Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

[steffee]

This is the opening meeting of "The Society of Resistance To Buying Non-Core Nabokov". Will everyone please say "Hello", and acknowledge that they are powerless against the Pull of Nabokov...

Hi! My name is Pontalba, and I am a Nabokov Nut


Come to order..................You over there struggling with that other person, yes YOU....stop it....now...come to Order!!

Hi. {sniffle sniffle} my name is Steffee and I am a Nabokovoholic too {more sniffling} oooops, I mean

 

[Peder]

Pontalba,
Sign me up! But may we please hold the meetings in a place that's easier to get to. Like perhaps the amazon site? Just askin, just askin! What?!
Peder

 

[steffee]

Pontalba,
Sign me up! But may we please hold the meetings in a place that's easier to get to. Like perhaps the amazon site? Just askin, just askin! What?!
Peder

Hehehe, that's hilarious

 

[pontalba]

Hehehe, that's hilarious

Yes indeedy, you will notice there is no admission of Nabokovaholicism..!! Denial is a terrible thing to behold!

ROTFALOLTIC

 

[Peder]

Well, I don't deny it. I just don't admit it!

 

[StillILearn]

Well, I don't deny it. I just don't admit it!

I will show up and sit silently in the back row clutching my stack of computer generated coupons if we can hold the meetings anywhere near a Borders.

 

[pontalba]

I will show up and sit silently in the back row clutching my stack of computer generated coupons if we can hold the meetings anywhere near a Borders.

Yes dear, the guide said quietly as not to frighten the little Nabokovaholic girleen hiding in the back row, near the door leading to Amazon/Borders/Powells/Abes.....don't worry, you can keep your computer generated coupons as long as you like...don't worry, they won't expire...

Heh, Heh, Heh.....


btw SIL the Mary Queen of Scots you're reading is in my stack. How do ya like it?

 

[StillILearn]

btw SIL the Mary Queen of Scots you're reading is in my stack. How do ya like it?

Interesting that you should ask me that, pontalba. I think I used to absolutely love Margaret George, but I am only about halfway through this extremely long book, and I dunno, I may just want to take a short intermission. I do have a bookshelf full of Tudor/Stuart biographies (and I recently read The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory, just to see, but that's another story entirely.)

Margaret George's version of long tall Mary just ain't ringing all that true to me right now (and yes, I'll admit that the Man may have somewhat spoiled me for the scribblings of lesser mortals.)

I'll be very interested to hear what you have to say about George's take on this group of fascinating individuals. I personally think she may have missed Bothwell (in particular) by a mile.

 

[pontalba]

SIL It is sitting there right next to George's Cleopatra bio. Staring at me reproachfully... But just now I read the first chapter to get the sense of her style and I do enjoy it. There has always been something about Mary that irritated me. When someone is mule headed to the detriment of themselves to the extent she was it is beyond my comprehension. I feel sorry for at the same time. Oh exasperation! I'll have to pull it up further on the TBR pile right under Nabokov, or at the same time perhaps...LOL

Lately I have not been able to get the solid reading time, so I have been putting along with Pnin which I really enjoy.

I spotted the Mary and Cleo bios at the second hand book store I frequent from time to time and could not resist the price. 7 bucks each. Not bad.

I have some of Phillipa Gregorys too. I like her writing as well. But I haven't read that one yet. Yet. I can't put my hand on it, but I think I have it.

 

[Peder]

Lately I have not been able to get the solid reading time, so I have been putting along with Pnin which I really enjoy.

Pontalba,
That reminds me! I'll also have to take Pnin with me into the City today. Laugh out-loud silly from time to time on the train trip.
Peder

 

[Peder]

Just can't resist!
Everyone should absolutely take a look at Appolonia's "literature quote of the day," over on SFG's thread of the same name! Great thread SFG!
Congrats,
We are indebted to you,
And to Appolonia
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I just found a book called A Passion for Books, A book Lover's Treasury of stories, essays, humor, lore and lists on collecting, reading, borrowing, lending, caring for, and appreciating books Edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan, Foreword by Ray Bradbury. It starts out with a lovely essay called Unpacking My Library. Its actually a sad story of the man (Walter Benjamin), but he really was a wonderful and sweet man. Oh! I don't want to tell you. Read it. But there is one quote he attributes to Anatole France. I'll copy out the paragraph.

Suffice it to quote the answer which Anatole France gave to a philistine who admired his library and then finished with the standard question, "And you have read all these books, Monsieur France?" Not one-tenth of them. I don't suppose you use your Sevres china every day?"

Now I know how to answer!! Without feeling somehow like an underachiever.

 

[Peder]

I just found a book called A Passion for Books, A book Lover's Treasury of stories, essays, humor, lore and lists on collecting, reading, borrowing, lending, caring for, and appreciating books Edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan, Foreword by Ray Bradbury. It starts out with a lovely essay called Unpacking My Library. Its actually a sad story of the man (Walter Benjamin), but he really was a wonderful and sweet man. Oh! I don't want to tell you. Read it. But there is one quote he attributes to Anatole France. I'll copy out the paragraph.

Now I know how to answer!! Without feeling somehow like an underachiever.

Pontalba,
Sounds like a great book!
But the day that you feel like an underachiever, we are all lost!
Peder

 

[pontalba]

You know its funny, people have visited, and said something like have you read all these books, and I feel almost like apologizing for not having read them all. So now at least I know I am in good company.

And phooey on any apology!

 

[SFG75]

Arthur the father & situational offender

Arthur claimed to have two sides, one as *predator; one as father. He realized that there was a chasm between the two.

"I know that I would be a loving father in the common sense of the word, and to this day cannot decide whether this is a natural complement or a demonoic contradiction."

"...often I have tried to catch myself in the transition from one kind of tenderness to the other, from the simple to the special, and would very much like to know whether they are mutualy exclusive..."

The case for Arthur as *situational offender*

...he had learned to regulate his longing and had hypocritically resigned himself to the notion that only a most fortunate combination of circumstances, a hand most inadvertently dealt him by the fate, could result, in a momentary semblance of the impossible.

 

[Peder]

Arthur claimed to have two sides, one as *predator; one as father. He realized that there was a chasm between the two.

The case for Arthur as *situational offender*

SFG,
In terms of his 'externals' yes he clearly seems to be a situational offender. Just the one time that he tipped over, and not a long and continuing history of actual predation. But he doesn't seem to have the inner general anger ready to lash out at just anyone. However, given the choice, I would agree, 'situational' he definitely was.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov

In the Chapter entitled "The Lolita phenomenon from Paris to Tehran" p.185 as follows:

Lolita is a special favorite of mine," Nabokov told an interviewer in 1962. "It was my most difficult book-the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real" (SO, 15).

p.187:

Just as reality, in Nabokov's words, comprises infinite "levels of perception," the "reality" that Lolita evokes is fluid, not fixed. What we as readers glean in its structure and design is subject to our own efforts, insights, and levels of perception. As Gabriel Josipovici points out, Lolita "does not reveal its secret once and for all; the imaginative effort must be renewed each time it is reread. Ultimately the theme is the imaginative effort self."

All the guides in the world could not have taken the place of this forum IMHO. It took all of us reading and yes, rereading to come to our own levels of perception, but it sure is nice to read the guides afterward to either confirm or deny the realizations that we both jointly and individually have come to in this forum. And of course to come up with even more to chew on as we progress in understanding.

btw SO back in the first quote is for Strong Opinions.....

 

[Peder]

In the Chapter entitled "The Lolita phenomenon from Paris to Tehran" p.185 as follows.187:

All the guides in the world could not have taken the place of this forum IMHO. It took all of us reading and yes, rereading to come to our own levels of perception, but it sure is nice to read the guides afterward to either confirm or deny the realizations that we both jointly and individually have come to in this forum. And of course to come up with even more to chew on as we progress in understanding.

btw SO back in the first quote is for Strong Opinions.....

Pontalba
Those are very nice quotes indeed from the Cambridge Companion (quoting SO?) . You just made it my mandatory next buy. And I agree with your observation completely. Lolita is a wonderful book to read, and also to read about. But to fully get the benefit it has to be done in that order, otherwise it is difficult to really appreciate what people are talking about. I never reallly understood the benefits that could come from rereading a book, much less Lolita, until I had actually done it and seen for my self that it really is a different book each time I read it or go back to a part of it (as many people have always said). The Enchanted Hunters episode is the most recent example of that. But the best way to appreciate the book itself has been this forum discussion for me also. After discussing all these posts with everybody participating, I think I am finally beginning to understand the book. No exaggeration.
Great book,
Even greater discussion!
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Pontalba
Those are very nice quotes indeed from the Cambridge Companion (quoting SO?) .

Just the first quote was from Strong Opinions. Which is my next imperative buy!

 

[pontalba]

You know Peder, the order is really important. Because that way the reader can form their own opinions and when said reader changes that opinion, it is well informed with all reasoning as to why. So, first read Nabokov, then read about Nabokov and his works.

You know I love to reread books. But I've never had a book evolve the way Lolita does. In others I might miss some details the first or even second time around. But not levels of meaning like Lolita, or really any of Nabokov's work. Quite Nice.