Subject
Hairy hermaphrodite thanks (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Susan Elizabeth Sweeney <ssweeney@holycross.edu>
Thanks to everyone who responded to my query. I appreciate the readings
advanced by Tom Bolt, Marilyn Edelstein, and others. Certainly,
"gratuitous congress" has always implied masturbation to me; on the other
hand, "small" and "a total stranger," no matter how funny it is, doesn't
seem to refer to Humbert's hand. I am especially grateful for the
thoughtful comments of Kurt Johnson, whose book I had just begun reading
that very morning. Perhaps the best answer is his suggestion (expressed
somewhat differently in Marilyn's Freudian reading) that entomology and
human sexuality are both equally present here.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this!
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
English Department
Holy Cross College
ssweeney@holycross.edu
Thanks to everyone who responded to my query. I appreciate the readings
advanced by Tom Bolt, Marilyn Edelstein, and others. Certainly,
"gratuitous congress" has always implied masturbation to me; on the other
hand, "small" and "a total stranger," no matter how funny it is, doesn't
seem to refer to Humbert's hand. I am especially grateful for the
thoughtful comments of Kurt Johnson, whose book I had just begun reading
that very morning. Perhaps the best answer is his suggestion (expressed
somewhat differently in Marilyn's Freudian reading) that entomology and
human sexuality are both equally present here.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this!
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
English Department
Holy Cross College
ssweeney@holycross.edu