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Re: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd)
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Is it too naive to suppose that Lolita asks the question because she wants
to know the answer?
At the hotel she must have had much on her mind more vital than attending
to its name. She can guess the name from vaguely remembering it and from
her expectation/hope that it is exactly the name of the play, which, for
her, confirms Quilty's interest in her as being of long standing. Her
reaction to learning that indeed it was The Enchanted Hunters is just what
one would expect - she's ecstatic.
And for the reader it's another illustration of Humbert's blindness.
Mary Krimmel
At 11:08 AM 7/6/04 -0700, you wrote:
> ------------------ Hello, Don
> There was a question raised concerning a "throw-away line in Lolita",
> on the issue of HH´s frankly admitting Lo´s teasing on "the hotel
> where you raped me" and "mature reasoning".
> In my opinion, this would not be a "throw-away line" since Lolita deals
> with lots of other themes and this is why I´d never even imagine that
> arguments such as M.Maar´s or the Hayes missive ( the Irish Lolita
> connection) carried any weight. The theme of adult/child seduction/rape
> was first described by VN in " The Enchanter", but it is also mentioned
> in "The Gift" in connection to something in Zina´s childhood ( I have not
> time to check the quotations, and if I remember correctly, most of them
> appear as a sort of foot-note ) and its structural importance for the
> development of the plot varies in every novel.
> I suggest that in "Lolita" we would rather find attempts to elaborate
> on the elements that turn a perverse fantasy into a pervert act ( such
> as Lolita´s "rape" ) instead of aiming at the description of the pervert
> acts. Jansy
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 1:19 PM
> Subject: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd)
>
>
>> ------------------ In Part II in the last paragraph of chapter 13 of
>> _Lolita_, there is to my mind one of the oddest, almost throw-away lines
> in
>> the whole novel, where Lolita queries (teases?) HH about the name of the
>> hotel they stayed in (this is during the period she is rehearsing the
> play,
>> The Hunted Enchanters, named after the hotel) and refers to it as 'the
> hotel
>> where you raped me'. You almost have to wonder that HH isn't imagining
>> these words, because they seem to reveal a strangely mature psychology,
> and
>> because most of the sexual action is referred o so tangentially. Just my
>> cod-Freudian take on this. Any thoughts?
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>>
>>
>>
>> D. Barton Johnson
>> NABOKV-L
>>
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Is it too naive to suppose that Lolita asks the question because she wants
to know the answer?
At the hotel she must have had much on her mind more vital than attending
to its name. She can guess the name from vaguely remembering it and from
her expectation/hope that it is exactly the name of the play, which, for
her, confirms Quilty's interest in her as being of long standing. Her
reaction to learning that indeed it was The Enchanted Hunters is just what
one would expect - she's ecstatic.
And for the reader it's another illustration of Humbert's blindness.
Mary Krimmel
At 11:08 AM 7/6/04 -0700, you wrote:
> ------------------ Hello, Don
> There was a question raised concerning a "throw-away line in Lolita",
> on the issue of HH´s frankly admitting Lo´s teasing on "the hotel
> where you raped me" and "mature reasoning".
> In my opinion, this would not be a "throw-away line" since Lolita deals
> with lots of other themes and this is why I´d never even imagine that
> arguments such as M.Maar´s or the Hayes missive ( the Irish Lolita
> connection) carried any weight. The theme of adult/child seduction/rape
> was first described by VN in " The Enchanter", but it is also mentioned
> in "The Gift" in connection to something in Zina´s childhood ( I have not
> time to check the quotations, and if I remember correctly, most of them
> appear as a sort of foot-note ) and its structural importance for the
> development of the plot varies in every novel.
> I suggest that in "Lolita" we would rather find attempts to elaborate
> on the elements that turn a perverse fantasy into a pervert act ( such
> as Lolita´s "rape" ) instead of aiming at the description of the pervert
> acts. Jansy
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 1:19 PM
> Subject: odd moment in Lolita? (fwd)
>
>
>> ------------------ In Part II in the last paragraph of chapter 13 of
>> _Lolita_, there is to my mind one of the oddest, almost throw-away lines
> in
>> the whole novel, where Lolita queries (teases?) HH about the name of the
>> hotel they stayed in (this is during the period she is rehearsing the
> play,
>> The Hunted Enchanters, named after the hotel) and refers to it as 'the
> hotel
>> where you raped me'. You almost have to wonder that HH isn't imagining
>> these words, because they seem to reveal a strangely mature psychology,
> and
>> because most of the sexual action is referred o so tangentially. Just my
>> cod-Freudian take on this. Any thoughts?
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>>
>>
>>
>> D. Barton Johnson
>> NABOKV-L
>>
>
>
> ---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
>
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> NABOKV-L
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L