Subject
Re: Lo "Diary" to be published in Britain (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. The full text of the Richard Woods' story ran on Nabokv-l
on 15 July. J. Farmer comments on its distinctly odd synopsis of Lolita.
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>From the 27 June 1999 [London] Times article, "Lolita the feminist tells
it her way," by Richard Woods:
"The mother dies and Humbert embarks on an abusive affair with Lolita. As
they travel across America, she falls for a younger man and the book ends
in tragedy as both Humbert and Lolita die."
Of course, Lolita marries Dick Schiller, "a dark-haired young stranger in
overalls," but only after she falls for, is seduced by, or is stolen away
by Quilty, the "distinguished playwright" in the cigarette ad on her
bedroom wall, in Lo's eyes a sophisticated "older man" like Humbert.
These two lines (35 words) are inaccurate or misleading in other respects.
For one thing, Lolita "falls for" Quilty well before she and Humbert begin
their fateful final trip on the road across the United States. More
importantly, while it seems reasonable and humane to concede that LOLITA
is in some sense a tragedy, what do the deaths of Lolita and Humbert have
to do with it? Never mind that they die separately, of natural causes
unrelated to their affair; never mind that their deaths are merely noted,
for the sake of tidying up, in an editor's foreword, outside the
narration. Imagine that Lolita and Humbert survived the book's ending.
Would their story be any less tragic?
Jeff Farmer
af369@acorn.net
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on 15 July. J. Farmer comments on its distinctly odd synopsis of Lolita.
-------------------------------
>From the 27 June 1999 [London] Times article, "Lolita the feminist tells
it her way," by Richard Woods:
"The mother dies and Humbert embarks on an abusive affair with Lolita. As
they travel across America, she falls for a younger man and the book ends
in tragedy as both Humbert and Lolita die."
Of course, Lolita marries Dick Schiller, "a dark-haired young stranger in
overalls," but only after she falls for, is seduced by, or is stolen away
by Quilty, the "distinguished playwright" in the cigarette ad on her
bedroom wall, in Lo's eyes a sophisticated "older man" like Humbert.
These two lines (35 words) are inaccurate or misleading in other respects.
For one thing, Lolita "falls for" Quilty well before she and Humbert begin
their fateful final trip on the road across the United States. More
importantly, while it seems reasonable and humane to concede that LOLITA
is in some sense a tragedy, what do the deaths of Lolita and Humbert have
to do with it? Never mind that they die separately, of natural causes
unrelated to their affair; never mind that their deaths are merely noted,
for the sake of tidying up, in an editor's foreword, outside the
narration. Imagine that Lolita and Humbert survived the book's ending.
Would their story be any less tragic?
Jeff Farmer
af369@acorn.net
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