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Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

Peder

Marvelous! The Two Lolitas could certainly go into this thread, as it is more, I believe a study of the German guy's book, and VN's Lolita. But The Enchanter could go in its own thread for sure. And I think several of this group will be interested. How to proceed? Which section do you think Peder?
 
Peder said:
I suppose the men go on a different island (and learn how to swim) but I would definitely not omit Galatea. :)
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Differend Island? I don't think so, or in other words, No way Dick Tracey!:D :eek:
 
pontalba said:
Differend Island? I don't think so, or in other words, No way Dick Tracey!:D :eek:
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Pontalba,
I forgot! That's the way it was done in the old days, but I forgot we are all modern people here now! :rolleyes:
Peder
 
steffee said:
But The Enchanter is a separate book, and I have it good good authority (from you yourself) that it is unrelated to Lolita, and therefore I agree to the separate thread idea.
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Steffee,
Oh, I wouldn't say unrelated. There are obvious relations, definitely enough to see where Lolita came from, but it is a totally different story nevertheless, with a wildly different fantastic ending. And still with the magnficent writing. Probably most of the discussion will focus on comparing features of the two stories, although it has its own very distinctive merits to be discussed as well. Needless to say, I have been re-reading and I just stare in awe. /restraining himself, and stopping there!/
Peder
 
To All Budding Nabokovians

It occured to me to perhaps place any discussion of Nabokov or The Enchanter in the Author Discussions. This is the only post of any length or substance I was able to find. There may be more, I only searched a bit.
http://forums.thebookforum.com/showthread.php?t=7862&highlight=Nabokov

Or do y'all think it'd be more productive to just start a thread in the General Discussion section? Unless you think we can just stay here?

Peder
Um, the old days? Puleezzzeee........:p
 
pontalba said:
Or do y'all think it'd be more productive to just start a thread in the General Discussion section? Unless you think we can just stay here?
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Pontalba,Your'e right, there isn't too much on Lolita or Nabokov here on TBF. There was a productive Lolita thread about a year ago for ~90 posts, plus the insightful post by sitaram that you found. But that's about all I have seen in trying to look around.

In general I think it is a good idea to have the title of the thread really be related to the content of the thread (or to put it the other way around, that the thread actually be on topic) just so the content of a discussion doen't get lost because of the title. So I think we could start a "The Enchanter by Vladimir Nabokov" thread in the same place as the "Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov" thread if that's its name. We could even do the same for the Two Lolitas book, if that were going to be a major discussion. Otherwise, illogically, I think we could talk about it here because of its specific Lolita topic. I also tend to think that we'll do better with discussions focussed around specific books, because Nabokov himself is such a broad topic. OTOH there were a whole passel of people in that ~90 post thread who never showed up here, which baffles me more than a bit. (Do we have B.O.?) They might suddenly turn up in a general Nabokov thread if they saw it, or if we started adding to the existing thread, with whatever we read about Nabokov or any books of his we read. Dunno.

In short, I hope Enchanter will turn into a substantial discussion and therfore be worth its own thread. That's the most definite thing I can imagine right now. I'm inclined to wait a bit and see what thoughts arise on Two Lolitas here before getting more specific about it. If only two of us are going to be looking at that book, then it sounds more like a converstaion than a discussion and it sounds then like it might as well be here. Maybe we should bite one piece of the apple at a time. If we can get it away from that little monkey.

But, hey, this is by consensus,
So everyone please speak up,
Peder
 
Peder
I agree about the title of the thread, but we cannot start new theads in this particular section. Its BOTM only. So, maybe under "General Book Discussion" right below this forum. otoh, since both The Enchanter andtwo Lolitas directly connect to Lolita, maybe we could as you say stay right here. Unless of course the moderators object?

What does everyone else think?
 
I also tend to think that we'll do better with discussions focussed around specific books, because Nabokov himself is such a broad topic. OTOH there were a whole passel of people in that ~90 post thread who never showed up here, which baffles me more than a bit. (Do we have B.O.?) They might suddenly turn up in a general Nabokov thread if they saw it, or if we started adding to the existing thread, with whatever we read about Nabokov or any books of his we read. Dunno.
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Sure would be good to get some more people back on board for these discussions. Oh, where did we go wrong? :( (Not that the current company isn't completely scintillating, of course!) :D Should we put up a suggestion box, perhaps? :) Oh. That's exactly what you're doing. :rolleyes: Could it be all our smiley faces that're the problem? :confused:
 
We could get Peder to wrote a begging letter to TBF at large asking folks for suggestions on how to get this ball rolling again. :)

(Peder being the most affable and well-loved of us all ...) :D

Nabokov himself can't possibly be the problem!
 
StillILearn
I fliched the tape/CD/radio player from the other room, and started up on our Mr. Irons again. This one is not portable, but will do until I can exchange the other. There were a few things I noticed that I'd missed in reading, but now they have flown. I need to have the book with me while listening.:rolleyes: (brain like a sieve!).

As far as lack of interest from others in this thread, it seems that even those that suggested this book, and perhaps voted for it didn't even post that much. But none of the other BOTMs seem to have gone terribly far. Maybe some have been deleted? Even the January thread hasn't had much in the way of contributions. I feel a bit guilty about that as I have the book, but at least I didn't vote for the present (January) selections.

I have to think that those that voted Lolita in, must have had something come up in their lives that kept them from participating as they wished. I just hope it was a pleasurable interference. :)
 
StillILearn said:
Sure would be good to get some more people back on board for these discussions. Oh, where did we go wrong? :( (Not that the current company isn't completely scintillating, of course!) :D Should we put up a suggestion box, perhaps? :) Oh. That's exactly what you're doing. :rolleyes: Could it be all our smiley faces that're the problem? :confused:
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Still,
I wonder exactly all the things you do. And really agree it would be great to scoop up all the people again who jumped ship. I'm not sure we did something wrong exactly. Actually, I think that what we did was exactly right, for those of us who remained, even if, now as I look around, it seems somewhat different than most threads on the forum.

With no disrespect intended at all to any listeners or other Forumites, I think this thread was more like a personal encounter with the book for all of us, and much less like (I'll be brave) 'cocktail conversation' which is more prevalent. I use that term in self-confession because it was used to, or at, me by a member in a previous forum who found a long conversation with me unusual (3 posts!). But people are different, and here we found us (we, the strange ones) who engaged the book deeply and discussed our genuine reactions. Not better, not worse, just different.

And maybe we'll never catch lightning in a bottle again, but some visibillity with Enchanter, out in General Books Discussion or Fiction, might serve as some advertising that Nabokov is again fair game on the Forum. (And BTW I an not the nicest most affable guy on the forum. I am Man, hear me growl! And I would use a smiley there, but my allotment has already been used for more useful purposes whch you already see below)

But part of the 'blame' goes to Lolita also. (j/k I''m sure you know). The book itself always draws a crowd wherever it is discussed, and long lasting threads with many posts are not unusual for that particular book above all others.

I especially agree :) that all :confused: those smiley faces, like :) and :( and :eek: and :wink: that we use :eek: are real killers.:rolleyes: and there may be some who are put off :p :) :) ---- oops, can only use 15 I just found out.

So, man of few words that I am, (smiley) (smiley)
There are some thoughts
Peder
 
PS
Or we might call it explicitly "Enchanter and Lolita Discussion"
Or wrap them all up into "Enchanter and ALL the Lolitas"
Or "Who was Lolita?"
Or "Will the real Lolita please stand up?"
Or "A Night with Lolita" :rolleyes:
Or "The best parts of Lolita" No, on second thought, forget that one! :eek
Peder
 
PPS
Or maybe we could just tansfer all this discussion out into General Book Discussion, and engage the whole world. Equivalent to a public announcement already suggested by Still.
Peder
 
You guys make me laugh :D The seance is a great idea then we could really get into the mind of H H! I am sure Nabokov wouldnt mind answering our questions! The problem though is we are all to far away from each other :D :D
 
ruby said:
You guys make me laugh :D The seance is a great idea then we could really get into the mind of H H! I am sure Nabokov wouldnt mind answering our questions! The problem though is we are all to far away from each other :D :D
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How's it coming, ruby? What's that dastardly HH up to now? ;)
 
Peder said:
PPS
Or maybe we could just tansfer all this discussion out into General Book Discussion, and engage the whole world. Equivalent to a public announcement already suggested by Still.
Peder
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Or "Will the real Lolita please stand up?"
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The above made me laugh! :D

How about:

Reading Lolita in 94210?
 
ruby said:
The problem though is we are all to far away from each other :D :D
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Ruby,
But, maybe, if we all typed the same question at exactly the same time?
Just look at the posted times of your message and mine previous to it. That's definitely great minds at work! :) (A minute apart here.)
Peder
 
Peder said:
PPS
Or maybe we could just tansfer all this discussion out into General Book Discussion, and engage the whole world. Equivalent to a public announcement already suggested by Still.
Peder
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Perhaps just start a thread in General Discussion entitled "Nabokov, The Enchanter, and down the line whatever title we decided on with author's name first as above. Near the end of each thread, the participators could decide which Nabokov was to be dissected next.
Or "The best parts of Lolita" No, on second thought, forget that one! :eek
Peder
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Yes, probably best forgotten....:rolleyes: :D
 
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