John Shade Sketch

Here is my best sketch of John Shade. I'm not much of an artist. This took up most of my evening, sad to say. Reference pages, 20, 83, 267, 292 in Pale Fire for descriptions of John Shade's appearance. I put mittens on him because it was cold and I can't draw hands. And I wish I had left room for the snow boots, but I guess you get the idea. I kinda like him. He's supposed to be a large man, but I thought he might appreciate the slimming effect of the coat with the vicuna collar. I was hoping he might look a bit like Nabokov, but no.

*Blog Feed Updating Problem: I tried the solution offered by Kyle and it worked! Go to Kyle's blog for directions.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories

Haroun and the Sea of Stories
http://www.leasttern.com/Haroun/harounques.htm


Dedication Poem

Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
All our dream-worlds may come true.
Fairy lands are fearsome too.
As I wander far from view
Read, and bring me home to you.

Acrostics

Schwarzenegger Sticks It To Assemblyman, Acrostic Style
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/schwarzenegger_sticks_it_to_assemblyman_acrostic_style.php

My dark Vanessa

Line 270: My dark Vanessa

The Red Admirable

Kinbote says, page 173, "I notice a whiff of Swift in some of my notes." Thief!

Amber to Zen

Pale Fire page 83, "Judging by the novels in Mrs. Goldsworth's boudoir, her intellectual interests were fully developed, going as they did from Amber to Zen."

We were told in class to find out what books these could be, Amber - Zen.....by some suggestion I've posted:

Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
"In banning the book, the Massachusetts attorney general had listed 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men, and 49 miscellaneous objectionable passages." read more about Forever Amber here, or click for the wikipedia summary.

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is abducted on the eve of his coronation, and the protagonist, an English gentleman on holiday who fortuitously resembles the monarch, is persuaded to act as his political decoy in an attempt to save the situation. (thank you wikipedia) Hmmmm.....I see this book is about an imposter of sorts.

What do you think? Did Kinbote read them? Did they influence him?

Rosenbaum hits one out of the park!

Please, please read this article Dr. Sexson found. Go to the link and read the article in it's entirety. I just pulled some interesting snippets. It pertains to the lecture we had from Dr. Minton and of course to the class as a whole! Very cool stuff!

The Novel of the Century: Nabokov's Pale Fire by Ron Rosenbaum.
"Pale Fire is the most Shakespearean work of art the 20th century has produced, the only prose fiction that offers Shakespearean levels of depth and complexity, of beauty, tragedy and inexhaustible mystery. One of the achievements of Brian Boyd's book is that he makes explicit the profound way in which Pale Fire is a Shakespearean novel–not just in its global vision and the infinite local reflections in a global eye it offers, but also in the profound way in which Pale Fire is haunted by specific works of Shakespeare, and by Shakespeare himself as Creator."

"Scholars have argued for centuries over the identity and significance of "onlie begetter," but there can be little doubt that the only begetter passage in Pale Fire is one more instance of the way "the underside of the weave" of Pale Fire is shot through with a web of Shakespearean references, the way Pale Fire is dedicated to, haunted by, a work of Shakespeare–and not the most obvious one. The obvious one is Timon of Athens , since it seems at first that Pale Fire takes its title from this amazing passage in Timon , a bitter denunciation of a cosmos of Universal Theft: I'll example you with thievery: The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves The moon into salt tears. God is that great!... And, of course, the theme of theft, all Creation as theft from a greater Creator, is shot through the book and may reflect Nabokov's theft from–at the very least his debt to–Shakespeare"

"Pale Fire is as startling, as stunning, as life-changing as the sudden heart-stopping appearance of a real ghost. And the real ghost that inspires Pale Fire from beyond the grave, the real shade that haunts its reflected sky is not Hazel Shade's, but Shakespeare's Hamlet ."

he steals his silvery light from the sun

Today we will have the one and only, Dr. Gretchen Minton! Speaking to the class about Pale Fire and Timon of Athens. She is needless to say, an expert, or rather the expert, that I know of, on Shakespeare.

I have never read Timon of Athens, and due to limited time in my schedule I looked at the summary of the plot. Click HERE for the summary.
I found this passage while searching around fron Loving Dr. Johnson by Helen Deutsch. And it mentions this theme we talked about in class: theivery, theft, stealing: everybody is a theif. Check this out:

The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction / Robs the vast sea; the moon's an
arrant thief, / And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; / The sea's a thief whose
liquid surge resolves / The moon into salt tears. -Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

"This motif of resemblence as both theft and transformation (staged by Nabokov/Shade's self-conscious borrowing of the passage in the poem with which the novel begins) is rendered deathly by the first lines of the poem "Pale Fire":

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain
By the false azure in the windowpane.

To repeat an image, to borrow its "pale fire," is notonly to
steal but to decieve, with potentially deathly consequences. But while art's
resemblences can kill, they can also transform death." (215).

So theivery is a large part of Pale Fire. There is a problem of origins. Do I sense Harold Bloom.....anxiety of influence? It is my understanding that Timon is upset about universal theivery. While reading Brian Boyd's book, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Boyd reveals many interesting things that I may never have discovered on my own. Although I underlined most every direct mention of Timon of Athens, I hardly thought of it.

In the Zembla story in the closet where the secret door to the tunnel is there is, "a thiry-twomo edition of Timon of Athens translated into Zemblan by his uncle Conmal..."(125). Page 126 there is a "Timon Alley". Then when the Red King readies the closet for his escape, he finds nothing left in the closet, "save for the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken still lying in the corner,"(128). Then when the King has duped the guard and returned to the closet and removes the shelves to get to the tunnel. "an object fell with a miniature thud; he guessed what it was and took it with him as a tailsman" (132). This object could only be the tiny volume of Timon Afinsken.

Boyd also traces Timon of Athens on page 437 of his book linked above. If you think you've missed something while reading Nabokov's Pale Fire, chances are that you have, Brian Boyd does an excellent job catching you up on all that you missed.

I feel a bit overwhelmed, but it is better than feeling underwhelmed. There is so much, and it is nice to know that I am not alone. Happy re-reading, because that is the thing to do. See everyone in class in 20 minutes!!!

Class Notes 10/13

10/13/2009 marked the first day devoted to the discussion of Pale Fire.

Recommended book: Generosity by Richard Powers

Nabokov's idea of art: beauty + pity = art
see page 225 of Pale Fire, the conversation about original sin, the password is pity.
pity can be linked to the word generosity

Blogging Homework: read everyone's 2 pg papers that should be posted on their blogs. Then choose the best one, and write a paragraph or commentary. Don't be offended if yours does not get chosen. Often people choose things because they can relate to it. (My previous blog is my commentary on Jennie Lynn's paper, The Blue Hotel).

many ways to go about reading a text. what do you bring to the text? to illuminate the text.

ALSO, Blog the 6 most annoying things about Kinbote, and we say most annoying because most of Kinbote is annoying.

We began by talking about Pale Fire at a basic level, identifying the parts of the novel.
-the Foreword by Kinbote
-Pale Fire a poem by John Shade, 999 lines, 4 cantos, heroic rhyming couplets.
-Commentary by Kinbote, undertakes to explicate line by line
-Index, A-Z. Last index entry is Zembla, a distant northern land. The commentator truly has the last word.

both John Shade and Nabokov work with note cards.

Another Blog topic suggestion in class was to come to the defence of Kinbote. Poor, misunderstood Kinbote.
Parker called him a pompous dick. Which is not at all an exaggeration. Kinbote seems to have no self awareness.

T.S. Eliot

Talked about theft and stealing. Everybody is a thief, nothing is original.
Waxwing bird has a black mask, suggests thievery....(speaking about waxwing, see my Ode to the Waxwing blog. this guy did a funny youtube video I posted it, also see the picture of the waxwing Joan posted on her blog. Breathtaking).

Themes? -the notion of living on - how do mortals become immortal? - the cage


I think the idea is to have Pale Fire done by Thursday, but I realize, myself included, we might not get it done. I'm a little over halfway done. Happy reading.

Commentary on The Blue Hotel

Jennie Lynn's astute short paper, The Blue Hotel, is about the color blue, that's what you might think, but let me explain what she meant. In fact, I suggest that if you haven't read her paper yet, you should start with reading my commentary here to gain better insight to what she has to say. The last sentence of her first paragraph states,

"In Lolita, red alludes to everything Quilty, everything unhappy; blue to
everything happy, everything Lolita."

This is true, and I thought this sounded familiar, and then I remembered writing something similar to that in my blog, however I deleted that blog because it didn't work with the other things I was talking about. But I'm sure it was something I said in that blog that triggered her paper. I mean blue is my favorite color. According to Wikipedia, "Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory (RYB), the complementary colour to blue is considered to be orange (based on the Munsell colour wheel).[2] The English language commonly uses "blue" to refer to any colour from navy blue to cyan. The word itself is derived from the Old French word bleu." I was just looking through my closet the other day and found that more than half of my clothes are of some shade of blue. I even painted my room blue when I was in high school. I nice deep dark blue that would make me want to sleep in, however I don't sleep in anymore because of school and work. I think I may have mentioned that story to her. And in about the second paragraph Jennie Lynn says,

"Lolita wears blue jeans often. I realize that jeans are common casual wear and
that they are normally blue in color, but Humbert Humbert assigns Lolita’s jeans
a blue with a very different feeling."

Blue jeans really are comfortable and if you refer to what I wrote about the first quote from Jennie Lynn's paper you'll know that my favorite color is blue. She must know too, having written a paper about blue. I think I've seen her wear a blue jean jacket. Blue does happen to be a color choice for my blog color. Perhaps she had been reading my blue blog so much that it helped her to think of the color blue in relation to Lolita. Anyway, blue jeans were such a huge part of my life in high school particularly because they were only cool jeans if they were from the Buckle. And one of the songs I was listening to in high school was More Than a Feeling by Boston. I think I shared this with her after class one day which may have gotten her to think about the feelings one, like Humbert, might have in relation to blue jeans, or the color blue. After re-reading my commentary, and not without pleasure, do I really believe that reading this blog will aide in any first, second, or third reading of Jennie Lynn's insightful paper on the color blue in Lolita.

Ode to Waxwing

I found this on you tube, thought it was good. You'll get it if you've read Pale Fire. The more I look online for Nabokov material, the more I realize how much material is out there. Our Nabokov class blogs are just part of the many many many other blogs dedicated to him. Pretty cool.

Waterproof

Short Paper

Waterproof, the word and moment where the reader realizes they have missed something if they still do not know the name of Lolita’s abductor, Quilty. Waterproof, the word that brings a flash of Hourglass Lake to Humbert’s consciousness. Waterproof, the word that takes the befuddled reader flipping back through the pages to discover that the ordinary passage doesn’t serve up Quilty’s name on a silver platter; the word that reminds Humbert that he “had known it [Quilty’s identity], without knowing it, all along” (272). Through exploring the ways in which the word waterproof functions in Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, the reader will further understand the intentions behind Lolita masquerading as a novel about pedophilia.

Waterproof is a very appropriate word to be a trigger word for Humbert and the reader because waterproof implies something airtight and sealed, like the deceit of Quilty, or perhaps the ploys of Nabokov. Both Quilty and Nabokov hoodwink their intended so thoroughly that there is little room to breathe. Quilty does so by eluding Humbert, but leaving clues. Nabokov does this by ensnaring the reader into the novel and toying with their expectations. The way Quilty and Nabokov trick both Humbert and reader is simply, waterproof.

Another way of looking at waterproof is by looking at the reader’s expectations and how Nabokov plays with them. The reader has urgently flipped through the pages to find the clue at Hourglass Lake on page 89, but is perplexed (unless they are an astute and extremely observant reader). ““Waterproof,” said Charlotte softly, making a fish mouth” (89). Nabokov is simply refusing to conform to what the reader would expect as a conventional mystery puzzle. Nabokov, like Quilty, has left clues, and instead of revealing the information, like Humbert, we are left searching, and then later, left to make the connections. The reader is supposed to be an active participatory reader in order to play the game; otherwise the book is nothing, but an erotic story about pedophilia.

Waterproof is the word that leads Humbert and the reader to the first reference to a tangible Quilty. Notice that Nabokov, true to his indirectness, leads the reader next to the clue, not straight to it. The third paragraph down from “Waterproof” Jean is talking and says, “Next time I expect to see fat old Ivor in the ivory. He is really a freak, that man. Last time he told me a completely indecent story about his nephew. It appears-” and she is interrupted by John, “Hullo there” (89). Ivor Quilty’s inappropriate nephew happens to be the Clare Quilty that torments Humbert. Waterproof leads Humbert and the reader to the setting of Hourglass Lake where Quilty is in the action, but we just don’t know it yet.

Nabokov leaves little treats for the reader to eat up if the reader is astute. Quilty leaves enough clues, seemingly obvious, once Humbert realizes the identity of his adversary. Nabokov and Quilty seem to be playing a game, at which the reader and poor Humbert are subjected to without much of a choice. And through looking at one single word in the novel, the reader can learn much more about the type of novel they are reading and what to expect, than through blundering through the novel and thinking it is only about a pedophile. Waterproof, might in fact, say it all.

First Thoughts on Pale Fire

I spent most of my Sunday reading Pale Fire. Sutter and I spent two hours reading the poem out loud to each other after we each finished the Foreword on our own, taking turns for every verse, and also pausing for discussion or underlining or looking up a word we don't know....wishing we had the annotated text. We were both able to point out different things, catching things the other missed, "what did you underline?"......"definitely should circle that."....."what does that mean?"......"I don't know"..... "look it up". If you haven't read the poem out loud I suggest you do so, we found things we might not have found simply reading it to ourselves. I was also able to notice and appreciate the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. I only had one class this morning so again I devote my day to Pale Fire. (Not a bad thing). Sutter noticed some similarities between Eliot's The Wasteland, and Shade's deceased daughter with Leopold Bloom's deceased son Rudy in Joyce's Ulysses. See note below regarding James Joyce.

Emily Donahoe, in her blog, asks if anyone noticed the color purple and other images that evoke that color in the poem. I laughed because I didn't notice purple, I noticed the color blue everywhere, blue, blue-green, blue gray, hazy blue. But I went back and noticed the purple afterwards. Shade's first words of the commentary are mentioned when he and Kinbote talk about the "purple passages" of Hamlet and King Lear on pg 155. Then on pg 156 Shade is quoted as listing some things that bother him about students' papers, "Not having read the required book. Having read it like an idiot. Looking in it for symbols" then he gives an example (Emily I know you weren't looking for meaning in the color, this is just interesting). So there is probably no "meaning" in your notice of purple or my notice of blue. Does that mean we should not pay attention to the color? Probably not, but we can't think about it too much I guess. Dr. Sexson mentioned this when the class was discussing the color red in relation to Lolita. It is interesting what sticks with individuals after reading something. I wanted desperately for there to be some meaning in the color blue, but i might just be for effect, or to further ensnare readers in the trap of reading.

And I agree Emily....Nabokov is damn funny. I laughed out loud several times because Kinbote just begs to be laughed at. For example, Kinbote says,

"Although those notes, in the conformity with custom, come after the poem, the
reader is advised to consult them first and then study the poem with their help,
rereading them of course as he goes through the text, and perhaps, after having
done with the poem, consulting them a third time so as to complete the picture"
(28).

This guy Kinbote thinks pretty highly of himself, his work, and his relation to both the poet and the poem. Also another 'laugh out loud' moment was when Kinbote suggests "purchasing two copies of the same work which can then be placed in adjacent positions on a comfortable table" (28). C'mon.

Kinbote strikes me as the guy who thinks he is really close and friendly with someone, but isn't. Or is desperately trying to make more of a connection with John Shade than what Shade offered in the way of a friendship. I was suspicious numerous times of their "friendship" but I thought it was weird when Kinbote said, "Our close friendship was on that higher, exclusively intellectual level where one can rest from emotional troubles, not share them" (27). The point I'm trying to make is that I am skeptical. I mean John Shade nearly ran over him the first time Kinbote ever saw him, and Kinbote watches Shade through the window like a creeper. He is looking into the living room of Shade, he's not hanging out in it. Nabokov makes Kinbote unreliable in many ways, one way I found was on page 76 when Kinbote spells Finnegans Wake incorrectly as Finnigan's Wake, (complete with an apostrophe) and isn't Kinbote supposed to be a scholar?!

Kinbote leaves the reader with a statement at the end of the Foreword saying, "for better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word" (29) and also says that without his notes "Shade's text simply has no human reality at all..."(28). My question then is, can we only know Shade through Kinbote? Probably not, we have the poem to read.

Pale Fire, the poem: Line 516, "...And yet/It missed the gist of the whole thing; it missed/What mostly interests the preterist;" so what this might be saying is that the gist of the whole thing is what interests the preterist.... Line 79, "A preterist: one who collects cold nests./Here was my bedroom, now reserved for guests." His old bedroom is a cold nest, maybe, like his Aunt's preserved room, like his deceased daughter's room. Just thinking about this theme or idea, of birds. I can't stop underlining and circling references to BIRDS!

The bird on the left is a Cedar Waxwing and I would say it is one of the most elegant looking birds. There is also the Bohemian Waxwing (not pictured) The upper right picture of a bird is a mockingbird which Shade seems to use the mockingbird image in several verses, Pale Fire.

Sorry about this enormous blog, but I have so much that I underlined and so much that begs discussion. Nabokov tends to do this do his readers, drive them off the deep end in a good way. I hope I'm going in the right direction here. AND I'm only on page 87!!! actually further because I keep updating this blog post. I don't even know what is going on.

*****
Another Dr. Sexson addition:
Amazing Camouflage Animals
How cool would it be to blend into the background sometimes? These animals use their powers of camouflage to catch prey, to hide from predators, and to catch a moment of peace and quiet.Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/11/amazing-camouflage-animal_n_316008.html?slidenumber=0#slide_image

This made me think of all the camouflaged things in Nabokov's novels that I miss, like when I miss cool things when I'm hiking that are right next to me. But the most intriguing part of the camouflaged animals for me was the animals that use their camouflage to catch prey.....why do I always feel like Nabokov is a predator, and I am the oblivious prey fooled by the camouflage.
This picture to the right is from this website I am sending you to and made me think of the predetor/prey with Nabokov. Pile of leaves? or deadly snake?

Complete and Utter Nonsense

Today, Sunday, as we are all reading Pale Fire (and/or writing the two page paper) check out these websites to aide or supplement or distract you from your reading.
**
Here is an article introduced to me by Dr. Sexson, "How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect" by Benedict Carey in The New York Times, online is an interesting article that discussed research about how when we read or see something nonsensical we look for a pattern or something that makes sense. The article gives some examples of research and some interesting ideas, that we can notice and enjoy in our literary adventures saying,

"Still, the new research supports what many experimental artists, habitual
travelers and other novel seekers have always insisted: at least some of the
time, disorientation begets creative thinking."

What is it that a good reader must have? imagination and creative thinking. And what better way to stimulate creativity that to be bewildered (by an author perhaps) and then find patterns of meaning in a text we wouldn't have otherwise found. Pretty cool!

**
Also, another website for you folks interested in Pale Fire and it's many connections, including Zembla, Shakespeare and more, check out this blog called A Kiadic Pilgrimage. (Particulary exciting for me because I never caught the connection with The Golden Compass books by Phillip Pullman, which happens to be a favorite of mine.) See what this person has done collecting quotes from different places, most all referenceing Zembla, the distant northern land. Just thinking back to Lolita, Where is Humbert's Zembla? He does travel to the arctic early on in the novel before he met Lolita. Food for thought.
**
Back to the pages of Pale Fire......

Examination Domination

Quick reminder: Short 2 page (only) paper. Double space. 12 pt font. Times New Roman. Dealing with a very specific topic. DUE: Oct. 13th

Test Questions from class:
1. What is the name of the only hotel that Humbert and Lolita stay in in Part 1? Enchanted Hunters
2. Know why the number 342 is significant to Lolita: Haze address 342 Lawn Street, # of hotel room at the Enchanted Hunters, and the # of hotels stayed in by Humbert and Lolita
3.page 31 "one of those dazzling coincidences that logicians loathe and poets love."
4. count on murder for what kind of prose style? fancy prose style
5. MEMORIZE the last line of the book: I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality the you or I may share, my Lolita.
6. page 437 What does Nabokov think he was really born as? A landscape painter.
7. Who can recognize a nymphet? an artist and a mad man
8. Speak Memory, Synesthesia, In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored.
9. What man with a mustache does Quilty resemble? Charlie Chapman (or Hitler)
10. Humbert:Quilty::Reader: Nabokov......what i mean by this is Humbert is tricked by Quilty as the reader is tricked by Nabokov.
11. Why do Nabokov and Humbert detest sleep? Parting with consciousness is unspeakably repulsive.....they have no control.
12. Dolores - mater dolorosa - the mother of sorrows
13. Names of Jean Farlow's dogs: Cavall and Melampus from the story about Actaeon and Diana. And how is the story of Actaeon and Diana related to Lolita? The hunter becomes the hunted.......or rather the Enchanted Hunter.......OR the Hunted Enchanter!!!!! Like the hotel name.....or like Humbert? or like Quilty?
14. What are the four things all good readers should have? -memory -imagination -artistic sense -a dictionary
15. Three things that go into building an artist: -teacher -storyteller -enchanter
Which one is most important? enchanter!.........see question 13
16. Read the blog of James the rat (I feel left out not having an epithet) on Speak Memory
17. What is the color of the ball that the cocker spaniel at The Enchanted Hunters? RED
18. Humbert's forearms....(hairy, masculine)
19. When Humbert finds Lolita pregnant and Lo tells him Quilty was the one who took her away, H.H. think of one word: Waterproof
20. Plays written by Quilty: The Little Nymph, The Lady Who Loved Lightening, Dark Age, The Strange Mushroom, Fatherly Love...
21. How did Charlotte die? Who was driving the car? Frederick Beale Jr.
22. anytime we use the word "reality", according to Nabokov it should always be in quotes.....or rather claws.
23. How did Humbert's mother die? (picnic, lightening)
24. What is the difference between parody and satire? Parody is to imitate in a way to mock or poke fun at something, but not in a mean way. A satire is usually an attack or used with derision. Nabokov loved parody, and Lolita is a parody of America.
25. In speak memory what did Nabokov's mother like to collect in the woods? Strange mushrooms.
26. Lolita's favorite types of movies: Musicals, Underworlders, Westerners - pg 170
27. Who is jutting Jaw? Dick Tracy, Nabokov parodied language from 1940-50's movies, Dick Tracy, comics, etc
28. Jana had a baby boy named Eugene!!! Congratulations!!!!
29. French Lieutenant's Woman, Lolita, Don Quixote are all examples of METAFICTION - self-conscious literature
30. What type of car did Maxonovich, the man who stole Valeria drive? A TAXI
31. Nabokov proud of passages: -the Kasbeam barber -class list -taxonovich -Lolita playing tennis
32. The very geometry of reality is what Lolita seemed to represent when she was playing tennis.
34. Imitative behavior of butterflies pg 95
35. Age regulations for nymphets, 9 - 14 and NYMPHETS ARE NOT FOUND IN POLAR REGIONS!

Lamenting Lolita

I am sad that this week marks the end of our focused discussion on Lolita, so here are some things I meant to blog about, or just snippets of interesting material from class, reading, discussion. (but I'm excited for Pale Fire)......

In class Dr. Sexson brought to our attention the references to spiders and insect imagery in Lolita. I enjoyed reading about H.H. spinning his own web that fails every time, in comparison to Quilty and Nabokov spinning successful webs and traps. Humbert spins a beautiful web on page 49 and on page 50, "What I thought was a prismatic weave turns out to be but an old gray cobweb..." Another time H.H. refers to himself "Humbert the Wounded Spider" (54).

Also, like (picnic, lightening) that quick blip says so much like a complete story in two words, as discussed in class, and on page 35 we get the parenthesis again, "...sleepy small town (elms, white church)..." Very much like a snapshot. Nabokov liked photography because it is a frozen segment of remembered time.....and "(elms, white church)" reminds me of a photograph.

Here is the link to the Zembla website devoted to Vladimir Nabokov, artist, translator, lepidopterist. Check it out!

Humbert:Quilty::Reader:Nabokov

At the beginning of the novel I felt the major theme about (lost) time stood out when H.H. talked about Annabel. "...there was a snapshot taken be my aunt which showed Annabel..." (13). And "...amid the sunny blur into which her lost loveliness graded..." (13). "...miserable memories..." (13). And many more phrases like these. Again, the snapshot is mearly a frozen segment of remembered time to Nabokov.

On page 32 it says, "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" and even though it is implied that H.H. is talking here.....I can't help but think that Nabokov is the one saying this too.

Humbert, page 73, "I loathe dogs," although it happens to be a dog that is helpful in the dispatching of Charlotte so that H.H. doesn't have to worry about being found out.

Check out Humbert Humdrum & Lullita, a Time article about the Kubrick film.

An annotated page is soon to follow, I just can't decide on one. Also a blog to follow concerning the Intro XXVII. And another blog concerning where I learned to appreciate literature, I think.