Nabokov's Girl

[miyako73]

Yes, Lo-, like when you say love,
-li-, as in live, and -ta, a baby talk,
my name is Lolita, his little Lola.

I have loins too between my hips,
my thighs, my longings, my legs
I touch with cherried fingertips.

I have a navel that sweats crystals
and enduces dreams of wet shadows
steaming in my hollow belly unfulfilled.

They are not big but I have breasts
appearing like mounts of afterthoughts
deprived of age, belonging, and time.

My lips dry up and flake in all seasons
including autumn when they are red,
when they whisper the scent of berries.

Does my heart not pulsate for love?
Do I not also cry when drowned in pain?
Why can I not freely love like how I live?

Your honor, free this old Russian man
who mapped my body from head to toe,
who gave me the melon moon, my joy.

His is no sin against all gods and men.
If loving him defies your senses, your law,
I rest my case: I should not have lived.

[PrinceMyshkin]

A wonderful outpouring of candid eroticism. I liked the with of:



breasts
appearing like mounts of afterthoughts

[hillwalker]

A really powerful poem, like your previous posts rich with memorable imagery; and the idea of Dolores testifying on behalf of Nabokov is an original and challenging thought.

Good stuff.

[PrinceMyshkin]

A really powerful poem, like your previous posts rich with memorable imagery; and the idea of Dolores testifying on behalf of Nabokov is an original and challenging thought.

Good stuff.

Dolores, if I recall correctly, is Lolita's mother, but how on earth did you deduce that this was Dolores speaking, rather than some Everygirl, roughly the age of Lolita; at least, that is how I read it.

[qimissung]

Dolores was her name, Lolita the nickname given her by Humbert Humbert. This is an absolutely gorgeous poem, M; and I like it down to it's surprising conclusion. Even so, it does not change my mind that Humbert took something that wasn't offered him, that wasn't his to use or have, and that in the taking he destroyed her life.

If it is about any pubesent girl (or is it prepubesent?), then this oratory declaiming her budding sexuality and defense of her older lover is rich with imagery and fulsome delight.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Dolores was her name, Lolita the nickname given her by Humbert Humbert. This is an absolutely gorgeous poem, M; and I like it down to it's surprising conclusion. Even so, it does not change my mind that Humbert took something that wasn't offered him, that wasn't his to use or have, and that in the taking he destroyed her life.

If it is about any pubesent girl (or is it prepubesent?), then this oratory declaiming her budding sexuality and defense of her older lover is rich with imagery and fulsome delight.

Oh, thank you for clearing that up for me, Qim. I should have taken more seriously the first verse, where Dolores/Lolita introduces herself but I was thrown off by "I have loins too" which I thought meant this was another girl, qualifying herself as the equal of D/L.

As for your moral take on the book, isn't it the argument of the story - albeit, if I recall, that it is HH himself who narrates it - that their relationship was, even more than consensual, prompted by D/L herself? Which does not of course mean that he was obliged to be 'seduced,' but I don't remember it well enough to recognize your assertion that HH destroyed her life. I'd reread the book but I think there are several other as yet unread books by Nabokov I ought to read first.

And yes, I most heartily agree with you that this is a fine, fine poem.

[miyako73]

this is about a girl I knew in Junior high who fancied our PE teacher who was as old as her father. She wrote in her diary "how beautiful to be in love but how unfair it is when the world is against it." That line has been in my mind for years. Her story can be any other girl's story. I hope one day I could write a novel, a reverse Lolita-- a girl writing it. Sick but I think it could be twistedly romantic.

Thank you all for reading without scorn.

[qimissung]

Well, the title is what made me think it was about Lolita. :) And if Nabokov can write sypathetically about a child molester, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to do the same from the other end of the spectrum.

My understanding of the book is that it was not consensual. HH is usually referred to as a pedophile, but many do like to discuss the issue, and whether or not Delores seduced him. In that respect it is like the theme of any book, open to debate.

Check out this:

http://oyc.yale.edu/english/american-novel-since-1945/content/sessions/session-5-vladimir-nabokov-lolita

This from the ubiquitous Wikipedia gives the quickest thematic overview:





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita

[miyako73]

I used Nabokov because I used to admire (bordering between love and fantasy) writers no matter how old they were. I loved them from a distance of course because of my age, and that was at the mere age of fourteen.

Lolita, as used, was just a literary device that will open up the thought: what if Lolita writes the story, about her sincere love towards an older man. I still wonder, will the issue of child abuse or pedophilia still come up?

[hillwalker]

The idea of writing a similarly themed novel from a young girl's pov is interesting and if handled delicately enough could be quite thought-provoking.

The issue of HH of course is that although he allowed himself to become seduced by Lo's charms and budding sexuality, she was still the child and he was still the adult so any sympathies will always lie with the abused heroine.

To return to your poem - wonderful.

H