Subject
Re: Anne Dwyer on "Why I teach Lolita"
From
Date
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Excellent points, Brian.
______________________________
VN Alexander, PhD
Director, Dactyl Foundation
www.victorianalexander.com
www.dactylfoundation.org
On 5/16/18 5:31 AM, Brian Boyd wrote:
>
> From Brian Boyd:
>
>
> I must confess I turned to Anne Dwyer’s article enthusiastically (even
> before Eric's post), because I find it harder and harder to teach
> /Lolita/ to my students, but I was disappointed.
>
> Part of the problem of teaching /Lolita/, isn’t it, is that many
> student readers nowadays fixate on Humbert’s perversion and evil to
> the exclusion of all else in the novel, as if the fact that Hermann
> Karlovich was a murderer made everything else in /Despair /irrelevant
> or immaterial or uninteresting; yet /Lolita/ is so many dimensions
> ampler than /Despair/.
>
> But if we /do/ stick to Humbert’s predilections and behavior, and
> think in terms of the harm the book could cause, being about those
> predilections and that behavior from the inside, one of the strongest
> claims on behalf of /Lolita/, surely, is that sex abuse therapists
> find it so valuable, so insightful, so genuinely therapeutic, such a
> clear way of showing the psychology of an abuser. See the attached
> article by Lucia Willians, and note her references to the work
> of Sokhna Fall.
>
> Another way of looking at /Lolita/ is in terms of content. It deals
> with things that we value so much, including desire and love and
> beauty, in ways that are outrageous. But it is the cost of having
> capacities for desire and love and an appetite for beauty that they
> /can/ go wrong, and that’s what makes their not going wrong so
> precious, and why we should be attuned to false claims to these positives.
>
> Another way of looking at the /Lolita /problem is in terms of the
> challenge to readers, the benefit for readers. One of the most
> important things in human life is freedom, including freedom from
> manipulation, from unfair and false persuasion and pressure, and from
> oppression. Humbert tries to manipulate and pressure us as he has
> manipulated Lolita. We need to learn to resist. /Lolita/ is the
> supreme exercise in literature of the challenge of reading against the
> character narrating. That’s partly a technical challenge for the
> author, and a “technical” and moral challenge for readers. Why would
> we want a fugitive and cloistered virtue?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> on behalf
> of Eric NAIMAN <naiman@BERKELEY.EDU>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 16 May 2018 8:12 a.m.
> *To:* NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> *Subject:* [NABOKV-L] Anne Dwyer on "Why I teach Lolita"
> For those of us who teach or admire /Lolita,/ Anne Dwyer (Pomona
> College) has published an eloquent defense of the novel.
>
> /https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/05/14/teaching-lolita-still-appropriate-opinion
> <https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/05/14/teaching-lolita-still-appropriate-opinion>/
>
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> Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search
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______________________________
VN Alexander, PhD
Director, Dactyl Foundation
www.victorianalexander.com
www.dactylfoundation.org
On 5/16/18 5:31 AM, Brian Boyd wrote:
>
> From Brian Boyd:
>
>
> I must confess I turned to Anne Dwyer’s article enthusiastically (even
> before Eric's post), because I find it harder and harder to teach
> /Lolita/ to my students, but I was disappointed.
>
> Part of the problem of teaching /Lolita/, isn’t it, is that many
> student readers nowadays fixate on Humbert’s perversion and evil to
> the exclusion of all else in the novel, as if the fact that Hermann
> Karlovich was a murderer made everything else in /Despair /irrelevant
> or immaterial or uninteresting; yet /Lolita/ is so many dimensions
> ampler than /Despair/.
>
> But if we /do/ stick to Humbert’s predilections and behavior, and
> think in terms of the harm the book could cause, being about those
> predilections and that behavior from the inside, one of the strongest
> claims on behalf of /Lolita/, surely, is that sex abuse therapists
> find it so valuable, so insightful, so genuinely therapeutic, such a
> clear way of showing the psychology of an abuser. See the attached
> article by Lucia Willians, and note her references to the work
> of Sokhna Fall.
>
> Another way of looking at /Lolita/ is in terms of content. It deals
> with things that we value so much, including desire and love and
> beauty, in ways that are outrageous. But it is the cost of having
> capacities for desire and love and an appetite for beauty that they
> /can/ go wrong, and that’s what makes their not going wrong so
> precious, and why we should be attuned to false claims to these positives.
>
> Another way of looking at the /Lolita /problem is in terms of the
> challenge to readers, the benefit for readers. One of the most
> important things in human life is freedom, including freedom from
> manipulation, from unfair and false persuasion and pressure, and from
> oppression. Humbert tries to manipulate and pressure us as he has
> manipulated Lolita. We need to learn to resist. /Lolita/ is the
> supreme exercise in literature of the challenge of reading against the
> character narrating. That’s partly a technical challenge for the
> author, and a “technical” and moral challenge for readers. Why would
> we want a fugitive and cloistered virtue?
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> on behalf
> of Eric NAIMAN <naiman@BERKELEY.EDU>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 16 May 2018 8:12 a.m.
> *To:* NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> *Subject:* [NABOKV-L] Anne Dwyer on "Why I teach Lolita"
> For those of us who teach or admire /Lolita,/ Anne Dwyer (Pomona
> College) has published an eloquent defense of the novel.
>
> /https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/05/14/teaching-lolita-still-appropriate-opinion
> <https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/05/14/teaching-lolita-still-appropriate-opinion>/
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact
> <mailto:dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,nabokv-l@utk.edu,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.edu>
> the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com>
> ___
> Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokov
> Studies <https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/257> (Journal)
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> ___
> Options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L>
> Chercheurs Enchantés (French VN Society)
> <http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/association/chercheurs-enchantes/73>
> AdaOnline <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/>
> ___
> Dieter Zimmer's Site <http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/index.htm> NSJ Ada
> Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search
> the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
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> Google Search
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> the archive
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> Contact
> <mailto:dana.dragunoiu@gmail.com,nabokv-l@utk.edu,shvabrin@humnet.ucla.edu>
> the Editors <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com>
> ___
> Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokov
> Studies <https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/257> (Journal)
> Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> ___
> Options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L>
> Chercheurs Enchantés (French VN Society)
> <http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/association/chercheurs-enchantes/73>
> AdaOnline <http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/>
> ___
> Dieter Zimmer's Site <http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/index.htm> NSJ Ada
> Annotations <http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search
> the archive <https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN
> Bibliography Blog <http://vnbiblio.com/>
>
> All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
>
--
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