Vladimir Nabokov: The Enchanter

[Peder]

We have ignition!

ROTFL! I guess you have!

 

[pontalba]

ROTFL! I guess you have!

What I meant was that you're going to read Vera again.

Remember VN's own instructions.....re-read....re-read!

 

[Peder]

What I meant was that you're going to read Vera again.

Oh, make no mistake! I got that loud and clear!
You are getting those fast-forward transitions down real smoothe, just like VN!

 

[pontalba]

On p. 109 in Dmitri Nabokov's On a Book Entitled The Enchanter, he says:

Perhaps a girl in a European park, fleetingly recalled by Humbert on an early page of Lolita, is Nabokov's way of acknowledging the little heroine of The Enchanter, but also of relegating her forever to the category of very distant relative.

I believe the reference DM means is on p.20 of Lolita:

How marvelous were my fancied adventures as I sat on a hard park bench pretending to be immersed in a trembling book. Around the quiet scholar, nymphets played freely, as if he were a familiar statue or part of an old tree's shadow and sheen. Once a perfect little beauty in a tartan frock, with a clatter put her heavily armed foot near me upon the bench to dip her slim bare arms into me and tighten the strap of her roller skate, and I dissolved in the sun, with my book for fig leaf, as her auburn ringlets fell all over her skinned knee, and the shadow of leaves I shared pulsated and melted on her radiant limb next to my chameleonic cheek.

Similar episodes, in different context. Used differently.

Also on p.109 of DM's "afterword"...

Dolores Haze may, as Nabokov says. be "very much the same lass" as the Enchanter's victim, but only in an inspirational, conceptual sense. In other ways the earlier child is very different--peverse only in the madman's eyes; innocently incapable of anything like the Quilty intrigue; sexually unawakened and physically immature...

To me this last quote sums up the dis/similarity issue.

 

[Peder]

Pontalba,
Oy, to think that I read the DM Afterword and now don't recall any of that!
But those are the roller skates that I remembered from Lolita, and the little girl, "a very distant cousin," and still I never thought to connect her with The Enchanter.
DM does a very nice commentary! And it sounds like he came down on the side of 'dissimilar.'
And you found some very nice quotes! They respect it as a real book, and not just a throwaway -- glad to hear!
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder, I didn't remember the roller skates until you'd mentioned them a bit back in the thread. I believe you had another mention somewhere as well. But VN tied the scenes together very nicely, and what, 20ish years apart as well! Well, at least 15.

The Enchanter is far more cut and dried in a way. None of the twisty ins and outs of Lolita. But many of the same points. As Breaca pointed out the beloved sister in TE, and Annabel in Lolita, perv, marrying mother to get to daughter, the hotel scene.......partially at least, as the ending of the scene is quite different. As DN brings out though more differences than similarities. Echo.

All in all a good read. For the end if nothing else!

 

[Peder]

Peder, I didn't remember the roller skates until you'd mentioned them a bit back in the thread. I believe you had another mention somewhere as well. But VN tied the scenes together very nicely, and what, 20ish years apart as well! Well, at least 15.

The Enchanter is far more cut and dried in a way. None of the twisty ins and outs of Lolita. But many of the same points. As Breaca pointed out the beloved sister in TE, and Annabel in Lolita, perv, marrying mother to get to daughter, the hotel scene.......partially at least, as the ending of the scene is quite different. As DN brings out though more differences than similarities. Echo.

All in all a good read. For the end if nothing else!

Pontalba.
Now that I have read Metamorphoses of Lolita at the link originally posted by SFG some other things also fall in place. In particular, the author's comparison of the two works -- Lolita being partly 'comedy' but The Enchanter being more like a 'horror story.'

That Master's thesis could be a whole discussion in itself! And could easily lead to endless rereadings interspersed with endless rescreenings of the movies themselves.

Good read definitely! I feel I got my money's worth, in more ways than one.

Peder

 

[pontalba]

That Master's thesis could be a whole discussion in itself! And could easily lead to endless rereadings interspersed with endless rescreenings of the movies themselves.

Good read definitely! I feel I got my money's worth, in more ways than one.

Peder

I agree. I'm not finished yet, but I can see it'll need re-reading. Probably more than one time.

Peder wrote: In particular, the author's comparison of the two works -- Lolita being partly 'comedy' but The Enchanter being more like a 'horror story.'

That is such a good take on the overall subject. Because part of the reason HH is not so apparently awful is his humor. Arthur wouldn't know real humor if it bit him on the toe.

 

[Peder]

'Morning Pontalba!
Good to see you.
This morning I am actually feeling like a world-beater.
I figured out one of VN's allusions all by myself, without having to ask any one, or read it anyplace, or google for it. And that was after being puzzled by it the previous four times I had read the paragraph.

Finally had the "Big O" moment!

He was referring to the girl and her companion arriving at the wedding and, after so much Lolita, I was thinking teen-age friend, but that didn't fit. Turns out, noooo.., he was simply referring to the governess, who brought her to the wedding. Which we are expected to realize after putting two and two together, or else noticing the word "arrived" two paragraphs earlier.

The simplest pleasures in life are free.

I don't know what it is. Either he somehow switched syntax for Enchanter or has a naturally deceptive way of narrating, but I often end up out in the corn field with that book when the road turns right and I don't. Or else of course, don't say it, I have been asleep while reading.

Now I'm gonna look for some more things I missed.
Over coffee,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Peder As I read the thesis in my somewhat dazed state last night, I seem to recall something now that was mentioned about the manner in which VN changes narrative styles at the drop of a hat. So don't feel like the Lone Ranger!

What! Energy before coffee??!!

 

[Peder]

Peder As I read the thesis in my somewhat dazed state last night, I seem to recall something now that was mentioned about the manner in which VN changes narrative styles at the drop of a hat. So don't feel like the Lone Ranger!

What! Energy before coffee??!!

Pontalba
Thank you!
Your consoling words are very welcome! And true, now that I think of Pnin, Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada (what I have read of it). Of those four, all consecutive, Pnin is the only one I would say was written in 'normal' English -- and very nicely indeed. Enchanter I'm going to have to make up my mind about, because I have missed so many clues.

And I always type in my sleep before I have coffee.

Peder

 

[pontalba]

Honestly Peder! You certainly are keeping me on the seesaw as to which Nabokov to read next! Bad You. I've seen so much about Pnin being the most 'straightforward', and the most (perhaps) autobiographical, but then again.......there is Ada or Ardor in the wings......what to do.....what to do!?

I'm about 3/4ths of the way thru Vera, SIL. I know, I know, that pushy thing called "Life" keeps interrupting the important stuff....

 

[Peder]

Honestly Peder! You certainly are keeping me on the seesaw as to which Nabokov to read next! Bad You. I've seen so much about Pnin being the most 'straightforward', and the most (perhaps) autobiographical, but then again.......there is Ada or Ardor in the wings......what to do.....what to do!?

I'm about 3/4ths of the way thru Vera, SIL. I know, I know, that pushy thing called "Life" keeps interrupting the important stuff....

Pontalba,

Well it's not as if you are only going to read one of them anyway. /and running hard/

But I can certainly say that Pnin is a nice straightforward story about one of Nabokov's more human and charming characters. (And VN's favorite character I think I saw). Especially after reading Vera you'll have no trouble seeing VN in it.

ADA OTOH looks like a major undertaking in challenging brain strain, from what I have read of the first 30 pages. But ultimately worth it I have no doubt!

Do you get sea-sick on see-saws? /blank look/

I'll hold one end down.

Peder

 

[SFG75]

So, like our former 'hero' our present unnamed protagonist struggles with his proclivities. With the enchanter though, he is in deep denial, of course Humbert's confessions have been written after much soul searching and facing up to the facts of his existance, but this one.....
p.4

He's a man from central European and his name is Arthur right?

 

[pontalba]

Peder wrote--Well it's not as if you are only going to read one of them anyway. /and running hard/

True, true....don't run, you are needed right here!

and--ADA OTOH looks like a major undertaking in challenging brain strain, from what I have read of the first 30 pages. But ultimately worth it I have no doubt!

Also true, and after the last two, mah po' lil ole brain cells need some rest!

and--Do you get sea-sick on see-saws? /blank look/

and--I'll hold one end down.

Countin' on it.

 

[pontalba]

He's a man from central European and his name is Arthur right?

Do you have the book yet?
If so P.xvi in Arthor's Note One middle of the page.

If not:

[A brief synopsis of the plot follows, wherein Nabokov names the protagonist: he thought of him as Arthur, a name that may have appeared in some long-lost draft but is mentioned nowhere in the only known manuscript]

'Tis odd, but consider the source.

 

[SFG75]

As long as the source was V.N. and not D.N., then it works for me.

 

[SFG75]

The girl in TE was well looked after by the friend, if not the acutal mother. So there was a surrogate parent in place already. At least this mother saw that the child was looked after by people she knew.

So in the mummy category, our French girl(or is she Irish?)had the better mother by any standard.

Now as far as VN being 'lordly', I don't doubt you for a moment in that estimation. However. Do you think his 'lordliness' attitude could have been partially to cover up an unacknowledged weakness? Haven't gotten that far yet, just wondering.

May I be so bold as to ask whether or not you think V.N. unknowingly projected himself into the book? Perhaps his own inner-darkest secrets are what we are reading?

 

[pontalba]

I can't say that I think Nabokov (either of them) did much unknowingly. So the answer would have to be no.

 

[SFG75]

I can't say that I think Nabokov (either of them) did much unknowingly. So the answer would have to be no.

I don't know if it's too simplistic to call him a perv, but you just have to wonder a bit, in particular when he goes on and on about a given encounter of Humbert's/Arthur's in a given scene. Speaking of......

I'm reading the first portion of TE and definitely recognize two things that are eerily similar to Lolita. First, "Arthur" goes on endlessly about how *innocent* his inappropriate actions are. There is a good deal of minimizing and pointing out to the reader that while he leers at the girls, his professional life provides an outlet for his mind. Likewise, Humbert went on about how good he was to have not harmed any of the young *nymphets* around him. The second item is perhaps the most obvious. On around page 9 in TE, Arthur carries on about the girl on roller skates that is around him. Likewise, this reminded me of Lolita where he is on the park bench and a girl bends over near him to tie her shoe. The painsticking re-telling of that episode is what sticks out in my mind regarding that, and this experience of Arthur's is no exception. I'm kicking myself right now as I can't find my Lolita book, as I would love to compare passages. Oh well, for another day I suppose.