a PS:
Carolyn Kunin [to JM]: But I'm impressed
that you suspected Humbert's innocence. [ ] I hope others will
join us in this quest for the guilty party.
Jansy
Mello: I needed you to say that HH might be "innocent," because my
suspicions were hazy and not actually formulated ...Now you say
that Humbert is Lolita's biological father? How
come?
Jansy Mello: Although I like to use
Nabokov specs, just as you do, our approaches to his novels is very
different. I take no pleasure in pursuing mysterious killers, kings and queens,
poltergeists, hidden jewels - but I enjoy reading other Nabler's theories,
since they aid me to tease out aspects to which I've grown
numb.
Take the title "Speak, Memory." It is not at all trivial
(a mathematician friend loved to employ this word...), and only quite recently
did its implications strike me.
Today I tried a different kind of exercise, thanks to your
ponderings. If the name Stanley Tucci popped up in connection to a refilming of
Lolita (he was a creepy pedophile in "Lovely Bones") should
he play Humbert Humbert, or Quilty? James Mason and Jeremy Irons are
deceptively charming. How about Tucci as Humbert, and Colin Firth as
Quilty?