Nabokov

From the perspective of a popular culture in which pedophilia and various forms of child abuse are articulated and adumbrated everywhere from the nightly news to Oprah, one wonders what all the fuss was about regarding the scandal that appears to have attended the publication and dissemination of Lolita in the United States in 1955. It is as if over the course of some 50 years the pendulum of shock value has swung from a dogged and fragile prudery toward an unshockable relaxation that fairly revels in its thoughtless hedonism. The action and characterization of Lolita itself can also be interpreted as a movement or more exactly interplay of opposites, dualities, symmetries, or some other version of doubling.

The narrative text is presented in two parts; however, there are really four components to Lolita. The foreword by the factitious Dr. John Ray, Jr., psychiatric practitioner, and the postscript attributed to Nabokov (who in context must be taken as equally factitious) serve the function of positioning, or book-ending, as it were, the balance of the text. More will be said about how the fram

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resonates with the continual use of double figures. Part One of the book immediately sets about showing its colors of ambiguity, being presented as Humbert's account of--and rationalizations for--his systematic sexual predation of Lolita. According to Morton, Part One has the aesthetic tone. Humbert presents himself as bon vivant, which, consistent with Dr. Ray's analysis, can be interpreted as a mask for moral squalor. The point is that alternatives of sense are always possible--even from the famous opening line of Part One: "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul" (Nabokov 9). The text is never straightforward and unambiguous but instead rife with ambiguity, evoking many alternatives, hence many different responses, at once. Humbert invites the reader to share his most intimate thoughts and adventures in Part One, declaring a distinctive and presumably worthy literary style. However, it is also evident immediately that the invitation is doubled by a barrier between writer and reader. That is because Humbert is "writing under observation" (10). Given the clinical foreword, one may presume the observation is psychiatric, but it is equally possible (and turns out to be the case) that observation is linked wit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ray Indeed, Dr Ray's, Raymond Chandler, According Morton, , Lolita Quilty, Trapp Nabokov, Ray Bader, Lolita United, John Ray's, nabokov's lolita, rolled rolled, vladimir nabokov's lolita, vladimir nabokov's, york chelsea house, bloom york, harold bloom, lolita ed, ed harold, york chelsea, house 1987, harold bloom york, bloom york chelsea, chelsea house, lolita ed harold,
Approximate Word count = 1595
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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