Subject
Re: Fwd: Re: BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nabokov's Lolita Riddle by Joanne
Morgan
Morgan
From
Date
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----- Forwarded message from jomorgan@VTOWN.COM.AU -----
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:21:07 -0700
From: Jo Morgan <jomorgan@VTOWN.COM.AU>
Reply-To: Jo Morgan <jomorgan@VTOWN.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nabokov's Lolita Riddle by Joanne
Morgan
To:
I have only just joined the list and noticed the comments made by Don
Johnson and Jansy Berndt de Sousa Mello re my recently published
book 'Solving Nabokov's Lolita Riddle' (2005).
Firstly, thank you for your response to George Shimanovich, Don. I'm afraid
I didn't know quite what to say to George myself, as his comments appeared
to be quite personal. I was momentarily concerned that drawing attention to
my work via this list would result in a deluge of hate mail.
Secondly re comments made by Jansy - can I just say that Nabokov did quite
explicitly say that he had put a riddle in Lolita. (I am not making this
up.) He did so when interviewed by BBC TV in 1962 and later, when
interviewed by Alvin Toffler for Playboy magazine in 1964. While many
people (scholars, Nabokov readers/fans etc) may recoil in horror at the
idea of Nabokov pulling such a disastrous gender-bending trick in Lolita,
it is also important to keep in mind that Nabokov was fascinated by the
cosmic vibrations attached to 'fatidic dates.' In his memoirs he noted in
particular that he shared the birth date April 23 with that gender-bending
playwright William Shakespeare, as well as Shirley Temple. In his
posthumously published 'review' article "On Conclusive Evidence" Nabokov
also stated (and I quote):
"One cannot but respect the amount of retrospective acumen and creative
concentration that the author had to summon in order to plan his book
according to the way his life had been planned by unknown players of games,
and never to swerve from that plan."
In the 'quibbling Gnostic' answer he gave to Toffler about God, Nabokov
also insisted that he knew more than he was able to express - this suggests
that the author was privy to information about his hidden moral project
that he did not (or was not able) to share with the public at large.
Can I just say, also, that my book is very much concerned with child
protection. It attempts to cast further insight into Humbert's 'affliction'
by integrating scientific insights into the distorted realities experienced
by pedophiles - in particular their propensity to see children as
intentional 'seducers.' I believe that within Lolita Nabokov was trying to
warn about this kind of solipsistic reality - a reality that he was himself
trapped by as a boy.
I would urge people on the list to have a read of my book before jumping to
too many conclusions. My website is meant merely to remind the public about
Nabokov's largely forgotten Lolita riddle, to analyse his Wonderland chess
duel against Lewis Carroll (whose primary aim is to protect the pawn-child
from being 'queened' or molested at the end of the board by the incestuous
black knight) and to provide supportive documentation (scans) re Nabokov's
ingenious strategy of confessional and highly deliberate 'Freudian slips.'
The website reflects only only small aspects of my entire research.
Jo Morgan
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:21:07 -0700
From: Jo Morgan <jomorgan@VTOWN.COM.AU>
Reply-To: Jo Morgan <jomorgan@VTOWN.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nabokov's Lolita Riddle by Joanne
Morgan
To:
I have only just joined the list and noticed the comments made by Don
Johnson and Jansy Berndt de Sousa Mello re my recently published
book 'Solving Nabokov's Lolita Riddle' (2005).
Firstly, thank you for your response to George Shimanovich, Don. I'm afraid
I didn't know quite what to say to George myself, as his comments appeared
to be quite personal. I was momentarily concerned that drawing attention to
my work via this list would result in a deluge of hate mail.
Secondly re comments made by Jansy - can I just say that Nabokov did quite
explicitly say that he had put a riddle in Lolita. (I am not making this
up.) He did so when interviewed by BBC TV in 1962 and later, when
interviewed by Alvin Toffler for Playboy magazine in 1964. While many
people (scholars, Nabokov readers/fans etc) may recoil in horror at the
idea of Nabokov pulling such a disastrous gender-bending trick in Lolita,
it is also important to keep in mind that Nabokov was fascinated by the
cosmic vibrations attached to 'fatidic dates.' In his memoirs he noted in
particular that he shared the birth date April 23 with that gender-bending
playwright William Shakespeare, as well as Shirley Temple. In his
posthumously published 'review' article "On Conclusive Evidence" Nabokov
also stated (and I quote):
"One cannot but respect the amount of retrospective acumen and creative
concentration that the author had to summon in order to plan his book
according to the way his life had been planned by unknown players of games,
and never to swerve from that plan."
In the 'quibbling Gnostic' answer he gave to Toffler about God, Nabokov
also insisted that he knew more than he was able to express - this suggests
that the author was privy to information about his hidden moral project
that he did not (or was not able) to share with the public at large.
Can I just say, also, that my book is very much concerned with child
protection. It attempts to cast further insight into Humbert's 'affliction'
by integrating scientific insights into the distorted realities experienced
by pedophiles - in particular their propensity to see children as
intentional 'seducers.' I believe that within Lolita Nabokov was trying to
warn about this kind of solipsistic reality - a reality that he was himself
trapped by as a boy.
I would urge people on the list to have a read of my book before jumping to
too many conclusions. My website is meant merely to remind the public about
Nabokov's largely forgotten Lolita riddle, to analyse his Wonderland chess
duel against Lewis Carroll (whose primary aim is to protect the pawn-child
from being 'queened' or molested at the end of the board by the incestuous
black knight) and to provide supportive documentation (scans) re Nabokov's
ingenious strategy of confessional and highly deliberate 'Freudian slips.'
The website reflects only only small aspects of my entire research.
Jo Morgan
----- End forwarded message -----