Just read Naboko's "The Door Bell". In contrast with a review I read which strongly suggested that the son is self centered or arrogant, also, that he's dismissive or somewhat indifferent to the obvious signs that her mother's age and her experiences in the years they spent apart combined with the shock of their unforeseen reunion had little effect on him. I think Nabokov refrained from going deeper into the son's mind when he was examining the room in order to allow the reader to engage, as he always does. So this is not a sign that the son is not concerned about the mother, he did ask how she was.
But he talked about himself and his travels instead, Perhaps knowing that he wasn't going to like what she had to say and she wasn't going to tell him the truth anyways, simply a comment on the mother and son relationship. But I admit, in the end after the incident at the doorway with the lover, again another conclusion Nabokov left to the reader, the son was laughing while talking about his future plans which seems apathetic, but maybe he was trying to divert the situation for the sake of his tearful mother.
The ending, a recurrent theme of subtle pain and abandonment in Nabokov's work resurrected, with the son walking out with a promise and the mother running to the phone to call her young lover.
Sunday 25 May 2014
Saturday 24 May 2014
On "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov's prose style allows us to become self aware about the way we respond to the plot by letting us see the mask of literature.It makes Us question how we acquired this understanding. Also the questions purposed directly or indirectly throughout the book and the way we choose to answer them.
Humbert's style: Enchanting, Love trumps morality? Like an MRI's magnetic field applied over our body that aligns the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, (dont expect a science student not to brag when they can), Humbert's style aligns our minds in order for us to share his extremely sensuous experience, to whisper Lo.Li.Ta! to physically respond. In a way, to precess. To draw us in at least.
Then come the questions he assumes we will ask, rightfully so. But the order he chose is designed to make us analyze and understand him the way he wants us to. We were seduced my Humbert, not Loita. Humbert, from whom the rhetoric of this love story rose, but built on the logical ground of Nabokov's thought process, as Humbert's problem ( I chose "problem" because Humbert referred to aches and pain not because of any judgement on his character on my part.) needs a solution and we are the solvers of his puzzling feelings and thoughts.
We never did scape out of the head of Humbert Humbert, never detach from his subjectivity in the course of the novel. Perhaps only accessing the subjectivity of Lolita when shades of Nabokov himself blends into Humbert.
Is the tissue between imagination and reality so light that it can be pierced? can one tamper with the other? This is one question from the book I found difficult in the sense that I see no way of even thinking about how to find the answer to this question.
the word "Throb", used in different contexts in multiple occasions in the book. One being reference to the rising desire in HH, one being the romantic throbbing of one's heart. The word having appeared with increasing frequency in Nabokov's work before Lolita, specially in his memoir can shed some light on Nabokov's character's personification through parts of Lolita.
Did Nabokov dislike cliches? Is that why we sense a dismissal of morality? In his style we see him talking about cliches just for the sake of averting from it to a surprise.
One point I did not pick on while reading the book, and an obvious one, was the repeating phrase "ladies and gentlemen of the jury". A reference to us, silent readers who are judging Humbert, who are answering his questions and those we asked ourselves. Also, us who are present when Nabokov courts this question of morality. Another take from the book, Nabokov's intolerance and detest for the simplified black and white.
And at last, Humbert's defense: It was the poetry! The poetry made me do it! reference to Poe's Annabel by the sea.
Thank you Yale university's open course and Proff. Amy Hungerford.
Humbert's style: Enchanting, Love trumps morality? Like an MRI's magnetic field applied over our body that aligns the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, (dont expect a science student not to brag when they can), Humbert's style aligns our minds in order for us to share his extremely sensuous experience, to whisper Lo.Li.Ta! to physically respond. In a way, to precess. To draw us in at least.
Then come the questions he assumes we will ask, rightfully so. But the order he chose is designed to make us analyze and understand him the way he wants us to. We were seduced my Humbert, not Loita. Humbert, from whom the rhetoric of this love story rose, but built on the logical ground of Nabokov's thought process, as Humbert's problem ( I chose "problem" because Humbert referred to aches and pain not because of any judgement on his character on my part.) needs a solution and we are the solvers of his puzzling feelings and thoughts.
We never did scape out of the head of Humbert Humbert, never detach from his subjectivity in the course of the novel. Perhaps only accessing the subjectivity of Lolita when shades of Nabokov himself blends into Humbert.
Is the tissue between imagination and reality so light that it can be pierced? can one tamper with the other? This is one question from the book I found difficult in the sense that I see no way of even thinking about how to find the answer to this question.
the word "Throb", used in different contexts in multiple occasions in the book. One being reference to the rising desire in HH, one being the romantic throbbing of one's heart. The word having appeared with increasing frequency in Nabokov's work before Lolita, specially in his memoir can shed some light on Nabokov's character's personification through parts of Lolita.
Did Nabokov dislike cliches? Is that why we sense a dismissal of morality? In his style we see him talking about cliches just for the sake of averting from it to a surprise.
One point I did not pick on while reading the book, and an obvious one, was the repeating phrase "ladies and gentlemen of the jury". A reference to us, silent readers who are judging Humbert, who are answering his questions and those we asked ourselves. Also, us who are present when Nabokov courts this question of morality. Another take from the book, Nabokov's intolerance and detest for the simplified black and white.
And at last, Humbert's defense: It was the poetry! The poetry made me do it! reference to Poe's Annabel by the sea.
Thank you Yale university's open course and Proff. Amy Hungerford.
Friday 23 May 2014
The Last Day
The clock stroke 2:00. having finished the paper I put my pen down. 15 more minutes until my last exam was done. I glimpsed at the hill through the class window. A small black bird challenged my depth perception that had worsened with my astigmatism, the distorted glass wasn't much of a help. Meanwhile my sense of time was shaken by a simple question, how did it pass so quickly?
In that 15 minutes i found my self looking for meaning. Expecting a moment to have a certain meaning just because it marks the end of something drastic. Having trouble finding any I realized that lack of meaning in moments we wish were defining but pass like any other, might make us think about ourselves as irredeemable. Perhaps that's why many detest change. Also, why those who don't need meaning embrace this trend of instability. As one of my friends says: Don't be a warm comfy sheep!
In that 15 minutes i found my self looking for meaning. Expecting a moment to have a certain meaning just because it marks the end of something drastic. Having trouble finding any I realized that lack of meaning in moments we wish were defining but pass like any other, might make us think about ourselves as irredeemable. Perhaps that's why many detest change. Also, why those who don't need meaning embrace this trend of instability. As one of my friends says: Don't be a warm comfy sheep!
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