in them. When cornered, even
> >> > > Rabbit Angstrom took to
> >> > the
> >> > > road, like Kerouac and Cassady. There are probably dozens of
> >> > "transgressive
> >> > > sex road novels." Movies too; one thinks of "Easy Rider,"
> >> > > "Sugarland Express," or "Thelma and Louise." After all, in
> >> > > the USA, where's the only place you can go when your dirty
> >> > > secret forces you to get out of town? I believe that
> >> > > Patricia Highsmith could never have been VN's muse -- not
> >> > even
> >> > > as Yolande Kickshaw!
> >> > >
> >> > > Regards,
> >> > >
> >> > > Tom (Rymour)
> >> > >
> >> > >
> >>
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Stringer-Hye, Suellen
> Vanderbilt University
> Email: suellen.stringer-hye@Vanderbilt.Edu