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Re: [Fwd: Swooners?]
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AFio
Humbert is playing with the English language and with the idea and
appearance of school girls¹ garments. There are no garments called swooners,
but Humbert¹s list of purchases includes ³shorts² and ³all kinds of summer
frocks,² some or all of which Humbert finds sexy. In other words, garments
to swoon over if one is a pedophile with a fancy prose style.
There is no question that if Humbert were to encounter the swooner garments
of today, his cardiac condition would have flattened him a lot sooner than
it does in America of the late forties, early fifties.
Painted-on Apple Bottom jeans riding low enough to show off the jeweled
magenta thong, and a skinny cotton top cut deeply enough to advertise the
Juicy brand Victoria Secret bra and its contents, high enough at the hem to
reveal the jeweled navel ring, and brief enough behind to allow the circular
tailbone tattoo to be admired or read or deciphered or solved every time the
child reaches down for the handle of her roller-wheeled carry-on luggage,
would have Humbert writhing on the floor clutching his chest by chapter
three of his Confessions of a White Widowed Male.
Andrew Stuart Brown
On 8/27/06 8:53 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Swooners?
> Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:54:01 -0700
> From: Aris Fioretos <aris.fioretos@T-ONLINE.DE>
> <mailto:aris.fioretos@T-ONLINE.DE>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> I'm about to complete a new Swedish translation of "Lolita." There's one word
> the meaning of which
> still eludes me. In the last chapter of Part One, Humbert refers to some items
> of clothing that he has
> just purchased. What, pray, are "swooners"? None of the dictionaries I've
> consulted have been able to
> offer any help.
>
> AFio
>
> Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html>
> Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
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> View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Humbert is playing with the English language and with the idea and
appearance of school girls¹ garments. There are no garments called swooners,
but Humbert¹s list of purchases includes ³shorts² and ³all kinds of summer
frocks,² some or all of which Humbert finds sexy. In other words, garments
to swoon over if one is a pedophile with a fancy prose style.
There is no question that if Humbert were to encounter the swooner garments
of today, his cardiac condition would have flattened him a lot sooner than
it does in America of the late forties, early fifties.
Painted-on Apple Bottom jeans riding low enough to show off the jeweled
magenta thong, and a skinny cotton top cut deeply enough to advertise the
Juicy brand Victoria Secret bra and its contents, high enough at the hem to
reveal the jeweled navel ring, and brief enough behind to allow the circular
tailbone tattoo to be admired or read or deciphered or solved every time the
child reaches down for the handle of her roller-wheeled carry-on luggage,
would have Humbert writhing on the floor clutching his chest by chapter
three of his Confessions of a White Widowed Male.
Andrew Stuart Brown
On 8/27/06 8:53 AM, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Swooners?
> Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:54:01 -0700
> From: Aris Fioretos <aris.fioretos@T-ONLINE.DE>
> <mailto:aris.fioretos@T-ONLINE.DE>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> I'm about to complete a new Swedish translation of "Lolita." There's one word
> the meaning of which
> still eludes me. In the last chapter of Part One, Humbert refers to some items
> of clothing that he has
> just purchased. What, pray, are "swooners"? None of the dictionaries I've
> consulted have been able to
> offer any help.
>
> AFio
>
> Search the Nabokv-L archive at UCSB
> <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html>
> Contact the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
> Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
> View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm