Nabokov, Humbert, redemption or seduction?
[Part of an online discussion on Nabokov and Lolita, 2012]
Well, some readers do indeed seem to be so seduced. It is a beautiful passage, and as I said it has its own validity, not just as VN's poetry but as his invention of Humbert's poetical-moral true - but fleeting - perception of the "hearts of children outshining" him, as you beautifully put it. But, as Brian Boyd points out, one just has to consider the chronology. Then the truth becomes devastating. It is indeed aesthetically and morally naive to think that this passage, that "Humbert" has so carefully placed, "redeems" him, as a number of people have claimed, thereby falling into the trap that Nabokov has had Humbert lay for them. The novel is surely a moral and aesthetic test, devised by Nabokov to distinguish the good reader and re-reader from, among others, the sentimental one. No wonder he wrote: "I believe that one day a reappraiser will come and declare that, far from being a frivolous firebird, I was a rigid moralist kicking sin, cuffing stupidity, ridiculing the vulgar and cruel - and assigning sovereign power to tenderness, talent, and pride." (Strong Opinions, 1973, p. 193.)
"Oakleigh"
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But what is the reader "ruthlessly exposed" to, his own naivete? And is the reader "seduced" into believing such a "baboon" can be so easily redeemed? As a reader, I don't hear Humbert in the passage, but the poetry of VN on the hearts of children outshining the Humberts of a monstrous world.On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 8:24 AM, Anthony Stadlen <STADLEN@aol.com> wrote:In a message dated 22/02/2012 14:19:47 GMT Standard Time, Rsgwynn1@CS.COM writes:Does Humbert ultimately receive some moment of Grace? I like to think he has, as he sits overlooking and overhearing the children near the end of the novel. It does move in a mysterious way, its wonders to perform.Brian Boyd has long ago pointed to Nabokov's brilliance and insight in having Humbert seductively place this passage just where it is near the end of his narrative. Nabokov ruthlessly exposes readers who are seduced by the rhetoric of a child-rapist and murderer. This does not mean that Humbert's fleeting insight had no validity, but it was fleeting, and he did not have the integrity to act on it.Anthony StadlenAnthony Stadlen
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Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical, existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See "Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/ for programme of future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
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