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Fw: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (136
lines) ------------------
> Absolutely. And the Farlows as well. And Mona: haven't we all known a
> Mona, or two, at school? The characters are superbly drawn throughout.
But
> something about Charlotte has always seemed extraordinary to me. I'm sure
> someone has pointed this out before, but Charlotte seems to haunt Lolita
in
> much the same way that Hazel Shade haunts Pale Fire (well, actually, HH
> does.) To me, that is one of the things that makes HH's final meeting
with
> pregnant Lo so moving: I believe HH begins to realize that he really did
> love Charlotte, after his fashion, but was deceived in this, as in so many
> other things, because had been sketching the bars of his cage to the
> exclusion of all else.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 12:47 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
>
>
> ----- 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 that
> > > 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: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
>
> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (136
lines) ------------------
> Absolutely. And the Farlows as well. And Mona: haven't we all known a
> Mona, or two, at school? The characters are superbly drawn throughout.
But
> something about Charlotte has always seemed extraordinary to me. I'm sure
> someone has pointed this out before, but Charlotte seems to haunt Lolita
in
> much the same way that Hazel Shade haunts Pale Fire (well, actually, HH
> does.) To me, that is one of the things that makes HH's final meeting
with
> pregnant Lo so moving: I believe HH begins to realize that he really did
> love Charlotte, after his fashion, but was deceived in this, as in so many
> other things, because had been sketching the bars of his cage to the
> exclusion of all else.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 12:47 PM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: Fw: Patricia Highsmith and Lolita's road trip
>
>
> ----- 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 that
> > > 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