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Joseph Aisenberg agrees "one hundred percent, but I think the critic was merely echoing that old idea that Nabokov's novel was a record of his love affair with the English languange [...] The critic took this idea somewhat literally [...] it seems like the idea of linguistic proxy, while not being exactly the heart of the book, represents a certain Quixotic something [...] I always wondered, is artistic perfection really much of a palliative for Humbert? Because if it is, then Humbert doesn't really believe, as he says, that he has only words to play with."
[ to JA} By "linguistic proxy" do you mean a fetish?
J.A.: I suppose in a strict, non-Freudian sense I do mean "fetish". Meaning that his words are a magical kind of stand in. I meant this two ways: One Dolores Haze herself is used to by Humbert to regain Annabel; and then when he loses Lolita he uses his memoir to bring her back, to stick her to his aura forever.