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Re: The "56 days" conundrum in "Lolita"
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S.Blackwell: "I too had counted, some years ago, the exact number of days, and remember noticing that there was some room for ambiguity or confusion once one actually starts counting and adding the segments of days from each month. ..at the time, I paid no attention to the fact that counting from Nov 16, Sept. 25 should be "52 days ago." But it does seem that the 52 is suggestive, and yes, the 52s in the "paper chase" are strong Shakespearian markers, signs of what Humbert later calls "the ingenious play staged for me by Quilty."...One way, among many, to read the latent 52 is as a sign that the murder was not, in fact, the end of the "ingenious play." But I'm sure there are other possible and tempting ways to read it."
A.Stadlen (11.03.2012) :" Appel's notes (The Annotated Lolita, Penguin Classics 2000, notes 251/14 and 251/15) to Humbert's record of the presumably fake registration numbers of his car left by Quilty -- Q 32888 and CU 88322 -- make a great deal of the fact that the two car numbers add up to 52. This is so specific and bizarre (why does it occur to Appel to add the numbers and insist that this is significant?) that this hint must surely have come from Nabokov himself. Appel (presumably prompted by Nabokov) points out that H.H., Lolita and Quilty all die in 1952, and that 52 is: the number of weeks (a year's) that Humbert is on the road with Lolita; the number of lines (13 x 4) in the poem he writes ("Wanted, wanted. Dolores Haze.") a few pages after recording the car numbers; and the number of cards in a pack of cards. In note 251/14, Appel says: "There are fifty-two cards in a deck, and the author of King, Queen, Knave still has a few up his sleeve, as he demonstrates here."
JM: A standard deck consists of 52 cards (four suits of 13 cards each), often with additional two jokers (54 cards). There are no jokers in "Bridge". There are no jokers in Alfred Appel's standard deck.
However, the "Tarot" has four suits and each has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards ( totalling 56 cards). In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit (Wikipedia). In the "Tarot" game, the "Ace" changes places and values (but is never "aught"), as it also occurs with the Fool..
Would the "Tarot" with its 56 minor arcane cards, or the "Bridge" no-Joker 52 total, be of any particular significance in the novel?
btw: Are there any articles about Lolita and the female Vivian Darkbloom?
JR Jr: "Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly, and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book. The caretakers of the various cemeteries involved report that no ghosts walk.
HH: "I am dreadfully sorry, my darling, my own ultraviolet darling," I said, unsuccessfully trying to catch her elbow, and I added, to change the conversation - to change the direction of fate, oh God, oh God: "Vivian is quite a woman. I am sure we saw her yesterday in that restaurant, in Soda pop."
"Sometimes," said Lo, "you are quite revoltingly dumb. First, Vivian is the male author, the gal author is Clare; and second, she is forty, married and has Negro blood."
"I thought," I said kidding her, "Quilty was an ancient flame of yours, in the days when you loved me, in sweet old Ramsdale."
"What?" countered Lo, her features working. "That fat dentist? You must be confusing me with some other fast little article."
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A.Stadlen (11.03.2012) :" Appel's notes (The Annotated Lolita, Penguin Classics 2000, notes 251/14 and 251/15) to Humbert's record of the presumably fake registration numbers of his car left by Quilty -- Q 32888 and CU 88322 -- make a great deal of the fact that the two car numbers add up to 52. This is so specific and bizarre (why does it occur to Appel to add the numbers and insist that this is significant?) that this hint must surely have come from Nabokov himself. Appel (presumably prompted by Nabokov) points out that H.H., Lolita and Quilty all die in 1952, and that 52 is: the number of weeks (a year's) that Humbert is on the road with Lolita; the number of lines (13 x 4) in the poem he writes ("Wanted, wanted. Dolores Haze.") a few pages after recording the car numbers; and the number of cards in a pack of cards. In note 251/14, Appel says: "There are fifty-two cards in a deck, and the author of King, Queen, Knave still has a few up his sleeve, as he demonstrates here."
JM: A standard deck consists of 52 cards (four suits of 13 cards each), often with additional two jokers (54 cards). There are no jokers in "Bridge". There are no jokers in Alfred Appel's standard deck.
However, the "Tarot" has four suits and each has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of 14 cards ( totalling 56 cards). In addition, the tarot is distinguished by a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Depending on the game, the Fool may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit (Wikipedia). In the "Tarot" game, the "Ace" changes places and values (but is never "aught"), as it also occurs with the Fool..
Would the "Tarot" with its 56 minor arcane cards, or the "Bridge" no-Joker 52 total, be of any particular significance in the novel?
btw: Are there any articles about Lolita and the female Vivian Darkbloom?
JR Jr: "Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly, and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book. The caretakers of the various cemeteries involved report that no ghosts walk.
HH: "I am dreadfully sorry, my darling, my own ultraviolet darling," I said, unsuccessfully trying to catch her elbow, and I added, to change the conversation - to change the direction of fate, oh God, oh God: "Vivian is quite a woman. I am sure we saw her yesterday in that restaurant, in Soda pop."
"Sometimes," said Lo, "you are quite revoltingly dumb. First, Vivian is the male author, the gal author is Clare; and second, she is forty, married and has Negro blood."
"I thought," I said kidding her, "Quilty was an ancient flame of yours, in the days when you loved me, in sweet old Ramsdale."
"What?" countered Lo, her features working. "That fat dentist? You must be confusing me with some other fast little article."
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/