Rachel: enjoyed your allusional chasse aux papillons.
Netting new specimens as they flutter-by is a delightful game. Just how
much we MAKE of these recurring themes is mootish. Do we first need the
taxing taxonomy employed in other domains (indeed, one of VN’s fortes)?
Can we classify allusions, separating those that rely on wordplay and
etymological accidents from those with deeper significance?
The former vary according to the reader’s language and culture. Some
Anglophones would be as ready to link the letters HUM with slangy
smells as with tuneful wing-beats. From the hundreds of English words
starting with HUM you can pull out some to match any mood, from HUMour
to HUMdrum [sic], a fact exploited daily in the posher crosswords. What
must be remembered is that Humbert Humbert has entered our lexis with a
life of its own, beyond the actual character revealed in the monster’s
‘own words.’ We each carry images of HH, even those with only a cursory
knowledge of the book (or films). Those who read and re-read (as VN
commandeth) will forever pick up fresh new-ances, almost as we get to
know real people better: strangers (on this very list!) becoming old
acquaintances.
Expect some contradictions and self-deceptions. HH as self-styled
humming-bird is a very mixed metaphor. Hardly the conventional predator
model of paedophilia. The flowers flirt openly and offer their luscious
juices as a reward for botanical services rendered on the side!
HH the Hummer can be HH the Stinker. Anachronistically, HH can be a
macho gas-guzzling 4-wheel drive? In the movies HH drives what could be
mistaken for the British Humber, a rather sedate sedan trying to look
like a Yankee limo?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
ACM Curmudgeon columnist: www.acmqueue.org/