Someone might come along and resucitate it, hopefully...
Dolores Haze
Humbert Humbert
Neither
Both Are Victims
Someone might come along and resucitate it, hopefully...
hi, i'm new here.. i'm from indonesia, sorry if my english is not very good.
well, i read Lolita a year ago.. and it suddenly became my favorite.
now i'm planning to conduct my undergraduate thesis about Lolita..
i want to discuss the narrative techniques.. but my advisor told me it will be too broad and suggested me to choose a more specific topic..what do you guys think will be the best for me?
i'd really love to read your comments..
Last edited by dianwulansari; 10-30-2009 at 08:51 AM. Reason: there are some addition
Of course I too have read the book and this is really a marvelous book, magnum opus, something of world classic. This book was criticized as being obscene and as a matter of fact this book is philosophically appealing.
What is more this book is kind of open and straightforward and was banned in some countries when it was printed.
“Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature””
“If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.
How about 'How does the narration affect how we view the novel?'Originally Posted by dianwulansari
Or something along the lines of how does Nabokov manage to make a person like Humbert a somewhat sympathetic figure?
Or even take the tack...making a dastardly person into a sympathetic character, not only Humbert, but any character, by any narrator.
Hello, everyone!
I'm from Slovenia and I'm new on this forum. As dianwulansari, I too am writing my undergraduate thesis about Lolita... I'm thinking of writing about the Lolita's influence on modern literature and culture. Since this is a very broad theme, I don't quite know where to start. I was thinking about the title "Lolitas after Lolita", meaning I would like to concentrate on different literature works, film characters and fashion styles perhaps which have clearly been influenced on by Nabokov's character of Lolita.
If you have some useful ideas or some other suggestions, I would be extremely grateful if you could share them with me.
Thank you so much.
Lolita is a strong influence in American Beauty
You probably should a new thread..
Later writers avoided having Lolitas, because underage firls can be trouble.
Yes, "American Beauty" also came to my mind
So I agree with PeterL that maybe I should try something else. Any ideas?
There are many aspects of Lolita that lend themselves to comment without even suggesting lewdness. One is the parallel between Lolita and Joyce's Ulysses Nabokov was an expert on Joyce, and taught a course on Ulysses for many years. You might go through and point out as may literary allusions as you can find. There are others, but you can dream them up.Yes, "American Beauty" also came to my mind
So I agree with PeterL that maybe I should try something else. Any ideas?
Last edited by PeterL; 03-28-2011 at 11:01 PM.
Lolita is my favourite novel of everything I've read. So far the language is absolutely unrivaled for me, Nabokov is a genius and it's one of the only books which makes me feel like I'm reading poetry rather than prose.
Every time I read it I'm in a flood of tears! The more I read it the more I see Lolita as the tragic victim of the novel. She's certainly not the most likeable character, especially on first reading but it's harrowing when you remember that she's really only a child, quite an immature one in some ways.
I understand the stigma that comes attached to this novel and that people would deem it inappropriate (my mum certainly didn't want me to read it even though I was 17) but I always defend it. It's far too beautiful and tragic to be seen as disgusting in any way.
Has anybody read Lo's Diary? I forget the name of the author but I believe she's Italian and it begins with P...Anyways, I read it which was such a bad decision, of course nothing was going to match or even come close to my own idea of what Lolita's narrative or inner thoughts were like but it was really quite bad. Highly disappointing but definitely my own fault for reading it!
Dolores Haze is, without a doubt, the victim of the novel, as is her mother, Charlotte Haze.
Humbert Humbert is a subtle but absolute destructive force in the lives of the Haze women. He uses both of their affections to essentially destroy them. What makes him such a complex character is that we see his love as genuine, even though we know he's an unreliable narrator. Even though we can see through his self-serving narrative and realize that his words are those of a man trying desperately to justify his actions ("Gentlewomen of the jury, I was not even her first lover" is just one of several perfect examples; the consistent addressing of a metaphorical jury blatantly shows that Humbert is a man asserting his innocence before those who would judge him -- the readers, that is), he still forces us to believe in his star-crossed, intense love for Dolores, even as he solipsizes her to tragic ends.
This is what I absolutely adore about this book above practically all others; Nabokov completely eviscerates Humbert through the written word, as most people would any pedophile who abuses a child in such an emotionally manipulative way, yet it's not in any conventional manner that he does so. Our society is aware of why child abuse is bad, no one needed a moral treatise on the subject, but what Nabokov gives us is more of a stage to reaffirm our convictions on the matter. Despite Humbert's relentless rationalization, projections, and deflections of guilt and blame, the reader can't help but be left with a feeling of utter certainty that the lives of both Charlotte and Dolores Haze would have been unmistakably better had Humbert never stepped foot into them. We realize that the whole of his actions have ruined two innocent lives. (Which is why I simply cannot understand how anyone could think Lolita glorifies pedophilia in any way; I believe the only people who could ever make that claim are those who have never read the novel).
A brilliant novel, no doubt. To date it's still one of the most frightening books I've ever read, much more frightening than any horror novels I've read. This is mostly due to the fact that Lolita makes you feel like you are inside the head of a pedophile. Pedophilia is probably one of the taboos that will never be broken and that's why Lolita will continue to be an extraordinarily powerful novel in the minds of future generations.
The victim is you.
I'll agree with this as well. The book forces the reader to be complicit in Humbert's actions. Combined with the repulsive nature of their relationship, the reader can easily be considered victimized.
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