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Fw: [NABOKV-L] Enkrypted words and transparencies
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rsgwynn: The irony here should be that Humbert's memoirs will be published only in a sleazy "confessions" paperback in which no one will take an aesthetic interest, only a prurient one. Nabokov surely tells us that the "purity" of Humbert's intentions could not survive the scrutiny of the "real" world. In the usual metafictional way, the book about Humbert survives and is a masterpiece, but the book by Humbert is a mere bus-station-shelf aberration.
Jansy Mello: Fascinating changes of perspective! Were Humbert Humbert a "real" author in the "real world" his published confessions would become an aberration, inspite of his talents and efficient yarn-spinning. However, since the "real" author is Vladimir Nabokov, and Humbert is one of his fictional creatures, the final result becomes an undisputed literary mastepiece.
I'm well aware that Nabokov despised any effort to establish some sort of parallel between well-written tales and "real" events or "real" people* - but that's the rub, since both Humbert and Lolita speak to the readers because they are real after all (although they emerge from composite figures and a collection of recognizable human behaviors).
It's the novel's truth (& the artistic rendering of this mysterious truth) that which transforms "Humbert's confessions" into a masterpiece.**
I think I can agree with R.S.Gwynn: Humbert has "only words to play with" to find relief in "the refuge of art," unlike Vladimir Nabokov, for whom art is no hiding place and to whom it offers no relief. And I mustn't forget to mention it- it affords him "aesthetic bliss."
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* - We find it made explicit in "Strong Opinions" but his annoyance is also ironically rendered in "Lolita," when Nabokov has John Ray Jr. state that: For the benefit of old-fashioned readers who wish to follow the destinies of the "real" people beyond the "true" story, a few details may be given as received from Mr. "Windmuller," of "Ramsdale," who desires his identity suppressed so that "the long shadow of this sorry and sordid business" should not reach the community to which he is proud to belong. His daughter, "Louise," is by now a college sophomore, "Mona Dahl" is a student in Paris. "Rita" has recently married the proprietor of a hotel in Florida. Mrs. "Richard F. Schiller" died in childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, on Christmas Day 1952, in Gray Star, a settlement in the remotest Northwest. "Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly, and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book. "
** - Nabokov causes the fictional editor's affirmations, at the close of his "Preamble" to "Lolita", to be seen as ludicrously moralistic - because we know how V.Nabokov despises novels with educational and profilatic intents, and how he abhors generalizations. However, I share John Ray Jr's opinion about the significance of this novel's "ethical impact" (here I mean, exclusively, its "truth" and all the different kinds of effects it engenders) and must pay the price of having been made to look ridiculous...
..."As a work of art, it transcends its expiatory aspects; and still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious reader; for in this poignant personal study there lurks a general lesson; the wayward child, the egotistic mother, the panting maniac — these are not only vivid characters in a unique story: they warn us of dangerous trends; they point out potent evils. "Lolita" should make all of us — parents, social workers, educators — apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world.".
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Jansy Mello: Fascinating changes of perspective! Were Humbert Humbert a "real" author in the "real world" his published confessions would become an aberration, inspite of his talents and efficient yarn-spinning. However, since the "real" author is Vladimir Nabokov, and Humbert is one of his fictional creatures, the final result becomes an undisputed literary mastepiece.
I'm well aware that Nabokov despised any effort to establish some sort of parallel between well-written tales and "real" events or "real" people* - but that's the rub, since both Humbert and Lolita speak to the readers because they are real after all (although they emerge from composite figures and a collection of recognizable human behaviors).
It's the novel's truth (& the artistic rendering of this mysterious truth) that which transforms "Humbert's confessions" into a masterpiece.**
I think I can agree with R.S.Gwynn: Humbert has "only words to play with" to find relief in "the refuge of art," unlike Vladimir Nabokov, for whom art is no hiding place and to whom it offers no relief. And I mustn't forget to mention it- it affords him "aesthetic bliss."
. ............................................................................
* - We find it made explicit in "Strong Opinions" but his annoyance is also ironically rendered in "Lolita," when Nabokov has John Ray Jr. state that: For the benefit of old-fashioned readers who wish to follow the destinies of the "real" people beyond the "true" story, a few details may be given as received from Mr. "Windmuller," of "Ramsdale," who desires his identity suppressed so that "the long shadow of this sorry and sordid business" should not reach the community to which he is proud to belong. His daughter, "Louise," is by now a college sophomore, "Mona Dahl" is a student in Paris. "Rita" has recently married the proprietor of a hotel in Florida. Mrs. "Richard F. Schiller" died in childbed, giving birth to a stillborn girl, on Christmas Day 1952, in Gray Star, a settlement in the remotest Northwest. "Vivian Darkbloom" has written a biography, "My Cue," to be published shortly, and critics who have perused the manuscript call it her best book. "
** - Nabokov causes the fictional editor's affirmations, at the close of his "Preamble" to "Lolita", to be seen as ludicrously moralistic - because we know how V.Nabokov despises novels with educational and profilatic intents, and how he abhors generalizations. However, I share John Ray Jr's opinion about the significance of this novel's "ethical impact" (here I mean, exclusively, its "truth" and all the different kinds of effects it engenders) and must pay the price of having been made to look ridiculous...
..."As a work of art, it transcends its expiatory aspects; and still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious reader; for in this poignant personal study there lurks a general lesson; the wayward child, the egotistic mother, the panting maniac — these are not only vivid characters in a unique story: they warn us of dangerous trends; they point out potent evils. "Lolita" should make all of us — parents, social workers, educators — apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world.".
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/