Re: a question
blah b b blah (jrovira@juno.com)
Sun, 17 Jan 1999 17:57:13 -0500 (EST)
Yes indeedy, it is getting very complicated :).
Yeah, I knew Shakes acted too, and that it was only bit parts....
I guess what I was trying to say in the "lost thread" of my argument (and
I understand that my statements were ambiguous) was that on the reader
side we can't isolate what's author and what's construction within the
context of the work. I was speaking of the exercise itself. It's not
that the author isn't present in the text somehow and somewhere, but that
we just will never know enough to identify him or her clearly or with any
degree of certainty. So I see the exercise as a waste of time.
Yeah, Humbert's admissions were there....and at times they even sounded
sincere, although at times they did not. I generally see most of the
book as being honest confession by Humbert, an honest depiction of his
thoughts and opinions, and of the facts to the degree that he relates
them and remembers. It doesn't keep me from forming my own judgment
about his character or motives, of course, and they may or may not be in
line with Nabokov's real or presumed intent :) I don't know if he knew
all that much regret while he was in the process of driving Lo all over
the country, or if he only interjected his regret as he was retelling the
tale. His honesty and self judgment does "make him better", yes. I have
to give him that credit. But there's a sense in which he seems trapped
within himself still.
It's not that he didn't genuinely love, but that the love he was capable
of was still selfish and small. More so than with most of us. But I'll
give him that, he did love too.
Part of my interest in Lolita is that I'm writing something similar--a
journal/novel by a sick character that does something terrible. Unlike
Nabokov I'm raping my personal experiences and feelings to write the
thing. But at the same time, while I did have these experiences and
feelings at least at one time, I don't really identify myself with them
at all once I've written them. They seem like someone else now, really.
And I can even screw with them a bit to work them into the character and
out of myself more. If an interviewer were to ask me if there was a real
Patti, Rebecca or Lily, I'd say they were all composite characters.
Always open to comments on the thing, if you're interested the first link
is at
http://members.aol.com/antiutopia/default1.htm.
I guess you can tell I've read John's post of the Nabokov interview
(thanks for posting). It's pretty interesting how Nab almost seemed to
be rushing to distance himself from the Humbert character, his motives,
and his feelings (even to the extent where he said he didn't know any
little girls), but if I'd created a character like that I think I'd do
the same thing.
I wonder how many people have accused Nab of being a closet pederast :)
One of the many problems with reasoning from text to author... :)
Jim
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