Re: Hello all

James J Rovira (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 12 May 1999 15:44:00 -0400 (EDT) 

I'd say they were both first person narrative accounts designed to
explain the mental state of the "author" (meaning Humbert in the case of
Lolita and Holden in the case of Catcher).  Since Humbert is a more
educated and mature character than Holden (how old was Humbert?  30s? 
40s?  And was a scholar of sorts?) so his narrative is tighter, more
organized, etc., as you observed, while Holden is still pretty young, a
bit scatterbrained, and is writing about what he feels like writing about
because he feels like writing it :)

Jim

On Wed, 12 May 1999 15:37:51 +1000 Camille Scaysbrook
<verona_beach@geocities.com> writes:
>Jim wrote:
>> But yes, there are stylistic similarities between Lolita and 
>Catcher.
>
>You really think so??? As much as I love Nabokov and Salinger, they're 
>two
>writers that to me couldn't be more different in style. Nabokov's 
>writing
>is like a Swarzovski crystal, made vaguelly in the shape of life but 
>really
>just transmuting it in sharp, perfectly honed lines. He's the epitome 
>of
>art for art's sake, of Oscar Wilde's `There are no moral or immoral 
>books,
>just well written ones and poorly written ones.' Salinger I'm sure 
>takes no
>less care in his construction but his purpose seems far more didactic 
>than
>Nabokov's which makes their styles incompatible to me. The genius of
>Catcher is that it is a tightly constructed piece but which seems 
>wholly
>random. Lolita is more a tightly constructed piece that seems exactly 
>like
>a tightly constructed piece (: It's there for show, and show only. 
>What
>exactly did you see as similar about them, Jim?
>
>Camille
>verona_beach@geocities.com
>@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
>@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>

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