I have always thought that the coincidence of 342s (Lawn St, hotel room, hotel registries) in
Lolita was HH’s invention, so as to make himself seem a pawn of McFate.
Matt Roth
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]
On Behalf Of Jansy Mello
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 4:00 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Quiz: unreliable narrators and fictional certainties
Writing about Fran Assa's spotting of the name "Clare Bishop" [
Cf. The Suicide of Claire Bishop - I just happened upon a novel of this title by Carmiel Banasky, Dzanc Books, 2015. I skimmed it and could find no attribution to Nabokov, so the title is probably a coincidence. On the other hand I haven't read it
"], Mary Efremov observes simply that: "she supposedly died after giving birht if the artful brother is to be believed." This commentary inspired me to invite the VN-L participants to offer suggestions about the "fictional facts" that can be considered
as unquestionable "fictional truths" in any VN's novel.
I think that there are many such facts to be marked ( as, for example, that Van and Ada are siblings) - but I'm curious about what Nablers think about how often "unreliable narrators" distort most of the
information the reader gets access to.
Jansy Mello
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