I'm becoming more and more interested in the way Nabokov mixes things. For instance, there's quite a bit of French in the novel. This begs the question, (at least in my mind,) does Humbert Humbert identify more closely with French or English? The presence of the French must make us interrogate the use of English. He is half English and half Swiss/Austrian/French. The fact that Humbert Humbert includes passages in French makes us think about the fact that the rest is in English. Did America get to him, or was he always natively English speaking? If English wasn't always his primary language, (this seems possible) when did that change? Nabokov, in a number of instances forces us to consider something by creating its opposite. Throughout the novel (thus far) there are a number of contradictory pieces. The contradictory pieces end up being each others lights and shadows, forcing us to question what is going on.
Another way this manifests itself is through the third person bits. There are occasionally pieces in the third person. It comes out of nowhere, and doesn't quite seem to be a thematic choice. The pieces in the third person don't have much in common other than being in the third person. However, again, the nature of the third person makes us think about the first person and vice versa. Nabokov, then, makes sure we're uncomfortable, always unseating us. We always have to stay on our toes. Nabokov makes us think about the funcion of the first person. It totally works. Nabokov has written a story in which we are constantly grappling with the content, and the first person obfuscates the reader, and forces them to deal with their conceptions of the author. Nabokov forces you to create your own distance between the author and the narrator. I love that. Nabokov, who hated these connections, has creates a story that plays with your sense of authorship, and forces you to evaluate Nabokov's place within the picture.
It's a good distinction, and you can work with it. "Sentiment" hearkens back to the 19th century trend of sensibility, sort of akin to what we might today call Emo. However, sensitivity relates to earlier 19th century Romanticism: the sensitive person could use nature as a source of wisdom and knowledge. I think from Nabokov's perspective he would tend to mock Wordsworth's belief that, walking along Hampstead Heath, he had loads of epiphanies that represented contact with eternal knowledge - because he had this special sensitivity. And yet Humbert claims to have the same sensitivity, but in a somewhat warped way. P.B. Shelley (one of the greatest of all poets, but something of a nut) believed that mythic figures, like Dionysus, inhabited him when he wrote. H.H. thinks that he is one of the view "poets" who can detect and respond to nymphets. So, a sort of Romanticism defines his preoccupation with the past, because, with Annabelle, he had a glimpse of a higher reality in a Wordsworthian manner.
ReplyDeleteIt is amusing that your mother also feels Americans are "categorical thinkers," and I believe this type of thinking is pervasive on the political right and left. As well as in advertising etc.
The passage about sentimental people having a cruel side is a common idea (in Ian Fleming, Bond is harsh and cold, nothing like the suave cinematic spy: but also has a sentimental side like most hard guys). The comment about Stalin is a joke, because Stalin often had himself photographed with children bringing him flowers - in a bid to soften his image.
About fiction/reality, you could focus on points in the novel in which characters appear to take on the role of "writer." Lolita writes a note. Charlotte scripts the perfect life for the two of them. H.H. writes several texts: the book Lolita, the journal... Newspaper writers produce the lists that appear in the book. Lolita herself becomes an author by controlling the "narrative" of her road trip with Humbert, and finally, most importantly, Quilty. You would highlight the thin line between fiction and truth by locating these cracks in the veneer of "fictive truth." I am posting this missive on your blog as well.