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Fw: Does HH actually address Dolores as LOLITA?
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EDITOR's NOTE. I recall that someone conjectured that the rhyming pseudonym
"Haze" reflects the "real" name "Blaze." Can anyone make something of that?
---------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Camille Scaysbrook" <verona_beach@hotpop.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: Does HH actually address Dolores as LOLITA?
----------------- Message requiring your approval (85
lines) ------------------
I think the point that was being made is that no one but Humbert refers to
her as Lolita. The early discussion of her name (`but in my arms she was
always Lolita') would back up the idea that Lolita is the name Humbert has
given the girl that he meets in the fantasy world that they occupy as
lovers. In the `real' world, she is Lo, or Dolly, or Dolores. Lolita is the
name of a woman; Dolly is the name of a child. As stated in the
introduction, Lolita's is the only name that has not been altered to
protect
the innocent - `nor is there any practical reason to'; because the real
person is only one component in Humbert's obsession. I think it was a very
big mistake of Kubrick's to confuse the two.
Camille Scaysbrook
>
> > To answer Mr. Tapscott's question: HH does directly address Dolores
> > Haze
> > as "Lolita" on several occasions throughout the novel, usually when he
> > is
> > speaking archly or with great emotion. The following is an interesting
> > example: HH and DH are setting out from Beardsley on their final
> > cross-country roadtrip. They have just driven past the New Hotel and
> > Lolita laughs as they pass it (no doubt recalling her meetings there
> > with
> > CQ - when she should have been receiving keyboard instruction from "a
> > Miss
> > Emperor" - "Empress of the Ivories," perhaps? or the "Ivory
> > Empress?").
> > After a somewhat implausible encounter at a traffic light with Edusa
> > Gold
> > (Beardsley drama coach and sister of Electra, Beardsley tennis coach),
> > and
> > after DH's rather nifty parry of HH's subsequent inquiry concerning
> > DH's
> > performance in the Beardsley production of "The Enchanted Hunters," HH
> > assumes a lofty, quasi-paternal air and states:
> >
> > "You are a funny creature, Lolita," I said --- or some such words.
> > "Naturally, I am overjoyed you gave up that absurd stage business. But
> > what is curious is that you dropped the whole thing only a week before
> > its
> > natural climax. Oh, Lolita, you should be careful of those surrenders
> > of
> > yours. I remember you gave up Ramsdale for camp, and camp for a
> > joyride,
> > and I could list other abrupt changes in your disposition. You must be
> > careful. There are things that should never be given up. You must
> > persevere. You should try to be a little nicer to me, Lolita. You
> > should
> > also watch your diet . . . ." (Lolita, p. 209.)
> >
> > Now it was certainly sound counsel to advise Lolita to be careful of
> > her
> > surrenders, but, as is usually the case, HH gets the specifics wrong.
> > Lolita did not voluntarily acquiesce to either of the "abrupt changes
> > in
> > [her] disposition" that HH offers as examples of her fickle nature: Lo
> > was furious with - and furiously resisted - Charlotte's scheme to pack
> > her
> > off to Camp Q so that the poor, doomed, lovestruck woman could have
> > handsome Hum all to herself; and when Lo was abruptly summoned from
> > Camp Q
> > by HH she had no idea that she was embarking on a 12 month, 27,000 mile
> > joyride, which even HH conceded Lo only went along with because "she
> > had
> > absolutely nowhere else to go." Rather, the willful surrenders that
> > Lolita should have carefully avoided were to HH and CQ and their
> > depraved
> > nympholeptic desires - the second of which Lolita amusedly reflects
> > upon
> > as HH delivers his grotesque lecture. So while HH continues to sketch
> > the
> > bars of his cage, the reader, Lo, and VN share a joke at his expense.
> > Such is only one of the many joys of reading "Lolita."
> >
> > Also, during HH's final conversation with Lo, when he pleads with her
> > to
> > leave her husband and come away with him, he addresses her as "Lolita."
> > Lolita wisely declines this desperate, demented request, and I wonder
> > if
> > HH realizes that, in rejecting him and remaining with her dear, dim,
> > deaf
> > Dick, Lolita finally understands his earlier advice, and agrees with HH
> > that "There are things that should never be given up"?
> >
>
>
"Haze" reflects the "real" name "Blaze." Can anyone make something of that?
---------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Camille Scaysbrook" <verona_beach@hotpop.com>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: Does HH actually address Dolores as LOLITA?
----------------- Message requiring your approval (85
lines) ------------------
I think the point that was being made is that no one but Humbert refers to
her as Lolita. The early discussion of her name (`but in my arms she was
always Lolita') would back up the idea that Lolita is the name Humbert has
given the girl that he meets in the fantasy world that they occupy as
lovers. In the `real' world, she is Lo, or Dolly, or Dolores. Lolita is the
name of a woman; Dolly is the name of a child. As stated in the
introduction, Lolita's is the only name that has not been altered to
protect
the innocent - `nor is there any practical reason to'; because the real
person is only one component in Humbert's obsession. I think it was a very
big mistake of Kubrick's to confuse the two.
Camille Scaysbrook
>
> > To answer Mr. Tapscott's question: HH does directly address Dolores
> > Haze
> > as "Lolita" on several occasions throughout the novel, usually when he
> > is
> > speaking archly or with great emotion. The following is an interesting
> > example: HH and DH are setting out from Beardsley on their final
> > cross-country roadtrip. They have just driven past the New Hotel and
> > Lolita laughs as they pass it (no doubt recalling her meetings there
> > with
> > CQ - when she should have been receiving keyboard instruction from "a
> > Miss
> > Emperor" - "Empress of the Ivories," perhaps? or the "Ivory
> > Empress?").
> > After a somewhat implausible encounter at a traffic light with Edusa
> > Gold
> > (Beardsley drama coach and sister of Electra, Beardsley tennis coach),
> > and
> > after DH's rather nifty parry of HH's subsequent inquiry concerning
> > DH's
> > performance in the Beardsley production of "The Enchanted Hunters," HH
> > assumes a lofty, quasi-paternal air and states:
> >
> > "You are a funny creature, Lolita," I said --- or some such words.
> > "Naturally, I am overjoyed you gave up that absurd stage business. But
> > what is curious is that you dropped the whole thing only a week before
> > its
> > natural climax. Oh, Lolita, you should be careful of those surrenders
> > of
> > yours. I remember you gave up Ramsdale for camp, and camp for a
> > joyride,
> > and I could list other abrupt changes in your disposition. You must be
> > careful. There are things that should never be given up. You must
> > persevere. You should try to be a little nicer to me, Lolita. You
> > should
> > also watch your diet . . . ." (Lolita, p. 209.)
> >
> > Now it was certainly sound counsel to advise Lolita to be careful of
> > her
> > surrenders, but, as is usually the case, HH gets the specifics wrong.
> > Lolita did not voluntarily acquiesce to either of the "abrupt changes
> > in
> > [her] disposition" that HH offers as examples of her fickle nature: Lo
> > was furious with - and furiously resisted - Charlotte's scheme to pack
> > her
> > off to Camp Q so that the poor, doomed, lovestruck woman could have
> > handsome Hum all to herself; and when Lo was abruptly summoned from
> > Camp Q
> > by HH she had no idea that she was embarking on a 12 month, 27,000 mile
> > joyride, which even HH conceded Lo only went along with because "she
> > had
> > absolutely nowhere else to go." Rather, the willful surrenders that
> > Lolita should have carefully avoided were to HH and CQ and their
> > depraved
> > nympholeptic desires - the second of which Lolita amusedly reflects
> > upon
> > as HH delivers his grotesque lecture. So while HH continues to sketch
> > the
> > bars of his cage, the reader, Lo, and VN share a joke at his expense.
> > Such is only one of the many joys of reading "Lolita."
> >
> > Also, during HH's final conversation with Lo, when he pleads with her
> > to
> > leave her husband and come away with him, he addresses her as "Lolita."
> > Lolita wisely declines this desperate, demented request, and I wonder
> > if
> > HH realizes that, in rejecting him and remaining with her dear, dim,
> > deaf
> > Dick, Lolita finally understands his earlier advice, and agrees with HH
> > that "There are things that should never be given up"?
> >
>
>