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.