''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses ''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses
- 100 - of obvious solecisms and a careful suppression of a few tenacious details" (5). He even refers the reader to the newspapers which, he says, reported on Humbert's crime. However, in his very next sentence Ray undercuts his own pretence, exposing his own foreword as a parody of the kind of foreword he is ostensibly writing. After first parodying the expectations of those readers in whom the subtitle: "..., or the Confession of a White Widowed Male" excites hopes of some porno- 2, graphic oeuvre he now parodies the demands of those "old-fashioned readers" (and the kind of work which fulfils. their demands) who do believe in the "reality" of the "true" story and who "wish to follow the destinies of the 'real' people beyond [it]" (5). The "facts" that he offers about these "real" people are arbitrary and unreliable. He puts the words "true" and "real" in quotes, indicating thereby how questionable the "reality" of memoirs is anyway, just as Nabokov would do were he speaking -fin person, and Nabokov is indeed not very far off. The reference to Vivian Dark- bloom and her biography "My Cue" makes it pretty clear who this John Ray is. Significantly, he calls Humbert's manuscript a novel and then "a work of art" (6) when discussing it in more detail and applies critical standards to it which would not normally be applied to a memoir. These. standards are quite frankly Nabokov's own, the commentator here "repeating" (and applogizing for this) "what he has stressed in his own books and lectures" (6).
- 101 - One luckless early critic wrote about Lolita: "A strong, a disturbing book... it is largely concerned with Humbert's youth and is intended to trace, in the Freudian fashion, the origins of the man's obsession. "3 This critic overlooked that the scientific, psycholo- gical approach to a piece of art, and all its conno- tations of "Freudian voodooism"4 is clearly ridiculed in the Foreword (and of course in Lolita itself) and thus dismissed. He also overlooked that Nabokov "in starting to work on a book has no other purpose than to get rid of that book"5 and certainly does not have the kind of intention here ascribed to him. What Nabokov says in "On a Book Entitled Lolita" als makes it clear that be has no "moral purpose", ascribed to him by another critic6; that Lolita has "no moral in tow", and that a work of fiction exists for him "only in so far as it affords me... aesthetic bliss. "7 All this Nabokov found it necessary later to state un- mistakably and in his own voice, but it is already there in the Foreword: ... 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;... '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 (7). The moral-social-didactic approach could not be par- odied and condemned more effectively than in this passage and in the rather outre vocabulary, "the curious mix- ture of moral, psychological, and social judgements"8 that Ray uses with regard to Humbert, and which might
- Page 55 and 56: I. The Eye Pnin Lolita; Laughter*in
- Page 57 and 58: - 51 - novel. They illustrate how p
- Page 59 and 60: - 53 - tearing the banknote into li
- Page 61 and 62: - 55 - have before: after the suici
- Page 63 and 64: - 57 - imagination of Gretchen best
- Page 65 and 66: - 59 - deed been through an experie
- Page 67 and 68: - 61 - there must be some "model" a
- Page 69 and 70: - 63 - P NI N In their appreciation
- Page 71 and 72: - 65 - For the sake of convenience
- Page 73 and 74: - 67 - Pnin's appearance is comic,
- Page 75 and 76: - 69 - all-the time. He suffers an
- Page 77 and 78: - 71 - existence" (13). In his pres
- Page 79 and 80: - 73 - is going to give, on his per
- Page 81 and 82: - 75 - exist in such big sea" (60).
- Page 83 and 84: - 77 - directly from Pnin's peculia
- Page 85 and 86: - 79 - them at least 10ok like his
- Page 87 and 88: - 81 - indeed only the very thinnes
- Page 89 and 90: - 83 - but the group of academics w
- Page 91 and 92: - 85 - "schools and trends", and is
- Page 93 and 94: - 87 - which induces the reader to
- Page 95 and 96: - 89 - and-smiles at, there emerges
- Page 97 and 98: - 91 - More depth and reality are a
- Page 99 and 100: - 93 - cp. 180). The narrator also
- Page 101 and 102: 95 - being accurate in every point,
- Page 103 and 104: - 97 - standing of a "truly human b
- Page 105: - 99 - eternal beauty, and his conv
- Page 109 and 110: - 103 - says "well-read" Humbert Hu
- Page 111 and 112: - 105 - surface, into the initial m
- Page 113 and 114: - 107 - age. She was the "initial g
- Page 115 and 116: - 109 - and implies in the parody t
- Page 117 and 118: - 111 - He is equally inaccurate in
- Page 119 and 120: - 113 - with Quilty; and, of course
- Page 121 and 122: - 115 - or to hold her on his knee
- Page 123 and 124: - 117 - ations ) (98). And he descr
- Page 125 and 126: - 119 - a strident, harsh high voic
- Page 127 and 128: - 121 - When Humbert talks of his d
- Page 129 and 130: - 123 -- could victimize her poor d
- Page 131 and 132: - 125 - this twelve-year-old girl s
- Page 133 and 134: - 127 - done her morning duty" (161
- Page 135 and 136: - 129 - experience, up to a certain
- Page 137 and 138: - 131 - her: "... -a life full of t
- Page 139 and 140: - 133 - Looking at it for a moment
- Page 141 and 142: - 135 - and Axel Rex delightful. Bu
- Page 143 and 144: - 137 - critics have made her, and
- Page 145 and 146: - 139 - not record images of the sy
- Page 147 and 148: - 141 - ous hallucination" (287). 6
- Page 149 and 150: - 143 - No hereafter is acceptable
- Page 151 and 152: - 145 - be possible for him to be t
- Page 153 and 154: - 147 - and it is also appropriate
- Page 155 and 156: - 149 - But Humbert's view of Lolit
-<br />
101<br />
-<br />
One luckless early critic wrote about Lolita: "A<br />
strong, a disturbing book... it is largely concerned<br />
with Humbert's youth and is intended to trace, in the<br />
Freudian fashion, the origins of the man's obsession. "3<br />
This critic overlooked that the scientific, psycholo-<br />
gical approach to a piece of art, and all its conno-<br />
tations of "Freudian voodooism"4 is clearly ridiculed<br />
in the Foreword (and of course in Lolita itself) and<br />
thus dismissed. He also overlooked that Nabokov "in<br />
starting to work on a book has no other purpose than<br />
to get rid of that book"5 and certainly does not have<br />
the kind of intention here ascribed to him. What<br />
Nabokov says in "On a Book Entitled Lolita" als makes<br />
it clear that be has no "moral purpose", ascribed to<br />
him by another critic6; that Lolita has "no moral<br />
in tow", and that a work of fiction exists <strong>for</strong> him<br />
"only in so far as it af<strong>for</strong>ds me... aesthetic bliss. "7<br />
All this Nabokov found it necessary later to state un-<br />
mistakably and in his own voice, but it is already<br />
there in the Foreword:<br />
... still more important to us than scientific<br />
significance and literary worth, is the ethical<br />
impact the book should have on the serious<br />
reader; <strong>for</strong> in this poignant personal study<br />
there lurks a general lesson;... 'Lolita' should<br />
make all of us - parents, social workers, educators<br />
- apply ourselves with still greater<br />
vigilance and vision to the task of bringing<br />
up a better generation in a safer world (7).<br />
The moral-social-didactic approach could not be par-<br />
odied and condemned more effectively than in this passage<br />
and in the rather outre vocabulary, "the curious mix-<br />
ture of moral, psychological, and social judgements"8<br />
that Ray uses with regard to Humbert, and which might
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