Re: Hello all
Thor Cameron (my_colours@hotmail.com)
Thu, 13 May 1999 02:44:29 -0700 (PDT)
OK, without getting TOO deep, (because metaphores always fall apart if you
stretch them too far), can anyone else see the similarity to Portnoy in the
distancing-himself-from-society kinda way?
Just asking, or does anyone think I'm looking at it crooked?
Thor
>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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