Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024476, Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:39:24 -0300

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Re: [SIGHTING] "Lolita" -Australian group The Veronicas
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develloping on former posting at:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt8fud_the-veronicas-lolita-2012_music : "Lolita" is a song recorded by Australian duo The Veronicas for their upcoming third studio album Life on Mars (2012)...Taking its name and inspiration from the 1955 novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov, the song draws on the experiences by Lisa and Jessica...Explaining the theme of the song in the same interview, Jessica stated: "To us, Lolita, is about power play... It's the power play between genders and age groups, as well as people's perception of taboo, boundaries, what is acceptable and what a Lolita is: She's a bad-ass and she's on a mission. She wants to destroy something, either her own perception of what's right and wrong or everyone elses. She wants to prove something to herself."

Jansy Mello: Nabokov's "Lolita" touches many chords in people from different backgrounds, ages and experiences. The Veronica's explanation about their song that has Lolita as a theme (Lolita and nymphets are now independent signifiers...), although I feel the opposite of what they state in their two last lines, marks a point when they state that Lolita's story may be seen as being " about power play...It's the power play between genders and age groups, as well as people's perception of taboo, boundaries..."

The conjecture above serves as an opening to something else, very distant from Nabokov's novel, that may fall into the "eight degrees of separation" very wide view of (human) connections. Writing about William Wyler's movie "Wuthering Heights", the critic L.F.Gallego begins his article with a reference to the director's 1965 movie "The Collector" (based on a novel by John Flowles), whose main character, Freddie Clegg, appears as "a modern Heathcliff," in a review published by Time Magazine (reference absent).

In Fowles's novel, the butterfly collector kidnaps a young woman, Miranda, and keeps her in captivity in the hopes of getting her to fall in love with him. In Emily Bronte's 1847 "Wuthering Heights,"young Cathy Linton was also held captive by an older man obsessed by a childhood love who died after giving birth to his young "slave", Cathy.

Two very rough sketches bring together two very distinct novels, probably because Wyler had already filmed the acclaimed 1939 movie "Wuthering Heights."

And here am I offering still one more link: Bronte/Fowles's power play and obsessions... to Nabokov's "Lolita." - but only at the level of their superficial thematic connections and of the less superficial idea of power and control (childhood fixations, obsessions, collections...). However, related to Fowles and Nabokov, there are promising articles and commentaries to be gleaned from internet sources: Now, concering a move from Nabokv towards Emily Bronte demands a leap of faith (not miine - however, uncollected associations may still be living and free before they become dissociations - but I chose to bring them up anyway...) We know that Nabokov wasn't an admirer of British women writers (until Edmund Wilson opened his mind towards Jane Austen...).
1. THE "COLLECTOR" AS EXPERIENCE OF EROS AND SEXUALITY IN VLADIMIR NABOKOV'S "LOLITA" AND JOHN FOWLES' "THE COLLECTOR"
Bavjola Shatro http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/622

Abstract: ?This article aims to analyze the role of Eros and sexuality in the creation of the literary figure and aesthetical type of the collector in the novels The Collector by John Fowles and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.The syndrome of the collector is a literary entity that I consider a phenomenon connected to the experience of sexuality as a distorted sense of Eros. It creates an ephemeral reality, one which the collector tends to experience strongly, while the individual becomes ? in two different ways ? a collector of the inner and deformed sexual desires that never reach the complexity of Eros.
I shall focus mainly on a hermeneutic approach to prove that, especially in the postmodern literary product, and particularly in novels, Eros and sexuality are a basic key to understanding the complexity of the literary character. The two novels by Fowles and Nabokov to a great extent help to create this synthesized panorama.
or: European Scientific Journal December edition vol.8, No.29 ISSN: 1857 - 7881 (Print) e -ISSN 1857- 7431
Dr.Bavjola Shatro Aleksandër Moisiu University
Full Text: PDF

2. VN-L: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A2=nabokv-l;b81382e1.0311

3.The Mechanics of Suspense: Butterflies Are (Not) Free by Katia Lief
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2011/05/the-mechanics-of-suspense-butterflies-are-not-free
"C'mon, you know you want to.Today's hot marketplace for thrillers places a little red devil on crime writers' shoulders, mercilessly reminding us to speed up the story at all costs: "Faster, buddy boy. Keep that action movin'!" Yes, some readers like a narrative weightless enough to mainline like a sugarcoated donut and black coffee in the morning, briefly tricking you into thinking something good just happened. But as a working novelist who has taught the craft of fiction for many years, and now teaches a workshop in writing suspense fiction, I implore my students to make character just as important as action, warning them to neglect character development at their own peril, little red devil be damned. ¨"

4. The 5 Greatest Books With Psychotic Fanbases By Connor Thorpe June 13, 2010 1,588,943 views
Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18568_the-5-greatest-books-with-psychotic-fanbases_p2.html#ixzz2c3UuxNE8

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