Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

[pontalba]

Steffee
It probably has the driest sense of humor of the VN I've read so far. But I like that.

 

[Peder]

Steffee
It probably has the driest sense of humor of the VN I've read so far. But I like that.

To whomever:
There was in his elementray Russian class

languid Eileen Lane, whom somebody had told that by the time one had mastered the Russian alphabet one could practically read "Anna Karamazov" in the original.

Just helpin out,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Pnin

Or consider this: p.76

He contemplated the writing a Petite Histoire of Russian culture, in which a choice of Russian Curiosities, Customs, Literary Anecdotes, and so forth would be presented in such a way as to reflect in miniature la Grande Histoire-Major Concatenations of Events. He was still at the blissful stage of collecting his material; and many good young people considered it a treat and an honor to see Pnin pull out a catalogue drawer from the comprehensive bosom of a card cabinet and take it, like a big nut, to a secluded corner and there make a quiet mental meal of it, now moving his lips in soundless comment, critical, satisfied, perplexed, and now lifting his rudimentary eyebrows and forgetting them there, left high upon his spacious brow where they remained long after all trace of displeasure or doubt had gone.

 

[pontalba]

King, Queen, Knave

I um, just happened to pick up KQK, and the foreword written by VN in 1967 (the book was originally written in 1928) has a few lines that are rather amusing, at least this crowd may find them so: p.x--

I have not said anything yet about the plot of King, Queen, Knave. This plot is basically not unfamiliar. In fact, I suspect that those two worthies, Balzac and Dreiser, will accuse me of gross parody but I swear I had not read their proposterous stuff at the time, and even now do not quite know what they are talking about under their cypresses. After all, Charlotte Humbert's husband was not quite innocent either......As usual, I wish to observe that, as usual (and as usual several sensitive people I like will look huffy), the Viennese delegation has not been invited. If, however, a resolute Freudan manages to slip in, he or she should be warned that a number of cruel traps have been set here and there in the novel.

what to do, what to do...........

 

[Peder]

Pontalba,
ROTFL
It sounds like he got more tame as he went along, not less, but there is that dig at Freud, even in his European years! And I can hardly wait to see those "cruel traps."
Vairy eentresteeng,
Wonder if he ever mentioned Jung? Sounds ready made for a pun.
I was also going to wonder if he ever set a story inside an insane asylum, but then I realized from the blurbs I have read that some of his books already sound like that. So, no need to
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder Its really difficult to tell exactly what was written when in KQK, as VN wrote that foreword in 1967, the book in 1928, and changed the book up some during translation to English (that DM helped him with). VN claimed he changed the book some to accomodate English more smoothly, but here I'll let VN explain--(p.ix)

Let me only remark that my main purpose in making them was not to beautify a corpse but rather to permit a still breathing body to enjoy certain innate capacities which inexperience and eagerness, the haste of thought and the sloth of work had denied it formerly. Within the texture of the creature, those possibilites were practically crying out to be developed or teased out. I accomplished the operation not without relish. The "coarseness" and "lewdness" of the book that alarmed my kindest critics in emigre periodicals have of course been preserved, but I confess to have mercilessly struck out and rewritten many lame odds and ends......

So. You see.

 

[steffee]

Guess what? Guess what? I saw a copy of Lolita in a tiny little book/magazine/confectionery shop in the train station today! It was on 'buy one get one half price' too, and had a swanky new cover.

Yes, my all-things-Nabokov obsession has extended to searching the contents of the shelves of every book shop I come across. But seriously, they must have only stocked maybe 50 titles, and our Lolita was one of them...

 

[Peder]

Guess what? Guess what? I saw a copy of Lolita in a tiny little book/magazine/confectionery shop in the train station today! It was on 'buy one get one half price' too, and had a swanky new cover.

Yes, my all-things-Nabokov obsession has extended to searching the contents of the shelves of every book shop I come across. But seriously, they must have only stocked maybe 50 titles, and our Lolita was one of them...

Steffee,
That all sounds good to me! And for being one out of about 50 titles shows that she is still one little 'hot article' to use her language .
Couldn't happen to a nicer girl
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Steffee
Swanky new cover eh? Hmmm wonder if I'll have to get another copy?
But thats great, evidently Lo had graduated to a more accepted level. But really, look at all the comments we are getting here. And even in the Enchanter thread, most of our comments there seem to be comparative to Lolita! Just when ya think there is not one more aspect to cover, there is that little thread (ha ha) hanging, and we say, well, lets just give that bit a yank...............and off it goes again!

And then theres the rest of Nabokov.....

Its almost as though Nabokov has ruined me for other authors. I cannot help comparing styles, prose, etc. And they mostly come up short. Naturally there are exceptions. The Graves books we mentioned over on the suggestions thread for example. BTW, when is that voting to begin?

 

[pontalba]

The Annotated Lolita/Appel

I am posting this over here as it really is all to do with Lolita but the idea originated in The Enchanter thread.
I am finding Appel's Annotated Lolita highly instructive. It brings in so many of Nabokov's works that it simply whets ones appetite even more to read VN's other works. p.xx (introduction)--

....the apprehension of "reality" (a work that Nabokov says must always have quotes around it) is first of all a miracle of vision, and our existence is a sequence of attempts to unscramble the "pictures" glimpsed in that "brief crack of light."

This quote from p.xxi most speaks to some of the issues we have brought up in this forum:

If one responds to the author's "false scents" and "specious lines of play," best effected by parody, and believes, say, that Humbert's confession is "sincere" and that he exorcises his guilt, or that the narrator of Pnin is really perplexed by Pnin's animosity toward him, or that a Nabokov book is an illusion of a reality proceeding under the natural laws of our world--then one not only has lost the game to the author but most likely is not faring too well in the "game of worlds," one's own unscrambling of pictures.

Well! I guess that puts us, at least me in my place! LOL The beauty of Nabokov!
On p.xxiii Appel brings out "involution".

The work "involution" may trouble some readers, but one has only to extend the dictionary definition. An involuted work turns in upon itself, is self-referential, conscious of its status as a fiction.....

I also liked the fact Appel brought out that coincidences extend from book to book. Anyway there is lots more, but later.......

 

[steffee]

Well! I guess that puts us, at least me in my place! LOL The beauty of Nabokov!

I also liked the fact Appel brought out that coincidences extend from book to book. Anyway there is lots more, but later.......

I haven't got this annotated edition, but I am sorely tempted! I am already wanting to re-read Lolita, because when I first joined this thread, we were way back, millions of pages back, and I want to see if the story differs any... but I have to say I can't wait to start Pnin. I have it right here, but for some reason I'm yet to pick it up properly, though I've read the first page about six times already. I think I'm waiting for someone to finish it, so I know what I'm getting myself into (subtle hint, hehe ), but also because I know I will get very involved and I am snowed under with coursework at the moment

But soon, very soon...

I am wondering about the voting too, it's a day late already...

 

[Peder]

. but I have to say I can't wait to start Pnin. I have it right here, but for some reason I'm yet to pick it up properly, though I've read the first page about six times already. I think I'm waiting for someone to finish it, so I know what I'm getting myself into (subtle hint, hehe ), but also because I know I will get very involved and I am snowed under with coursework at the moment

But soon, very soon...

Steffee,
I have finished Pnin and am rereading it with very amused appreciation.
There no reason at all to hang back from the book. It is a very straightforward and low key narrative about a very mild mannered and somewhat bumbling guy, Professor Pnin, who in his own way suffers the outrageous slings and arrows of fortune that he somehow attracts to himself in the most well meaning manner. It is set on a college campus and you might even recognize some of the humor, because I think it is a very funny and at the same time very compassionate book.
Having read the first page, you have already noticed that the book begins with Pnin on a train trip. After one page, the narrator himself will say

Now a secret must be imparted.
Professor Pnin was on the wrong train.

and the merry confusion goes from there.
The school work, however, is a different problem that I can well appreciate. Been there, done that. And there's no way around that one, except to wish you well in all your studies.
Peder

 

[steffee]

Steffee,
I have finished Pnin and am rereading it with very amused appreciation.
There no reason at all to hang back from the book. It is a very straightforward and low key narrative about a very mild mannered and somewhat bumbling guy, Professor Pnin, who in his own way suffers the outrageous slings and arrows of fortune that he somehow attracts to himself in the most well meaning manner. It is set on a college campus and you might even recognize some of the humor, because I think it is a very funny and at the same time very compassionate book.
Having read the first page, you have already noticed that the book begins with Pnin on a train trip.
The school work, however, is a different problem that I can well appreciate. Been there, done that. And there's no way around that one, except to wish you well in all your studies.
Peder

Thanks Peder

In that case, I will get my current assignment out of the way, and start it on Monday! It sounds just the right mix, and the reviews I've read have all been good too. LOL at him being on the wrong train though, I can't wait to get stuck in now

 

[pontalba]

Steffee, Peder
I am I guess half way thru Pnin, it is an easy going read, and you have to empathize with the dear little prof. He is such a sweet guy.
Steffee, if you don't read French, the annotated version is a must. It even clears up some of the somewhat obscure references that people under 50 may not 'get'. Yes, I got most of them.

Peder, I think I may have to start re-reading as soon as I finish!

 

[StillILearn]

You guys are getting to be way too good to be keeping your amateur standings; you're all pretty much in danger of becoming classified as official Nabokovian scholars.

 

[Peder]

I am posting this over here as it really is all to do with Lolita but the idea originated in The Enchanter thread.
I am finding Appel's Annotated Lolita highly instructive. It brings in so many of Nabokov's works that it simply whets ones appetite even more to read VN's other works. p.xx (introduction)--

This quote from p.xxi most speaks to some of the issues we have brought up in this forum:

Well! I guess that puts us, at least me in my place! LOL The beauty of Nabokov!
On p.xxiii Appel brings out "involution".

I also liked the fact Appel brought out that coincidences extend from book to book. Anyway there is lots more, but later.......

Pontalba,
I am so glad you included that quote from p.xxi about losing the game to the author, because I didn't understand it the first time I read it. Or the second time. Or even now after all the discussion here, and the analysis, and the reading of the Pifer Casebook and so on. If I take it at face value, I conclude that I have lost two games to the author: both Lolita and Pnin.
I really hope people here will offer their comments on just what to make of that thought by Appel. I need something to help me understand why I just plain don't understand it. To me it seems so simple, but so wrong. Is Appel simply saying that anyone who believes Humbert's remorse at the end is a fool, and was completely taken in by his con? That has always been an obviously logical possibility, but if that is the conclusion then why read the book at all with any degree of seriousness? I am really grasping at straws to try to mesh that paragraph with my understanding of the book.
Especially since at p. lxiv we see

The reader sees Humbert move beyond his obsessional passion to a not altogether straightforward declarraation of genuine love (pp. 277-278) and finally to a realiization of the loss suffered not by him but by Lolita (pp.307-308). It is expressed on the next to the last page in a long and eloquent passage that, for the first time in the novel, is in no way undercut by parody or qualified by irony. Midway through this "last mirage of wonder and hopelessness" the reader is invoked again, because Humbert's moral apotheosis, so uniquely straightforward, constitutes the end game and nabokov's final trompe-l'oeil. If the reader has long since decided there is no moral reality in the novel, and in his sophisticated way has accepted that, he may well miss this unexpected move in the farthest corner of the chessboard and lose the game after all. It is the last time the reader will be addressed directly, for the game is about over, as is the novel.

To which is say "Yes, absolutely! But why does that sound so opposite to that earlier paragaph?
Help!
Peder

 

[steffee]

I know Still, scary, isn't it? And you are too.

pontalba, yeah, I tended to skip the french, having to look up three words per page, in an English dictionary was enough for me!! I might consider getting the annotated for the reread.

So that's two trusty recommendations for Pnin now, I think I'm convinced

 

[Peder]

Peder, I think I may have to start re-reading as soon as I finish!

Pontalba,
What do you mean "may?"
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Pontalba,
What do you mean "may?"
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I know Still, scary, isn't it? And you are too.

pontalba, yeah, I tended to skip the french, having to look up three words per page, in an English dictionary was enough for me!! I might consider getting the annotated for the reread.

So that's two trusty recommendations for Pnin now, I think I'm convinced

Yes, we are all verra scary people! /she said snickering in her fist/ running rapidly down the lane/