Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011766, Fri, 2 Sep 2005 20:05:45 -0700

Subject
Fwd: Re: Jo Morgan re Michael Maar's evidence on the
Lolita/Lichberg issue.
Date
Body
In Brazil we have an expression: "Speak ill but still speak about Brazilian
cinema" ( "Falem mal mas falem do cinema nacional"). A kind of "lip service"
that might help to sell tickets...

In her comment about the Lolita/Lichberg issue, Jo Morgan ("Solving
Nabokov's Lolita Riddle",2005) brings up her theory about VN´s "strategy of
encrypting deliberate 'blunders' across his memoirs" that led her to the
conclusion that she has "managed to prove that Nabokov wrote Lolita as a
semi-autobiographical/semi-fictional account of his own terrible incestuous
abuse as a boy at the hands of his pedophilic Uncle Ruka".
In several moments in his memoirs VN quite explicitly mentioned
"Mademoiselle" as someone who used to touch and caress him to help him
sleep. He described the smell of enuresis in her room and suggested delicate
intimacies, of the kind sometimes praticed by nannies with their young
charges ( amply illustrated by Freud, by the way).
His uncle was fabulously wealthy and sophisticated, Mademoiselle was of
humble origin. VN, while writing about her, was rather compassionate, but
he was not completely resentful about his Uncle either: he could recognize
his ambivalent feelings towards him and express his wish to forget part of
his experience.
Why would he then return to them and "encrypt" a message to his readers -
and why would these refer only to Uncle Ruka?
Jansy




----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 8:35 PM
Subject: Jo Morgan re Michael Maar's evidence on the Lolita/Lichberg issue.


> Re the 'outrage'Kunin expects will one day be unleashed over Michael
Maar's
> arguments about the connection between VN's Lolita and Lichberg's minor
> work.
>
> I am still waiting for Nabokov's many scholars and fans to show sufficient
> interest in my book "Solving Nabokov's Lolita Riddle" (2005). By paying
> careful attention to Nabokov's well-documented battle against Sigmund
Freud
> and his strategy of encrypting deliberate 'blunders' across his memoirs
> (Speak, Memory/Conclusive Evidence and Eugene Onegin)I have managed to
> prove that Nabokov wrote Lolita as a semi-autobiographical/semi-fictional
> account of his own terrible incestuous abuse as a boy at the hands of his
> pedophilic Uncle Ruka.
>
> The dangerous confidence trick 'Nabokov the Magician' has pulled on
> everyone explains: 1) the many gender-bending games the author played
> around Humbert's 'twofold' nymphet (e.g. Lolita's 'boys knees, her
'butcher-
> boy' pyjamas and 'tomboy shirt'); 2) the author's closing confession in
his
> so-called 'novel' Lolita - "I have camouflaged what I could so as not to
> hurt people"; and 3) Humbert's sly agreement that Lolita can take part in
> the Beardsley school play provided that boys parts are taken by girls
> parts. It also explains the blatant lie Nabokov told in his infamous
> postscript "On a Book Entitled Lolita" - namely that a US publisher had
> once proposed he replace his 12 year old girl with a boy.
>
> The revelations contained in my book with one day make Maar's work look
> like the proverbial storm in a tea cup. Please take the time to examine
> aspects of my analysis on my website www.lolitariddle.com. You can also
> order copies of my book via the website, if you so wish.
>
> With Lolita turning 50 this month, isn't it past time for Nabokov's 'time-
> bomb' to finally go off?
>
> Jo Morgan
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
>
>

----- End forwarded message -----