Subject
Lolita, Valentinov and McFate
From
Date
Body
Dieter Zimmer's wrote: "Leaving "Beardsley" in 'Appalachia' on May 29, 1949, supposedly for Hollywood where Humbert pretends to have an engagement while he really hopes to cross into Mexico with Lolita. This trip and all its stops, however, have been planned by Lolita, certainly in conjunction with Quilty, and they have planned differently. Of their destination we only know it is the "Continental Divide..." As demonstrated by the novel's chronology and special paragraphs, Lolita and Quilty were cast in the role of HH's destiny.* For the first time did I fully realize that this absurd couple was establishing the pattern for Humbert Humbert's car trip, thereby performing another kind of patterning (but still, a patterning) which we encounter in VN's much earlier novel, "The Defense.." In the latter, fate's representative is Valentinov (at least, in Luzhin's sick mind)..One of the possible interpretations of Luzhin's suicide (a suimate?) is that he has made an attempt to escape from Valentinov and from his puppeteer, Nabokov/God.
Sandy Drescher** notes that the "distinction between Game and Problem controls how the end of the novel is to be understood. If the chess board of eternity is part of a Game, then suicide is unsuccessful as a defense. It is a defeat if Luzhin jumped into a malignant continuation of the life he wished to escape...Alternatively, if eternity is a Chess Problem, Luzhin enters into that abstract realm where he functions, can finally be at home, will enjoy the music of the spheres." An interesting, metaphysical, point.
The comparison between Luzhin's chess-obsessed life and HH's nymphet-obsession hadn't occurred to me before. Luzhin would be someone trying to escape from his destiny whereas Humbert was in his pursuit. It didn't occur to me either that it could be possible to reread "Lolita" bearing in mind the chess-world distinction between "a game" and "a problem." In Pale Fire (if memory serves me)the indifferent Gods are playing a "game of worlds" ..but...but...hyerogliphs, entomology, numbers and chess-moves form an impenetrable veil that keeps me away from Nabokov's reeling firmament.
btw: I searched for other entries related to "Tellurium" (52). In Pale Fire the reference is to "Chtonic," from TSEliot's poem, JS line 370.
1.ADA (a): Marina's "Man-made objects lost their significance or grew monstrous connotations; clothes hangers were really the shoulders of decapitated Tellurians, the folds of a blanket she had kicked off her bed looked back at her mournfully with a stye on one drooping eyelid and dreary reproof in the limp twist of a livid lip."
(b)Van's: "What a soprano Cora had been! Demon took Van to the world-famous Opera House in Telluride in West Colorado and there he enjoyed (and sometimes detested) the greatest international shows...He passed through various little passions - parlor magic, chess, fluff-weight boxing matches at fairs, stunt-riding - and of course those unforgettable, much too early initiations when his lovely young English governess expertly petted him between milkshake and bed***..."
2. RLSK: Clare Bishop: " She had no special intention of being happy or of making Sebastian happy... it was merely a matter of naturally accepting life with Sebastian because life without him was less imaginable than a tellurian's camping-tent on a mountain in the moon..."
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* - I remember Aubrey McFate, plus the different references to fate made by HH, and I recovered this particularly revelatory sentence: "I now warn the reader not to mock me and my mental daze. It is easy for him and me to decipher now a past destiny; but a destiny in the making is, believe me, not one of those honest mystery stories where all you have to do is keep an eye on the clues. In my youth I once read a French detective tale where the clues were actually in italics; but that is not McFate's way - even if one does learn to recognize certain obscure indications." However, I failed to consider Lolita's and Quilty's schemes as being in fact a part of the "fiction's real." until now. In my eyes, the latter simply corresponded to HH's delusional states - for these (and their productions) were real enough for me.
HH gradually starts to refer to CQ as "McFate.' and exhibits a dim awareness of his presence.
The first time we find an Aubrey McFAte is in a list of names (copied on the reverse side of a sheet with a childish outline of the map of America). HH thinks it indicates the names of Lolita's class-mates and I failed to realize the irony of the name Aubrey in connection to its first intimation of Beardsley and "mapping out" ( " 'Ah,' said Mrs. Humbert, dreaming...'Little Lo, I'm afraid, does not enter the picture at all, at all. Little Lo goes straight from camp to a good boarding school with strict discipline and some sound religious training. And then - Beardsley College. I have it all mapped out, you need not worry'.". )
** - Musical Analogies in The Defense by Alexander Drescher (Zembla)
*** - John Shade's lines: "But like some little lad forced by a wench/With his pure tongue her abject thirst to quench,/ I was corrupted, terrified, allured..." came to my mind.
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Sandy Drescher** notes that the "distinction between Game and Problem controls how the end of the novel is to be understood. If the chess board of eternity is part of a Game, then suicide is unsuccessful as a defense. It is a defeat if Luzhin jumped into a malignant continuation of the life he wished to escape...Alternatively, if eternity is a Chess Problem, Luzhin enters into that abstract realm where he functions, can finally be at home, will enjoy the music of the spheres." An interesting, metaphysical, point.
The comparison between Luzhin's chess-obsessed life and HH's nymphet-obsession hadn't occurred to me before. Luzhin would be someone trying to escape from his destiny whereas Humbert was in his pursuit. It didn't occur to me either that it could be possible to reread "Lolita" bearing in mind the chess-world distinction between "a game" and "a problem." In Pale Fire (if memory serves me)the indifferent Gods are playing a "game of worlds" ..but...but...hyerogliphs, entomology, numbers and chess-moves form an impenetrable veil that keeps me away from Nabokov's reeling firmament.
btw: I searched for other entries related to "Tellurium" (52). In Pale Fire the reference is to "Chtonic," from TSEliot's poem, JS line 370.
1.ADA (a): Marina's "Man-made objects lost their significance or grew monstrous connotations; clothes hangers were really the shoulders of decapitated Tellurians, the folds of a blanket she had kicked off her bed looked back at her mournfully with a stye on one drooping eyelid and dreary reproof in the limp twist of a livid lip."
(b)Van's: "What a soprano Cora had been! Demon took Van to the world-famous Opera House in Telluride in West Colorado and there he enjoyed (and sometimes detested) the greatest international shows...He passed through various little passions - parlor magic, chess, fluff-weight boxing matches at fairs, stunt-riding - and of course those unforgettable, much too early initiations when his lovely young English governess expertly petted him between milkshake and bed***..."
2. RLSK: Clare Bishop: " She had no special intention of being happy or of making Sebastian happy... it was merely a matter of naturally accepting life with Sebastian because life without him was less imaginable than a tellurian's camping-tent on a mountain in the moon..."
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* - I remember Aubrey McFate, plus the different references to fate made by HH, and I recovered this particularly revelatory sentence: "I now warn the reader not to mock me and my mental daze. It is easy for him and me to decipher now a past destiny; but a destiny in the making is, believe me, not one of those honest mystery stories where all you have to do is keep an eye on the clues. In my youth I once read a French detective tale where the clues were actually in italics; but that is not McFate's way - even if one does learn to recognize certain obscure indications." However, I failed to consider Lolita's and Quilty's schemes as being in fact a part of the "fiction's real." until now. In my eyes, the latter simply corresponded to HH's delusional states - for these (and their productions) were real enough for me.
HH gradually starts to refer to CQ as "McFate.' and exhibits a dim awareness of his presence.
The first time we find an Aubrey McFAte is in a list of names (copied on the reverse side of a sheet with a childish outline of the map of America). HH thinks it indicates the names of Lolita's class-mates and I failed to realize the irony of the name Aubrey in connection to its first intimation of Beardsley and "mapping out" ( " 'Ah,' said Mrs. Humbert, dreaming...'Little Lo, I'm afraid, does not enter the picture at all, at all. Little Lo goes straight from camp to a good boarding school with strict discipline and some sound religious training. And then - Beardsley College. I have it all mapped out, you need not worry'.". )
** - Musical Analogies in The Defense by Alexander Drescher (Zembla)
*** - John Shade's lines: "But like some little lad forced by a wench/With his pure tongue her abject thirst to quench,/ I was corrupted, terrified, allured..." came to my mind.
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/