Well,some readers do indeed seem to be so seduced. It is a beautiful
passage, and as I said it has its own validity, not just as VN's poetry but
as his invention of Humbert's poetical-moral true -- but fleeting --
perception of the "hearts of children outshining" him, as you beautifully put
it. But, as Brian Boyd points out, one just has to consider the
chronology. Then the truth becomes devastating. It is indeed aesthetically
and morally naive to think that this passage, that "Humbert" has so
carefully placed, "redeems" him, as a number of people have claimed, thereby
falling into the trap that Nabokov has had Humbert lay for them. The novel is
surely a moral and aesthetic test, devised by Nabokov to distinguish the good
reader and re-reader from, among others, the sentimental one. No wonder he
wrote: "I believe that one day a reappraiser will come and declare that, far
from being a frivolous firebird, I was a rigid moralist kicking sin, cuffing
stupidity, ridiculing the vulgar and cruel -- and assigning sovereign power to
tenderness, talent, and pride." (Strong Opinions, 1973, p.
193.)
Anthony
Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22
7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and
convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical, existential,
phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See "Existential
Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/
for programme of future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past
seminars
In a message dated 24/02/2012 02:35:23 GMT Standard Time,
stevenorquist@GMAIL.COM writes:
But what
is the reader "ruthlessly exposed" to, his own naivete? And is the reader
"seduced" into believing such a "baboon" can be so easily redeemed? As a
reader, I don't hear Humbert in the passage, but the poetry of VN on the
hearts of children outshining the Humberts of a monstrous world.
On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 8:24 AM, Anthony Stadlen
<STADLEN@aol.com> wrote:
In a message dated 22/02/2012 14:19:47 GMT Standard Time,
Rsgwynn1@CS.COM writes:
Does
Humbert ultimately receive some moment of Grace? I like to think he
has, as he sits overlooking and overhearing the children near the end of
the novel. It does move in a mysterious way, its wonders to
perform.
Brian Boyd has long ago pointed to Nabokov's brilliance and
insight in having Humbert seductively place this passage just
where it is near the end of his narrative. Nabokov ruthlessly exposes
readers who are seduced by the rhetoric of a child-rapist and murderer. This
does not mean that Humbert's fleeting insight had no validity,
but it was fleeting, and he did not have the integrity to
act on it.
Anthony Stadlen
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra
Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle
Seminars: an ethical, existential, phenomenological search for truth in
psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/ for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
All private editorial
communications are read by both co-editors.
--
Norky
All private
editorial communications are read by both co-editors.