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[Fwd: Re: Lolita & Molly Bloom's last words (Joyce. Ulysses)]
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I too feel a great deal of submerged textual affinity between Lolita
(and
Bend Sinister) and Joyce's Ulysses. It would be difficult to build a
strong
case on the evidence provided by Molly Bloom's last words, but they can
probably be heard as joining a vaster concert of echoes.
Leona Toker
----------
> From: Rodney Welch <rodney41@mindspring.com>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Lolita & Molly Bloom's last words (Joyce. Ulysses)
> Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 8:05 PM
>
>
>
> Does the last line of Chapter 10 of Lolita subtly allude to the last
> line
> of Joyce's Ulysses? Alfred Appel's annotated version doesn't say so, but
> it
> certainly occurred to me in a recent re-reading.
> In Chapter 10, Charlotte gives Humbert the grand tour of the Haze
> household, concluding with the delirium-inducing sight of Dolores on the
> lawn. The conclusion of the chapter reads as follows:
>
> "...All I know is that while the Haze woman and I went down the
> steps
> into the breathless garden, my knees were like reflections of knees in
> rippling water, and my lips were like sand, and -
> "`That was my Lo,' she said, `and these are my lilies.'"
> "`Yes,' I said `yes. They are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!'"
>
> Ё... yes I said yes I will Yes│ are of course the last words of
> Joyce's
> masterpiece. Is there more to this association? Molly Bloom does make
> casual
> references in her monologue to Lily Lantry, "The Jersey Lily" -- I don│t
> recall whether the association runs deeper. What does strike me, though,
> is
> that Molly, at the end of her monolgue, casts herself as the "Flower of
> the
> mountain" with "the rose in my hair," giving herself over to mixed
> memories
> of Lieutenant Mulvey and her husband Leopold, and her own raging
> youthful
> desire with both. Am I going too far out on a limb to contrast Humbert,
> unleashing his own lust on a youthful object, Lolita -- who doesn't
> carry a
> rose in her hair but is often compared to one?
> Am I reaching here?
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC
I too feel a great deal of submerged textual affinity between Lolita
(and
Bend Sinister) and Joyce's Ulysses. It would be difficult to build a
strong
case on the evidence provided by Molly Bloom's last words, but they can
probably be heard as joining a vaster concert of echoes.
Leona Toker
----------
> From: Rodney Welch <rodney41@mindspring.com>
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Lolita & Molly Bloom's last words (Joyce. Ulysses)
> Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 8:05 PM
>
>
>
> Does the last line of Chapter 10 of Lolita subtly allude to the last
> line
> of Joyce's Ulysses? Alfred Appel's annotated version doesn't say so, but
> it
> certainly occurred to me in a recent re-reading.
> In Chapter 10, Charlotte gives Humbert the grand tour of the Haze
> household, concluding with the delirium-inducing sight of Dolores on the
> lawn. The conclusion of the chapter reads as follows:
>
> "...All I know is that while the Haze woman and I went down the
> steps
> into the breathless garden, my knees were like reflections of knees in
> rippling water, and my lips were like sand, and -
> "`That was my Lo,' she said, `and these are my lilies.'"
> "`Yes,' I said `yes. They are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!'"
>
> Ё... yes I said yes I will Yes│ are of course the last words of
> Joyce's
> masterpiece. Is there more to this association? Molly Bloom does make
> casual
> references in her monologue to Lily Lantry, "The Jersey Lily" -- I don│t
> recall whether the association runs deeper. What does strike me, though,
> is
> that Molly, at the end of her monolgue, casts herself as the "Flower of
> the
> mountain" with "the rose in my hair," giving herself over to mixed
> memories
> of Lieutenant Mulvey and her husband Leopold, and her own raging
> youthful
> desire with both. Am I going too far out on a limb to contrast Humbert,
> unleashing his own lust on a youthful object, Lolita -- who doesn't
> carry a
> rose in her hair but is often compared to one?
> Am I reaching here?
>
> Rodney Welch
> Columbia, SC