Subject
Re: Humbert Humbert's Courts and Hermetic Sessions
From
Date
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It is perhaps worth emphasizing that, as confirmed by Alfred Appel in The
Annotated "Lolita", the "old poet" is "invented", i.e. none other than
Nabokov himself, whom Humbert quotes:
The moral sense in mortals is the duty
We have to pay on mortal sense of beauty.
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical,
existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
In a message dated 28/02/2012 20:33:58 GMT Standard Time, jansy@AETERN.US
writes:
The ammount of information that a single Nabokovian sentence may contain
is quite astounding. After I copied down the concluding paragraphs from
"Lolita" my attention was arrested by: "When I started, fifty-six days ago, to
write Lolita, first in the psychopathic ward for observation, and then in
this well-heated, albeit tombal, seclusion, I thought I would use these notes
in toto at my trial, to save not my head, of course, but my soul. In
mind-composition, however, I realized that I could not parade living Lolita. I
still may use parts of this memoir in hermetic sessions, but publication is
to be deferred.[ ] ". The higlighting of "hermetic sessions" has
developped in part from James Twiggs's reference to the very few readers who would
have used the phrase “divine love” in the 1950s...and that a discussion
"of VN’s Gnosticism was still several years away."
On my part I entertained conjectures about HH's emphasis on "mortal
morality" ( 'The moral sense in mortals is the duty/We have to pay on mortal
sense of beauty.'), and to what kind of human or heavenly Judges he might be
addressing while he is trying to save "not his head but his soul."
I discovered that he could be referring to the Hermetic societies, or to
their chief social event, the Tribunal session, or something other along
that line*. While reading HH's confessions we can discover that he invokes
not only the members of a Jury (he sometimes relates to angels).but, quite
often in the last chapters, he summons up the Reader.
............................................................................
............................................................................
..........
......................................................................
* Hermetic society in the canonic setting is complex and nuanced. While
the Order of Hermes is limited in size...and a Tribunal probably holds less
than ten score magi, these come from long and disparate magical lineages and
traditions [...] The social foundation of the Order is its democratic
system of Tribunals....The chief Hermetic social event is without a doubt the
Tribunal session, including the periodic regional Tribunals and the
magnificent Grand Tribunal session. A second ritual common in nearly all covenants
is the yearly casting of the Aegis of the Hearth, traditionally at the
winter solstice. Hermetic society knows other social events, however, although
these are often more limited in scope. _Hermetic Society_
(http://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=hermetic%20session&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CFkQFjAH&url
=http://www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_society&ei=ciFNT8aREIeQsQLrqv0l&usg=AFQ
jCNGUZi7CULvun9q8r3e9X0bmT303Vg) www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_society_Em
cache_ (http://www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_societyEm)
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Annotated "Lolita", the "old poet" is "invented", i.e. none other than
Nabokov himself, whom Humbert quotes:
The moral sense in mortals is the duty
We have to pay on mortal sense of beauty.
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical,
existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
In a message dated 28/02/2012 20:33:58 GMT Standard Time, jansy@AETERN.US
writes:
The ammount of information that a single Nabokovian sentence may contain
is quite astounding. After I copied down the concluding paragraphs from
"Lolita" my attention was arrested by: "When I started, fifty-six days ago, to
write Lolita, first in the psychopathic ward for observation, and then in
this well-heated, albeit tombal, seclusion, I thought I would use these notes
in toto at my trial, to save not my head, of course, but my soul. In
mind-composition, however, I realized that I could not parade living Lolita. I
still may use parts of this memoir in hermetic sessions, but publication is
to be deferred.[ ] ". The higlighting of "hermetic sessions" has
developped in part from James Twiggs's reference to the very few readers who would
have used the phrase “divine love” in the 1950s...and that a discussion
"of VN’s Gnosticism was still several years away."
On my part I entertained conjectures about HH's emphasis on "mortal
morality" ( 'The moral sense in mortals is the duty/We have to pay on mortal
sense of beauty.'), and to what kind of human or heavenly Judges he might be
addressing while he is trying to save "not his head but his soul."
I discovered that he could be referring to the Hermetic societies, or to
their chief social event, the Tribunal session, or something other along
that line*. While reading HH's confessions we can discover that he invokes
not only the members of a Jury (he sometimes relates to angels).but, quite
often in the last chapters, he summons up the Reader.
............................................................................
............................................................................
..........
......................................................................
* Hermetic society in the canonic setting is complex and nuanced. While
the Order of Hermes is limited in size...and a Tribunal probably holds less
than ten score magi, these come from long and disparate magical lineages and
traditions [...] The social foundation of the Order is its democratic
system of Tribunals....The chief Hermetic social event is without a doubt the
Tribunal session, including the periodic regional Tribunals and the
magnificent Grand Tribunal session. A second ritual common in nearly all covenants
is the yearly casting of the Aegis of the Hearth, traditionally at the
winter solstice. Hermetic society knows other social events, however, although
these are often more limited in scope. _Hermetic Society_
(http://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=hermetic%20session&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CFkQFjAH&url
=http://www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_society&ei=ciFNT8aREIeQsQLrqv0l&usg=AFQ
jCNGUZi7CULvun9q8r3e9X0bmT303Vg) www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_society_Em
cache_ (http://www.redcap.org/page/hermetic_societyEm)
_Google Search the archive_
(http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en) _Contact the Editors_
(mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu) _Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"_
(http://www.nabokovonline.com/) _Visit Zembla_
(http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm) _View Nabokv-L Policies_ (http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm)
_Manage subscription options_ (http://listserv.ucsb.edu/) _Visit AdaOnline_
(http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/) _View NSJ Ada Annotations_
(http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html) _Temporary L-Soft Search the archive_
(https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L&X=58B9943B29972AFF64&Y=nabokv-l@utk
.edu)
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/