rsgwynn: The
irony here should be that Humbert's memoirs will be published only in a sleazy
"confessions" paperback in which no one will take an aesthetic interest, only a
prurient one. Nabokov surely tells us that the "purity" of Humbert's
intentions could not survive the scrutiny of the "real" world. In the
usual metafictional way, the book about Humbert survives and is a masterpiece,
but the book by Humbert is a mere bus-station-shelf aberration.
Jansy Mello: Fascinating
changes of perspective! Were Humbert Humbert a "real" author in the "real
world" his published confessions would become an aberration, inspite
of his talents and efficient yarn-spinning. However, since the "real"
author is Vladimir Nabokov, and Humbert is one of his
fictional creatures, the final result becomes an
undisputed literary mastepiece.
I'm
well aware that Nabokov despised any effort to establish some sort
of parallel between well-written tales and "real" events or
"real" people* - but that's the rub, since both Humbert and Lolita
speak to the readers because they are real after all (although they
emerge from composite figures and a collection of
recognizable human behaviors).
It's the novel's truth (&
the artistic rendering of this mysterious truth) that
which transforms "Humbert's confessions" into a
masterpiece.**
I think I can agree with R.S.Gwynn: Humbert has "only
words to play with" to find relief in "the refuge of
art," unlike Vladimir Nabokov, for whom art is no hiding place and to
whom it offers no relief. And I mustn't forget to mention it- it
affords him "aesthetic bliss."
.
............................................................................
* - We find it made explicit in "Strong
Opinions" but his annoyance is also ironically rendered in "Lolita,"
when Nabokov has John Ray Jr. state that: For the benefit of old-fashioned readers who
wish to follow the destinies of the "real" people beyond the "true" story, a few
details may be given as received from Mr. "Windmuller," of "Ramsdale," who
desires his identity suppressed so that "the long shadow of this sorry and
sordid business" should not reach the community to which he is proud to belong.
His daughter, "Louise," is by now a college sophomore, "Mona Dahl" is a student
in Paris. "Rita"
has recently married the proprietor of a hotel in Florida. Mrs. "Richard F.
Schiller" died in childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, on Christmas Day
1952,
in Gray Star, a settlement in the remotest Northwest.
"Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly,
and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book.
"
** -
Nabokov causes the fictional editor's affirmations, at the close
of his "Preamble" to "Lolita", to be seen as
ludicrously moralistic - because we know how V.Nabokov despises
novels with educational and profilatic intents, and how he
abhors generalizations. However, I share John Ray Jr's opinion
about the significance of this novel's "ethical impact" (here I mean,
exclusively, its "truth" and all the different kinds of
effects it engenders) and must pay the price of having been made to
look ridiculous...
..."As a work of art, it transcends its
expiatory aspects; and still more important to us than scientific significance
and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious
reader; for in this poignant personal study there lurks a general lesson; the
wayward child, the egotistic mother, the panting maniac — these are not only
vivid characters in a unique story: they warn us of dangerous trends; they point
out potent evils. "Lolita" should make all of us — parents, social workers,
educators — apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task
of bringing up a better generation in a safer
world.".