Humbert ~ Caliban

I know the topic of Humbert as Caliban from The Tempest by Shakespeare has been discussed in earlier lectures this semester, but it really clicked in my head during class on Tuesday. I had read The Tempest last semester in my capstone class and then saw a production of it by Shakespeare in the Parks at Sweet Pea Festival this past August. The second reading of Lolita and my two recent encounters with The Tempest and Caliban made this connection visible to me. I guess you could say I had an epiphany - a term frequently discussed in class, including this past Tuesday - because I was reading Lolita for the second time. I didn't see the connection when we discussed it when I was on my first reading of the novel.

I am thinking of writing my midterm paper on Humbert as a vampire. I am working with monsters in my Myth, Metaphor, Metamorphoses class with Dr. Lynda Sexson this semester and Dracula is a mythic figure we are discussing and vampire lore and mythology is going to be the basis of my semester project. Writing this paper on Humbert as a vampire will help me focus my ideas and thoughts. The two classes having an overlap and connection is fun, and interesting to explore and ponder.

The Lolita Complex

Here is the link to an article I found today that talks about modern day 'nymphets' and and a book called The Lolita Effect by Gigi Durham.

I am curious what you think about this article...please leave a comment. Thanks!

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article6846155.ece

Common Place Book ~ Nabokov

In Progress ~ stay tuned :-}

Poetry and Seances

I went to the lecture by Dr Ben Leubner on the poetry of James Merrill arranged by Corona. I was really intrigued by the connection and use of 'pale' and 'fire' in the excerpt from "The Book of Ephraim' in Divine Comedies (note that it is Comedies and not Comedy). The uses are intentional; Merrill is referencing Dante's Divine Comedy and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, the next novel we are reading in class. This reference makes me curious to begin my reading of the novel and perhaps explore Merrill's epic poem further as well. The more I read the longer my list of books to read gets. The paradox between the two works is that the poem springs from a novel and the novel sprung out of a poem.

The poem uses lots of photography and film imagery, such as a reversal, creating an unprinted negative of herself (the woman being filmmaker Maya Deren), "fadeout", "low-budget remake", and "early talking pictures".

The poem has twenty-six sections, and starts with a letter of the alphabet, beginning with A and ending with Z.

Ephraim is a first century Roman, who is the spirit guide on the 6th of the nine levels of the afterlife, and is channeled through a Ouija board.

The lecture was fun, informative, and engaging. If you missed it, I suggest you make time fr the next lecture Corona has to offer, so you can get in on the fun :-}


Article about Corona ~

http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=7155

For more information on Corona and the works available please visit ~

http://www.montana.edu/corona

Letter to Amanda

Why did Nabokov chose to write about a pedophile?


My response is not an answer as much as an observation. Nabokov's skill as a writer and storyteller compel a reader to look beyond the fact that Humbert is a pedophile and mesmerizing the reader with his language. Is the content the most important part of a novel? Nabokov's choice of topic and main character argue that the answer to that question is no. Or are human beings, by nature just compelled to explore the dirty, ugly side of humanity? I think I am offering more questions than answers at this point.

My Annotations for page 207

Nabokov had a privileged childhood within Russian aristocracy and wrote his early works in Russian. His skilled with language also included French. He often included French words, phrases and even sentences in Lolita. The annotator, Alfred Appel, translates the French for the reader. In the era Nabokov was born and lived in, French was the language of the aristocracy throughout Europe, a long tradition that continues to the present in the international world of the United Nation, where French is one of the primary languages spoken and required for employment in the international arena.


On page 207, Humbert comments on the fact that Lolita only uses French when she is a "very good little girl". Nabokov wrote in French four times on page 207 alone.


Humbert is quite deftly manipulated and 'played' by Lolita. She knows exactly how to get Humbert to agree to do what she wants but playing the sexual siren she is blossoming into as she gets older. This page demonstrates just how blinded Humbert is by his obsession. This section of the novel begs the question, who is the monster at this point in the story? In this section of the novel Lo is the manipulative seducer, showing she is not as young and naive as Numbert believes she is.

Nabokov Quote

Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man.
Vladimir Nabokov

The Strickler Butterfly :-}

This is a picture of the butterfly I have tattooed in the center of my upper back, in memory of my biological mother, who died of lung cancer a little over three years ago. This is a one of a kind design created by me and my tattoo artist. I may share other tattoos as the semester goes along.

Space Butterflies

I found a great picture of a 'butterfly' nebula taken by the upgraded
Hubble Space Telescope. While this is not about Nabokov directly, I wanted to share this unusual 'butterfly'. Hope you like it ~

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090910.html

I liked the vibrant colors the picture captured :-}

Flutterby and Butterfly

I was looking for information and pictures of Nabokov's Blues and other butterflies on the Internet and found this page that talks about the Karner blue. Vladimir Nabokov determined in 1944 it to be a distinct subspecies. Please visit the following link to see a picture (it is a stunning specimen) and the article associated, with a complete bibliography ~

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/KarnerBlueButterfly.html

The next site goes into explicit detail about the Karner blue, its life cycle, habitat, and geographical locations. I am an English and Religious Studies major and I could follow along and found it to be a comprehensive yet fascinating article. To read all about it ~

http://www.esf.edu/rwls/Research/karnerblue/

Happy Flutterby and Butterfly hunting!

Photo Caption ~ Nabokovian style

I had a difficult time finding an old photograph of myself, partly because I have never liked to have my picture taken, and partly because I had trouble locating one more than a year or two old. This exercise did give me a chance to revisit some older photos of my children and vacations, with me behind the camera rather than in front; it was a sentimental, nostalgic walk down memory lane.

I finally settled on using a picture my friend and ex-sister-in-law posted on facebook from our Home Economics class senior year of high school.

The picture is from my home economics course in 1989-90. I can tell because in the background there are two electric blenders and the corner of a stainless steel sink is poking into the image frame one third of the way up the right side of the photograph. There are labeled pressed wood cupboards stained a dark brown along the wall above the long counter, separated by the island counter top we are congregating on and around. The neutral cream colored walls demonstrate the usual decor withing and institute of learning, such as an American high school. I can date the photo easily because I only took one course in a classroom containing sinks, blenders and long, bleached white counter tops.

The time period is also extremely, definitively obvious based on the hairstyles seen in the picture. The picture has six women, two, myself included, are standing on two feet leaning against the solid cabinets and counter top and the other women. Two of the women sitting on the stark white counter have their legs hanging over the precipice with their right lower limb hooked over their left lower extremity. The other two women on the counter must either be sitting or kneeling because the four people on perched on the counter are all approximately the same height, with a discrepancy of only two or three inches. My hair was bleached a light shade of blond, that almost matches the color of my hair when I was a small child, before time and age began to darken my natural hair color to a darker, dishwater, dirty blond, which I found unacceptable and vowed never to wear my hair that shade again. I have since found I much prefer my hair darker with red tones rather than the blond of my youth. My hair is also BIG, which is a combination of current fashion and the humidity of the East Coast combined with my extremely, kinky, naturally curly hair. My attire shows my tastes in music during that time period, as well as the fact that I went to concerts regularly. The Scorpions are still a favorite of mine and I still have that shirt tucked away as a memento of both the concert and my youth.

Well, I am not sure how successful I was at a Nabokovian description of the above photograph, but I have definitely stepped out of my comfort zone to post and describe this photograph of myself in high school in the 80's.

I hope any comments or replies with be carefully crafted to elicit the least amount of anguish when I read them. I wonder if I would have been less embarrassed and insecure if I had located the photo of me as a toddler in the high chair wearing a bowl of soup on my head and body. I did not have to make that decision because I could not locate said blackmail photo, plus if I had found and posted said photo, I probably, in all likelihood, would have had to black out part of the photo, since I was dressed in all my glory in only a diaper, and perhaps a bib, reveling in my experiment. If I find said horror, I may, potentially, consider posting it, but no promises.

Apropos Quote of the Day

Memory is the personal journalism of the soul.
Richard Schickel

Details

Our first class was today and I am looking forward to our semester together. Part of the discussion centered around paying attention to the details other readers might miss but Nabokov was deliberate in his word choices. The class list in Lolita that Humbert sees as a poem is a perfect example. To demonstrate how a class list can be poetic Dr. Sexson read the section from Lolita and then followed up with our class list, which coincidentally, or perhaps even pre-destined, our class list contained unusual repetitions and rhyming beginning with the Alpha and ending with the Omega. If I was not part of the class and university system, I would wonder if the class list was fictionally contrived, but alas, truth is stranger than fiction. Our three Aaron's, two within the first three names - called alphabetically by last name - two Zachary's made poetry out of our real class list. Clearly, finding the significance in the smallest details can be as simple as paying close attention to the things others quickly skim over as unimportant. What an interesting and fun way to begin our in class study of Nabokov.