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From: T. Chapman Wing <tcwing@students.wisc.edu>
Assuming that the year of Annabel's incarnation in Lolita was when
Lolita was at the age of 12, it seems to me the summer must've been in
1922. If you draw a timeline and mark it with four points, [A] Humbert's
birth being the first point (1910), [B] the summer being the second point,
[C] Lolita's birth being the third point, and [D] Lolita's 12th year being
the last, you can solve it geometrically. Clue #1, "As many years before
Lolita was born as my age was that summer," tells us that the length of
line segment AB = BC. Clue #3, Lolita's 12th year was 24 years after that
summer (my assumption), tells us that segment BD = 24. Since we know that
Lolita was 12, (Clue #4), then we know that segment CD = 12. So, since BC
+ CD = 24 and CD = 12, BC = 12. Since BC = AB, then Humbert must've been
12 during that summer, 12 years after 1920 = 1922.
Obviously, since AB + BC = 24, Lolita must've been born in 1934,
and was 12 in 1946. If the book is supposed to be published in accordance
with the story's timeline (c. 1958), and Lolita is to have died when the
book is published, then there are further questions. Is she supposed to
have died by age 24? Or, if you accept hypotheses about Lolita's actually
dying in the course of the novel, the "authorities" (the forces outside of
Humbert Humbert, such as John Ray, Jr.), then this isn't quite as difficult
to reconcile.
I hope I haven't made any grave oversights or flaws in my reasoning
. . . ?
T. Chapman Wing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 264-3622
tcwing@students.wisc.edu
Assuming that the year of Annabel's incarnation in Lolita was when
Lolita was at the age of 12, it seems to me the summer must've been in
1922. If you draw a timeline and mark it with four points, [A] Humbert's
birth being the first point (1910), [B] the summer being the second point,
[C] Lolita's birth being the third point, and [D] Lolita's 12th year being
the last, you can solve it geometrically. Clue #1, "As many years before
Lolita was born as my age was that summer," tells us that the length of
line segment AB = BC. Clue #3, Lolita's 12th year was 24 years after that
summer (my assumption), tells us that segment BD = 24. Since we know that
Lolita was 12, (Clue #4), then we know that segment CD = 12. So, since BC
+ CD = 24 and CD = 12, BC = 12. Since BC = AB, then Humbert must've been
12 during that summer, 12 years after 1920 = 1922.
Obviously, since AB + BC = 24, Lolita must've been born in 1934,
and was 12 in 1946. If the book is supposed to be published in accordance
with the story's timeline (c. 1958), and Lolita is to have died when the
book is published, then there are further questions. Is she supposed to
have died by age 24? Or, if you accept hypotheses about Lolita's actually
dying in the course of the novel, the "authorities" (the forces outside of
Humbert Humbert, such as John Ray, Jr.), then this isn't quite as difficult
to reconcile.
I hope I haven't made any grave oversights or flaws in my reasoning
. . . ?
T. Chapman Wing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 264-3622
tcwing@students.wisc.edu