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Re: Fw: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls ...
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I watched the clips on YouTube a few days ago; it's true that VN doesn't
get overly defensive about defending himself. Instead, he matter-of-factly
states that he has become "something of an expert" on pedophiles, and that
he used his extensive research to create a model for HH, as opposed to
combining the subjects of the case studies into some sort of "composite"
Humbert. Bruce Stone has contributed much food for thought, and I have
saved the Mirranda paper with the intent of finishing my reading of it soon.
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Bruce Stone <bstone41@hotmail.com> wrote:
> It's at this point--when all of the plot is on the brink of
> annihilation--that we have to consider the role of John Ray's Foreword in
> text: it serves as a stay against the kind of existential erosion that RSG
> is describing. Some critics have suggested that John Ray might well be part
> of the deception, that he might simply be another mask for HH, but I'm not
> convinced by this reading. I outline why in my paper in Miranda.
> I recently saw a video clip in which Nabokov, Lionel Trilling and an
> interviewer were discussing the book's controversial subject. That is, they
> were discussing, or maybe dancing around, the basic allegation that the
> criminal interest in young girls belongs to the author and not the
> character. It seemed to me that Nabokov didn't defend himself very
> convincingly (although he does suggest that the murder of CQ is
> unequivocal, a basic fact of the plot). But like many, I see the book
> itself as its own best defense. For one thing, I find it difficult to
> imagine that an actual pedophile would be able to lampoon his obsession so
> scathingly, even hilariously. My sense is that an actual pedophile would be
> utterly humorless about his fantasies.
>
> In fact, this is part of the problem with The Enchanter, the ur-Lolita
> text. Yes, it's a very rough draft, but it's a thoroughgoing failure. If
> Nabokov had left us only this work, then I think his antagonists might have
> a case. But then again, in that event, none of this would be worth talking
> about.
>
> Lolita is "about" much more than pedophilia, obviously: it's a meditation
> on reality, art, and time, and in terms of artistic design, it is nearly
> peerless. The book does require us to attend to its moral dimensions, yes.
> It seems to raise the questions, is Humbert rehabilitated by the novel's
> end? Is it possible for him to love Lolita authentically, as an autonomous
> other? The pathos of the book derives from the asking of these questions.
> The genius of the book lies, at least partly, in its refusal to answer them.
>
> The link to the interview clips:
> http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/02/vladimir-nabokov-and-lionel-trilling-discuss-lolita.html
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:38:18 -0500
> From: Rsgwynn1@CS.COM
> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls
> ...
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
>
>
> "I failed to mention that Humbert Humbert's "Quilty" may be a figment of
> his imagination, one which he creates to represent in his eyes (as
> characters are usually able to think, imagine, hallucinate...) his
> sensation of being chased by "a fiend". Nabokov is not the repulsive
> Quilty, as I seemed to have implied, but he is certainly HH's fiend (rather
> unlike the corrupt evil Clare Quilty of HH's hallucinations)."
>
> *RSGwynn: *If one accepts that CQ may be merely a figment of HH's
> imagination, why not go whole hog and assume that *all* of the events of
> the novel, which we know only from the pov of the perhaps less than
> reliable first-person narrator, are part of the delusion? Why not just
> assume that Lolita herself is the hallucination of a mad pedophile?
> There's no way to disprove this theoretical reading, of course, just as
> there is no way to "prove" that HH has some kind of "reality," given the
> usual conventions of the novel. I think of Krug in *BS* in this regard,
> who the author ("VN") constantly reminds us is nothing more that a
> fictional character subject to the god-like author's "whims and megrims."
> But *Lolita*, as a first-person narrative, does not allow this degree of
> authorial intrusion (though surely it is there, in a subtler way); we are
> stuck with Humbert's version of events, unreliable or not, though we do
> know that he "confesses" his absolute inability to know Lo's mind. My
> feeling is that we should trust (more or less) the "truth" of his
> confession. If we believe that his narration is no more than an inventive
> trope, a mere literary conceit orchestrated by VN, then the whole novel
> dissolves into the irrelevance of a madman's fantasy life and an author's
> playing tricks on us that we have failed to comprehend.
>
> RSG
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>
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>
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>
--
Norky
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get overly defensive about defending himself. Instead, he matter-of-factly
states that he has become "something of an expert" on pedophiles, and that
he used his extensive research to create a model for HH, as opposed to
combining the subjects of the case studies into some sort of "composite"
Humbert. Bruce Stone has contributed much food for thought, and I have
saved the Mirranda paper with the intent of finishing my reading of it soon.
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Bruce Stone <bstone41@hotmail.com> wrote:
> It's at this point--when all of the plot is on the brink of
> annihilation--that we have to consider the role of John Ray's Foreword in
> text: it serves as a stay against the kind of existential erosion that RSG
> is describing. Some critics have suggested that John Ray might well be part
> of the deception, that he might simply be another mask for HH, but I'm not
> convinced by this reading. I outline why in my paper in Miranda.
> I recently saw a video clip in which Nabokov, Lionel Trilling and an
> interviewer were discussing the book's controversial subject. That is, they
> were discussing, or maybe dancing around, the basic allegation that the
> criminal interest in young girls belongs to the author and not the
> character. It seemed to me that Nabokov didn't defend himself very
> convincingly (although he does suggest that the murder of CQ is
> unequivocal, a basic fact of the plot). But like many, I see the book
> itself as its own best defense. For one thing, I find it difficult to
> imagine that an actual pedophile would be able to lampoon his obsession so
> scathingly, even hilariously. My sense is that an actual pedophile would be
> utterly humorless about his fantasies.
>
> In fact, this is part of the problem with The Enchanter, the ur-Lolita
> text. Yes, it's a very rough draft, but it's a thoroughgoing failure. If
> Nabokov had left us only this work, then I think his antagonists might have
> a case. But then again, in that event, none of this would be worth talking
> about.
>
> Lolita is "about" much more than pedophilia, obviously: it's a meditation
> on reality, art, and time, and in terms of artistic design, it is nearly
> peerless. The book does require us to attend to its moral dimensions, yes.
> It seems to raise the questions, is Humbert rehabilitated by the novel's
> end? Is it possible for him to love Lolita authentically, as an autonomous
> other? The pathos of the book derives from the asking of these questions.
> The genius of the book lies, at least partly, in its refusal to answer them.
>
> The link to the interview clips:
> http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/02/vladimir-nabokov-and-lionel-trilling-discuss-lolita.html
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 23:38:18 -0500
> From: Rsgwynn1@CS.COM
> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Fw: [NABOKV-L] Nabokov and Twelve-Year-Old Girls
> ...
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
>
>
> "I failed to mention that Humbert Humbert's "Quilty" may be a figment of
> his imagination, one which he creates to represent in his eyes (as
> characters are usually able to think, imagine, hallucinate...) his
> sensation of being chased by "a fiend". Nabokov is not the repulsive
> Quilty, as I seemed to have implied, but he is certainly HH's fiend (rather
> unlike the corrupt evil Clare Quilty of HH's hallucinations)."
>
> *RSGwynn: *If one accepts that CQ may be merely a figment of HH's
> imagination, why not go whole hog and assume that *all* of the events of
> the novel, which we know only from the pov of the perhaps less than
> reliable first-person narrator, are part of the delusion? Why not just
> assume that Lolita herself is the hallucination of a mad pedophile?
> There's no way to disprove this theoretical reading, of course, just as
> there is no way to "prove" that HH has some kind of "reality," given the
> usual conventions of the novel. I think of Krug in *BS* in this regard,
> who the author ("VN") constantly reminds us is nothing more that a
> fictional character subject to the god-like author's "whims and megrims."
> But *Lolita*, as a first-person narrative, does not allow this degree of
> authorial intrusion (though surely it is there, in a subtler way); we are
> stuck with Humbert's version of events, unreliable or not, though we do
> know that he "confesses" his absolute inability to know Lo's mind. My
> feeling is that we should trust (more or less) the "truth" of his
> confession. If we believe that his narration is no more than an inventive
> trope, a mere literary conceit orchestrated by VN, then the whole novel
> dissolves into the irrelevance of a madman's fantasy life and an author's
> playing tricks on us that we have failed to comprehend.
>
> RSG
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
> Google Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/> Visit AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> View
> NSJ Ada Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> Temporary
> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l%40utk.edu>
>
> ****All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
--
Norky
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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