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Re: Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls
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HH never denied his guilt or shame.......the remorse is all over the book, o, careless reader to paraphrase the Master.
-----Original Message-----
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sun, Feb 26, 2012 3:09 pm
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls
[Apologies, re-posting this with correctedsubject line--SB]
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls ...
From:
<STADLEN@aol.com>
Date:
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:13:13 -0500
To:
<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
The point is that, if Humbert were truly repentant, either afterhearing the children's voices, or, later, after visiting Mrs Schiller,he would not immediately rush off to murder another pervert whom, bythe narcissism of small differences, he judges to be infinitely morecriminal than himself (Clare Quilty is the pseudonym he giveshim, "clearly guilty"). In his splendid poem imitating Eliot's AshWednesday which Humbert hands to Quilty, he accuses Quilty oftaking advantage of Humbert, who is, admittedly, a "sinner", but a"sinner" who is at a "disadvantage", namely, his "inner / essentialinnocence". Humbert does not even claim to be justly ridding the worldof an evil man, but, rather, makes the point that Quilty has to diebecause he has "cheated" Humbert.
Nabokov thought Eliot a "fake". He could hardly make it more plainthat he thinks Humbert's self-justification, his phoney repentancewhich justifies murder, is also fake. And not just fake, but far, farworse. Eliot was bad to his first wife, but he was not a child rapistor murderer.
Note that Humbert, in gaol, says that he would give himself a longsentence for his crime against Lolita, but would "dismiss the othercharges". Does anyone suppose that Nabokov endorses this trivialisingof murder, even the murder of a bad man like Quilty? Nabokov knew whatmurder was. I need not spell out why. I well remember one of the firstEnglish reviews of "Lolita", I think in the New Statesman, bythe fine critic V. S. Pritchett, who wrote: "Mr Nabokov's murder ishorrible. Murder is horrible." (I quote from memory, but thisis almost exact, I think.) If Nabokov thought Raskolnikov was a "filthymurderer", then why would he not have thought the same of Humbert?
I agree with Jansy Mello that the passage she quotes is, togetherwith the passage about the children's voices, the closest Humbert getsto the truth of what he has done to Lolita. But if we, as readers, endup accepting his rationalisation of his murder, then are we not justsettling for a kind of frivolous pornography? Nabokov's "aestheticbliss" is not amoral. Rather, his position seems akin to Wittgenstein'sin the Tractatus, that "ethics and aesthetics are one". Notfor nothing did Nabokov envisage the "reappraiser" who would see him asa "rigid moralist". We should not let his wonderful humour mislead us.
Anthony Stadlen
AnthonyStadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of theInner Circle Seminars: an ethical, existential, phenomenological searchfor truth in psychotherapy
See "Existential Psychotherapy & InnerCircle Seminars" at http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/for programme of future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive ofpast seminars
Isn't Quilty guilty (sorry) of the samecrimes as Humbert, or worse? Even Lo eventually finds C. Q. a littletoo creepy and abandons him. I don't know that I'd call the murder ofQuilty "filthy" or even most foul and unnatural--as these things go. I'm not sure that I quite understand your initial question. Frankly,I'd find it easier to shoot Frank Langella than Peter Sellars, if achoice had to be made. I think a one-day parole is fair enough for H.H.
RSG
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-----Original Message-----
From: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sun, Feb 26, 2012 3:09 pm
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls
[Apologies, re-posting this with correctedsubject line--SB]
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls ...
From:
<STADLEN@aol.com>
Date:
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:13:13 -0500
To:
<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
The point is that, if Humbert were truly repentant, either afterhearing the children's voices, or, later, after visiting Mrs Schiller,he would not immediately rush off to murder another pervert whom, bythe narcissism of small differences, he judges to be infinitely morecriminal than himself (Clare Quilty is the pseudonym he giveshim, "clearly guilty"). In his splendid poem imitating Eliot's AshWednesday which Humbert hands to Quilty, he accuses Quilty oftaking advantage of Humbert, who is, admittedly, a "sinner", but a"sinner" who is at a "disadvantage", namely, his "inner / essentialinnocence". Humbert does not even claim to be justly ridding the worldof an evil man, but, rather, makes the point that Quilty has to diebecause he has "cheated" Humbert.
Nabokov thought Eliot a "fake". He could hardly make it more plainthat he thinks Humbert's self-justification, his phoney repentancewhich justifies murder, is also fake. And not just fake, but far, farworse. Eliot was bad to his first wife, but he was not a child rapistor murderer.
Note that Humbert, in gaol, says that he would give himself a longsentence for his crime against Lolita, but would "dismiss the othercharges". Does anyone suppose that Nabokov endorses this trivialisingof murder, even the murder of a bad man like Quilty? Nabokov knew whatmurder was. I need not spell out why. I well remember one of the firstEnglish reviews of "Lolita", I think in the New Statesman, bythe fine critic V. S. Pritchett, who wrote: "Mr Nabokov's murder ishorrible. Murder is horrible." (I quote from memory, but thisis almost exact, I think.) If Nabokov thought Raskolnikov was a "filthymurderer", then why would he not have thought the same of Humbert?
I agree with Jansy Mello that the passage she quotes is, togetherwith the passage about the children's voices, the closest Humbert getsto the truth of what he has done to Lolita. But if we, as readers, endup accepting his rationalisation of his murder, then are we not justsettling for a kind of frivolous pornography? Nabokov's "aestheticbliss" is not amoral. Rather, his position seems akin to Wittgenstein'sin the Tractatus, that "ethics and aesthetics are one". Notfor nothing did Nabokov envisage the "reappraiser" who would see him asa "rigid moralist". We should not let his wonderful humour mislead us.
Anthony Stadlen
AnthonyStadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of theInner Circle Seminars: an ethical, existential, phenomenological searchfor truth in psychotherapy
See "Existential Psychotherapy & InnerCircle Seminars" at http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/for programme of future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive ofpast seminars
Isn't Quilty guilty (sorry) of the samecrimes as Humbert, or worse? Even Lo eventually finds C. Q. a littletoo creepy and abandons him. I don't know that I'd call the murder ofQuilty "filthy" or even most foul and unnatural--as these things go. I'm not sure that I quite understand your initial question. Frankly,I'd find it easier to shoot Frank Langella than Peter Sellars, if achoice had to be made. I think a one-day parole is fair enough for H.H.
RSG
Google Search the archive
Contact the Editors
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla
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All private editorial communications areread by both co-editors.
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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