As always, I really enoyed Dr. Sexons class this semester. One can always count on his class to be entertaining as well as informative. It is for professors like him that I chose to study English. He, like Nabokov himself, is a receptacle of knowledge that has made us all smarter people. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the class as well as the subject matter.
Although at times I found the reading extremely difficult, I enjoyed working my way up the never ending rungs of the latter of understanding with the rest of the class. I am significantly more confident in my reading abilities after this class because I have learned how to read at a more critical level. I really enjoyed all of the books except for Speak Memory. Don't get me wrong, it was extremely well written and the imagery is superb, but it most definitely did not induce a tingle in my spine. Nabokov's novels are by far the most complex and confusing ones that I have ever read, and had I tried to read them without the help of Dr. Sexon and my peers there is no way I would have understood even the texts at even their most basic levels.
So many thanks to you all for another great semester, see many of you in Emergent Lit next year.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Final Paper
A Game of Worlds
Vladimir Nabokov is notorious for infusing his novels with intricately placed literary allusions as well as employing complex and confusing measures in order to create an ever evolving work of literature. His reoccurring use of themes such as memory, death, love and reality has amounted to a body of work that is both universally relevant and deliciously controversial. Although Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire is significantly less shockingly offensive than some of his other novels, it by no means lacks substance or thought provoking scenarios. The novel includes John Shades beautiful poem recollecting the death of his dear daughter as well as a forward, commentary and index written by Charles Kinbote. It is a story of love, betrayal, persecution, death and friendship among other things. Throughout the novel, various characters find themselves caught up in a game of worlds, a complex web of reality and imagination.
Although not the predominant theme of the novel as a whole, death plays a significant role both in Shade’s poem and Kinbote’s commentary. It is at times characterized as a source of anxiety, a seemingly finite form of escape, a tragic ending to the beautiful thing called life, as well as new beginning in a mysterious and curious world. Shade opens his poem “Pale Fire” with the image of a bird that has accidently flown into a window, resulting in its death. The lines proceed as follows, “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain/ By the false azure in the
windowpane;/ I was the smudge of ashen fluff—and I/ Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky” (33). Although the bird has ceased to live in the tangible world, it continues to exist in an alternate world, a world of reflection. Death, in this sense, is therefore not definite. Although it may entail a change in physical state, the soul continues to soar long after it has left the body.
By conveying Hazel Shade’s story through poetry, John Shade creates a similar continuation of life after death for his daughter. “Pale Fire” is a literary reflection of the Shades’ life before Hazel’s suicide, and although she is no longer with them in body, her spirit lives on through his writing. Shade eternalizes the existence of his daughter by creating a new world for her to live through, and as long as the poem exists, so will she. His wife, although not yet deceased, is eternalized in the same way. Shade wrote, “And all the time, and all the time, my love,/ You too are there, beneath the word, above/ The syllable, to underscore and stress vital rhythm […]/ And all in you is youth, and you make a new, / By quoting them, old things I made for you” (68). The family’s legacy will live on, frozen in time, long after their bodies have become one with nature.
An alternative form of life after death is represented by the poltergeist, assumed to be the ghost of Aunt Maud, in the Shade’s barn. Although excluded from the poem, Kinbote informs the reader that a significant amount of paranormal activity took place within the barn as well as within the Shades’ house itself. While out in the barn alone one night, Hazel witnesses an eerie sight. A light, with no visible source, played on the wall of the barn and even rushed towards her. Hazel asked the light questions, and it would respond with certain movements. At one point it disappears, but then reappears shortly after with a new found eagerness to “resume the game” (188). Although such activity would indicate a form of life after death, it is much different than that created by Shade through his writing. It would seem that one’s spirit continues to live on in the same world as it had before, but in a different form. It represents death in a more solemn and less hopeful light. The spirit’s participation is such games might indicate a loneliness or discontentment in the afterlife.
After having a near death experience in which he gleans a white fountain, John Shade begins to more thoroughly contemplate death and his own existence. As an atheist he is void of the relief and assurance that some take from the notion of God. The “helpful” exercises provided by the Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter (IPH) were considered by him to be a waste of time. His hope to find truth within his deathly vision is destroyed due to a misprint in an article, but it leads him to another realization: “Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find/ Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind/ Of correlated pattern in the game,/ Plexed artistry, and something of the same/ Pleasure in it as they who played it found” (63). Life, he seems to imply, is just a game to be played. There is a beginning and an ending, and the in between is filled with “topsy-turvical coincidence” (63) and premeditated moves confused by other players. He wrote, “I feel I understand/ Existence, or at least a minute part/ Of my existence, only through my art,/ In terms of combinational delight;/ And if my private universe scans right,/ So does the verse of galaxies divine/ Which I suspect is an iambic line” (69). Literature is therefore not only a means to escape death, but a method of finding meaning in life. He seems to find solace in this notion and devoted himself to writing.
Kinbote utilizes literature to not only make sense of his own existence, but to create a new and fantastical story to replace it. Through manipulation of Shade’s poem, he creates a fantasy world, complete with heroes and villains. Although the northern country of Zembla is a figment of Kinbote’s imagination, fragments of various authors’ alternate realities can be found strewn throughout the world he has constructed. The most obvious contributor to Kinbote’s story is, of course, John Shade. Because Kinbote is claiming to simply provide a commentary for Shade’s poem, he is forced to incorporate at least some of Shade’s ideas into his own narrative. Kinbote even admits to this when he says, “I have reread, not without pleasure, my comments to his lines, and in many cases have caught myself borrowing a kind of opalescent light from my poet’s fiery orb”(81). Just as the moon reflects the dazzling rays of the sun, Kinbote’s story contains elements of Shade’s genius.
Even so, Kinbote has a tendency to manipulate the words employed by Shade to serve his own needs. For example, Kinbote takes two words, on from line 17 and the other from line 29, and unites them to come up with “gradual, gray” (77). From this pairing, Kinbote extracts the name Jakob Gradus. Not only were these lines not originally referring to a male, but they were 12 lines apart and had completely different contexts. Numerous other “notes” are comprised of one to two sentences discussing Shade’s words followed by one or more pages discussing something completely extraneous to the poem. It is through this method that Kinbote tells his own story since Shade did not.
Another author who has an obvious influence on Kinbote’s, and Shade’s, story is the infamous William Shakespeare. Not only does Kinbote carry around a copy of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, but his own story is comparable to that of Timon. Like Timon, Charles the Beloved, aka Charles Kinbote, begins as loved man of high social status and then experiences a fall and rejection from his people. Both men succumb to rather solitary lives and then find a treasure (John Shade’s poem in Kinbote’s case), and in the end both leave a written document behind (Kinbote leaves writes his commentary and Timon leaves his epitaph. Another allusion to Shakespeare can be found in the names of the streets of Zembla: Timon Alley, Academy Boulevard and Coriolanus Lane (126). His utilization of components such as these from other authors’ works simply serve to complicate and enrich his own creation.
Kinbote incorporats aspects of his surroundings into his story as well. Perhaps the most obvious instance of this is his creation of Jakob Gradus, aka Jack Degree, Jacques de Grey, James de Gray, Raventstone, Ravus and d’Argus (77). Although Kinbote claims that Gradus “makes his way through the entire length of the poem, following the road of the rhythm, riding past in a rhyme, […] hiding between two words, reappearing on the horizon of a new canto, steadily marching nearer in iambic motion, […] and falling asleep as the poet lays down his pen for the night” (78), he is not a real person. That is to say that Gradus, the Shadow searching for the Zemblan king, is not a real person. In fact, his character is based on Jack Grey, the real revenge seeking man that Judge Goldsworth had put away years ago. Contrary to what Kinbote claims, Gradus did not exist before Grey shot Shade. He was a figment of the imagination of a creative, and perhaps slightly psychotic, man brought forth by an actual occurance.
Throughout the novel, the question begs to be asked: What is reality? Is it something that is universally true or tangible? Can it be portrayed objectively through art, or is there even such a thing as an objective reality? Nabokov plays with the notion of “reality” within many of his novels, and Pale Fire is no exception. From Kinbote’s crazed rantings regarding a king on the run, to Shade’s representation of her daughter, the concept of reality is brought into play. Although it becomes clear after reading the book that Kinbote’s tale does not hold true to fact, he states, "Without my notes Shade’s text simply has no human reality at all since the human reality of such poem as his (being too skittish and reticent for an autobiographical work), with the omission of many pithy lines carelessly rejected by him, has to depend entirely on the reality of its author and his surroundings, attachments and so forth, a reality that only my notes can provide" (29). Yet when question about the veracity of his story he also says, “Once transmuted by you into poetry, the stuff will be true, and the people will come alive” (214). On the one hand, he states that that which Shade has written does not adhere to reality, but on the other he claims that once he has written something it becomes true. I am not one to presume that I know what Nabokov believed about reality, but in my opinion, it is kind of a mixture of both of the claims that Kinbote made.
In writing their stories, both Shade and Kinbote created alternate realities, or invented worlds based somewhat on that which is “real” and somewhat on that which they wished was “real.” Kinbote says that “‘reality’ is neither the subject nor the object of the true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with the average ‘reality’ perceived by the communal eye” (130). Reality is subjective and therefore different for everyone. A piece of art or literature is a reflection of one’s perceived reality. It is composed of bits and pieces from one’s own life and experiences and those of others. It is a miniature world built upon thousands of other worlds constructed by other people.
Kinbote’s reverence for Shade can be seen when he says, “I am witnessing a unique physiological moment: John Shade perceiving and transforming the world, taking it in and taking it apart, re-combining its elements in the very process of storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse” (27). Composing a piece of literature is like a game of chess. At the beginning the playing board is filled with numerous pieces that have the potential to overpower their opponents. Over extended periods of time during which different options are thoroughly mulled over, the pieces are moved around, resulting in the removal of certain ideas/pieces from the playing field. It is the combination of the remaining pieces at the end that make up amazing compositions such as those written by Vladimir Nabokov.
Like Shade and Kinbote, both figments of his own imagination, Nabokov breaks everything down into their very basic molecules and then builds something completely different from them. His unique worlds/novels are composed of bits and pieces of hundreds of other worlds, and each piece has its own designated place and specific meaning. When reading his novels, one thing that is crucial to understand is that when we as readers go over his writing we bring new meaning to it. Like Kinbote, we create our own worlds based upon that which has been presented to us because reality and interpretation are subjective. It is for this reason that Nabokov’s works will forever evolve, and with each reading there will always be new treasures to be discovered.
Vladimir Nabokov is notorious for infusing his novels with intricately placed literary allusions as well as employing complex and confusing measures in order to create an ever evolving work of literature. His reoccurring use of themes such as memory, death, love and reality has amounted to a body of work that is both universally relevant and deliciously controversial. Although Nabokov’s novel Pale Fire is significantly less shockingly offensive than some of his other novels, it by no means lacks substance or thought provoking scenarios. The novel includes John Shades beautiful poem recollecting the death of his dear daughter as well as a forward, commentary and index written by Charles Kinbote. It is a story of love, betrayal, persecution, death and friendship among other things. Throughout the novel, various characters find themselves caught up in a game of worlds, a complex web of reality and imagination.
Although not the predominant theme of the novel as a whole, death plays a significant role both in Shade’s poem and Kinbote’s commentary. It is at times characterized as a source of anxiety, a seemingly finite form of escape, a tragic ending to the beautiful thing called life, as well as new beginning in a mysterious and curious world. Shade opens his poem “Pale Fire” with the image of a bird that has accidently flown into a window, resulting in its death. The lines proceed as follows, “I was the shadow of the waxwing slain/ By the false azure in the
windowpane;/ I was the smudge of ashen fluff—and I/ Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky” (33). Although the bird has ceased to live in the tangible world, it continues to exist in an alternate world, a world of reflection. Death, in this sense, is therefore not definite. Although it may entail a change in physical state, the soul continues to soar long after it has left the body.
By conveying Hazel Shade’s story through poetry, John Shade creates a similar continuation of life after death for his daughter. “Pale Fire” is a literary reflection of the Shades’ life before Hazel’s suicide, and although she is no longer with them in body, her spirit lives on through his writing. Shade eternalizes the existence of his daughter by creating a new world for her to live through, and as long as the poem exists, so will she. His wife, although not yet deceased, is eternalized in the same way. Shade wrote, “And all the time, and all the time, my love,/ You too are there, beneath the word, above/ The syllable, to underscore and stress vital rhythm […]/ And all in you is youth, and you make a new, / By quoting them, old things I made for you” (68). The family’s legacy will live on, frozen in time, long after their bodies have become one with nature.
An alternative form of life after death is represented by the poltergeist, assumed to be the ghost of Aunt Maud, in the Shade’s barn. Although excluded from the poem, Kinbote informs the reader that a significant amount of paranormal activity took place within the barn as well as within the Shades’ house itself. While out in the barn alone one night, Hazel witnesses an eerie sight. A light, with no visible source, played on the wall of the barn and even rushed towards her. Hazel asked the light questions, and it would respond with certain movements. At one point it disappears, but then reappears shortly after with a new found eagerness to “resume the game” (188). Although such activity would indicate a form of life after death, it is much different than that created by Shade through his writing. It would seem that one’s spirit continues to live on in the same world as it had before, but in a different form. It represents death in a more solemn and less hopeful light. The spirit’s participation is such games might indicate a loneliness or discontentment in the afterlife.
After having a near death experience in which he gleans a white fountain, John Shade begins to more thoroughly contemplate death and his own existence. As an atheist he is void of the relief and assurance that some take from the notion of God. The “helpful” exercises provided by the Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter (IPH) were considered by him to be a waste of time. His hope to find truth within his deathly vision is destroyed due to a misprint in an article, but it leads him to another realization: “Yes! It sufficed that I in life could find/ Some kind of link-and-bobolink, some kind/ Of correlated pattern in the game,/ Plexed artistry, and something of the same/ Pleasure in it as they who played it found” (63). Life, he seems to imply, is just a game to be played. There is a beginning and an ending, and the in between is filled with “topsy-turvical coincidence” (63) and premeditated moves confused by other players. He wrote, “I feel I understand/ Existence, or at least a minute part/ Of my existence, only through my art,/ In terms of combinational delight;/ And if my private universe scans right,/ So does the verse of galaxies divine/ Which I suspect is an iambic line” (69). Literature is therefore not only a means to escape death, but a method of finding meaning in life. He seems to find solace in this notion and devoted himself to writing.
Kinbote utilizes literature to not only make sense of his own existence, but to create a new and fantastical story to replace it. Through manipulation of Shade’s poem, he creates a fantasy world, complete with heroes and villains. Although the northern country of Zembla is a figment of Kinbote’s imagination, fragments of various authors’ alternate realities can be found strewn throughout the world he has constructed. The most obvious contributor to Kinbote’s story is, of course, John Shade. Because Kinbote is claiming to simply provide a commentary for Shade’s poem, he is forced to incorporate at least some of Shade’s ideas into his own narrative. Kinbote even admits to this when he says, “I have reread, not without pleasure, my comments to his lines, and in many cases have caught myself borrowing a kind of opalescent light from my poet’s fiery orb”(81). Just as the moon reflects the dazzling rays of the sun, Kinbote’s story contains elements of Shade’s genius.
Even so, Kinbote has a tendency to manipulate the words employed by Shade to serve his own needs. For example, Kinbote takes two words, on from line 17 and the other from line 29, and unites them to come up with “gradual, gray” (77). From this pairing, Kinbote extracts the name Jakob Gradus. Not only were these lines not originally referring to a male, but they were 12 lines apart and had completely different contexts. Numerous other “notes” are comprised of one to two sentences discussing Shade’s words followed by one or more pages discussing something completely extraneous to the poem. It is through this method that Kinbote tells his own story since Shade did not.
Another author who has an obvious influence on Kinbote’s, and Shade’s, story is the infamous William Shakespeare. Not only does Kinbote carry around a copy of Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, but his own story is comparable to that of Timon. Like Timon, Charles the Beloved, aka Charles Kinbote, begins as loved man of high social status and then experiences a fall and rejection from his people. Both men succumb to rather solitary lives and then find a treasure (John Shade’s poem in Kinbote’s case), and in the end both leave a written document behind (Kinbote leaves writes his commentary and Timon leaves his epitaph. Another allusion to Shakespeare can be found in the names of the streets of Zembla: Timon Alley, Academy Boulevard and Coriolanus Lane (126). His utilization of components such as these from other authors’ works simply serve to complicate and enrich his own creation.
Kinbote incorporats aspects of his surroundings into his story as well. Perhaps the most obvious instance of this is his creation of Jakob Gradus, aka Jack Degree, Jacques de Grey, James de Gray, Raventstone, Ravus and d’Argus (77). Although Kinbote claims that Gradus “makes his way through the entire length of the poem, following the road of the rhythm, riding past in a rhyme, […] hiding between two words, reappearing on the horizon of a new canto, steadily marching nearer in iambic motion, […] and falling asleep as the poet lays down his pen for the night” (78), he is not a real person. That is to say that Gradus, the Shadow searching for the Zemblan king, is not a real person. In fact, his character is based on Jack Grey, the real revenge seeking man that Judge Goldsworth had put away years ago. Contrary to what Kinbote claims, Gradus did not exist before Grey shot Shade. He was a figment of the imagination of a creative, and perhaps slightly psychotic, man brought forth by an actual occurance.
Throughout the novel, the question begs to be asked: What is reality? Is it something that is universally true or tangible? Can it be portrayed objectively through art, or is there even such a thing as an objective reality? Nabokov plays with the notion of “reality” within many of his novels, and Pale Fire is no exception. From Kinbote’s crazed rantings regarding a king on the run, to Shade’s representation of her daughter, the concept of reality is brought into play. Although it becomes clear after reading the book that Kinbote’s tale does not hold true to fact, he states, "Without my notes Shade’s text simply has no human reality at all since the human reality of such poem as his (being too skittish and reticent for an autobiographical work), with the omission of many pithy lines carelessly rejected by him, has to depend entirely on the reality of its author and his surroundings, attachments and so forth, a reality that only my notes can provide" (29). Yet when question about the veracity of his story he also says, “Once transmuted by you into poetry, the stuff will be true, and the people will come alive” (214). On the one hand, he states that that which Shade has written does not adhere to reality, but on the other he claims that once he has written something it becomes true. I am not one to presume that I know what Nabokov believed about reality, but in my opinion, it is kind of a mixture of both of the claims that Kinbote made.
In writing their stories, both Shade and Kinbote created alternate realities, or invented worlds based somewhat on that which is “real” and somewhat on that which they wished was “real.” Kinbote says that “‘reality’ is neither the subject nor the object of the true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with the average ‘reality’ perceived by the communal eye” (130). Reality is subjective and therefore different for everyone. A piece of art or literature is a reflection of one’s perceived reality. It is composed of bits and pieces from one’s own life and experiences and those of others. It is a miniature world built upon thousands of other worlds constructed by other people.
Kinbote’s reverence for Shade can be seen when he says, “I am witnessing a unique physiological moment: John Shade perceiving and transforming the world, taking it in and taking it apart, re-combining its elements in the very process of storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse” (27). Composing a piece of literature is like a game of chess. At the beginning the playing board is filled with numerous pieces that have the potential to overpower their opponents. Over extended periods of time during which different options are thoroughly mulled over, the pieces are moved around, resulting in the removal of certain ideas/pieces from the playing field. It is the combination of the remaining pieces at the end that make up amazing compositions such as those written by Vladimir Nabokov.
Like Shade and Kinbote, both figments of his own imagination, Nabokov breaks everything down into their very basic molecules and then builds something completely different from them. His unique worlds/novels are composed of bits and pieces of hundreds of other worlds, and each piece has its own designated place and specific meaning. When reading his novels, one thing that is crucial to understand is that when we as readers go over his writing we bring new meaning to it. Like Kinbote, we create our own worlds based upon that which has been presented to us because reality and interpretation are subjective. It is for this reason that Nabokov’s works will forever evolve, and with each reading there will always be new treasures to be discovered.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Day 2 of Group Presentations
Group 4 Presentation
Group 4's movie was extremely unique and well made. The images that were shown were most definitely great representations of Nabokov. All the chess scenes were cool, and it took me a while to get that as she read the book Nabokov's chess piece moved because the game of worlds had begun. The escape from Zembla scene was really funny, and I enjoyed the other little plays within the movie. The whole thing was kind of set up like a frame story would be, which was great since Nabokov employs that technique within some of his works as well.
Group 6 Presentation
This presentation was my favorite of the lot. It was extremely creative, and it was interesting to see each person's unique representation of a character and what they would have written. The characters portrayed in this presentation were Humbert, Lolita, Shade, and Kinbote as the commentator. There were 4 different poems/pieces, which corresponds with the 4 cantos of Shade's poem. I liked that they Incorporated our class list into their pieces, as well as some of the blogs of their fellow classmates. The poem written from Shade's point of view was my favorite because it was quite entertaining and funny. Like Shade's poem, it was rhymed. And I thought it was interesting that he is writing from his own afterlife, whereas in the novel he writes about the death of his daughter. Each person did a great job of embodying their character and writing in the way that their characters really would. It was obvious that they put a lot of time into it, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Group 6 Presentation
Like all of the other presentations, group 6's was quite entertaining. They looked at the way fairy tales were incorporated into Nabokov's Lolita. Some of the ones they played out were little red riding hood, the little mermaid, snow white, beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty, Frankenstein, and the story of Actaeon. The use of pictures from the computer as scene backdrops was creative, and the cops excerpt from the end was funny. The part where the guys were watching little girls at play was comical as well.
Overall, the presentations were great. Super creative as well as entertaining.
Group 4's movie was extremely unique and well made. The images that were shown were most definitely great representations of Nabokov. All the chess scenes were cool, and it took me a while to get that as she read the book Nabokov's chess piece moved because the game of worlds had begun. The escape from Zembla scene was really funny, and I enjoyed the other little plays within the movie. The whole thing was kind of set up like a frame story would be, which was great since Nabokov employs that technique within some of his works as well.
Group 6 Presentation
This presentation was my favorite of the lot. It was extremely creative, and it was interesting to see each person's unique representation of a character and what they would have written. The characters portrayed in this presentation were Humbert, Lolita, Shade, and Kinbote as the commentator. There were 4 different poems/pieces, which corresponds with the 4 cantos of Shade's poem. I liked that they Incorporated our class list into their pieces, as well as some of the blogs of their fellow classmates. The poem written from Shade's point of view was my favorite because it was quite entertaining and funny. Like Shade's poem, it was rhymed. And I thought it was interesting that he is writing from his own afterlife, whereas in the novel he writes about the death of his daughter. Each person did a great job of embodying their character and writing in the way that their characters really would. It was obvious that they put a lot of time into it, and I enjoyed it a lot.
Group 6 Presentation
Like all of the other presentations, group 6's was quite entertaining. They looked at the way fairy tales were incorporated into Nabokov's Lolita. Some of the ones they played out were little red riding hood, the little mermaid, snow white, beauty and the beast, sleeping beauty, Frankenstein, and the story of Actaeon. The use of pictures from the computer as scene backdrops was creative, and the cops excerpt from the end was funny. The part where the guys were watching little girls at play was comical as well.
Overall, the presentations were great. Super creative as well as entertaining.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Presentatoin Day 1
Group 1 Presentation
I really liked how each person played a character from a Nabokov book, and how the different scenes were meant to be Nabokov's thoughts while he was writing on his note cards. I thought that it was really creative, as well as funny. Each person did a good job of portraying the character that they were supposed to be. My favorite one had to have been the portrayal of drunken Shade, since we all know that he has an alcohol problem. The back and forth portrayal of the scene between Humbert and Quilty in the enchanted hunters was really funny as well, and that is quite possibly my favorite scene in the book simple because of its humour.
Group 2 Presentation
I thought that group 2's presentation was really creative as well. The characters of Dolores (Lolita), Humbert, Kinbote, Quilty and Hazel Shade were all played and brought together in a talk show like setting. Kinbote's bit was obviously hilarious because he is so full of himself and has something to say about everything. Hazel Shade's character was quite interesting, and creepy, as well. The fact that they included Vivian Darkbloom (ie Vladimir Nabokov) as the interviewer was clever. A discovery that they included that I found interesting as well was the comparison of each character to a character in Greek mythology. Lolita was compared to Persephone because both girls were raped, and although crude, it was funny when she said, "Well at least I get some!" Of course Kinbote compared himself to Zeus, the almighty king of the Gods.
Group 3
That was ours
I really liked how each person played a character from a Nabokov book, and how the different scenes were meant to be Nabokov's thoughts while he was writing on his note cards. I thought that it was really creative, as well as funny. Each person did a good job of portraying the character that they were supposed to be. My favorite one had to have been the portrayal of drunken Shade, since we all know that he has an alcohol problem. The back and forth portrayal of the scene between Humbert and Quilty in the enchanted hunters was really funny as well, and that is quite possibly my favorite scene in the book simple because of its humour.
Group 2 Presentation
I thought that group 2's presentation was really creative as well. The characters of Dolores (Lolita), Humbert, Kinbote, Quilty and Hazel Shade were all played and brought together in a talk show like setting. Kinbote's bit was obviously hilarious because he is so full of himself and has something to say about everything. Hazel Shade's character was quite interesting, and creepy, as well. The fact that they included Vivian Darkbloom (ie Vladimir Nabokov) as the interviewer was clever. A discovery that they included that I found interesting as well was the comparison of each character to a character in Greek mythology. Lolita was compared to Persephone because both girls were raped, and although crude, it was funny when she said, "Well at least I get some!" Of course Kinbote compared himself to Zeus, the almighty king of the Gods.
Group 3
That was ours
Our Group (#3) Presentation
We had a difficult time coming up with a presentation topic. Initially we had played with the idea of doing a kind of skit or play type of thing where each person would play a character from one of Nabokov's books, and then possibly making the setting "Humbert Land." After discussing it, we couldn't decide how we would go about doing that and incorporating the theme of discovery into it.
The next idea that got brought into play was a game. After all, Nabokov is quite fond of games, especially chess. We initially came up with an extremely confusing idea in which there would be a question regarding 5 topics (memory, time, illusion, framing, and coincidence). Somehow we were trying to make the answer for each question correspond in a way with all of the other questions. However, a number of the group members found the game too confusing, and we figured it might be too confusing for the class as well so we nixed that idea. Next, we talked about doing a kind of jeopardy type game or possibly a cranium kind of thing where a representative from each team would come up and try to act out, draw, or sculpt something for their team to guess. This is similar to what we ended up with, but felt that we needed to participate more in the game, and so we decided to do the acting ourselves.
First we decided that we wanted the last question to be an anagram composed of the first letter of each answer. So we came up with the word "lepidoptera." It was a word that we thought would be relatively hard to guess, although that didn't end up being the case. From there, we decided on answers who's first letters begin with letters in the final word and have to do with discoveries (a lot of them were literary allusions that we discussed in class) from the novels. Once we came up with those, each person was assigned certain ones to act out or draw, and we went from there.
The next idea that got brought into play was a game. After all, Nabokov is quite fond of games, especially chess. We initially came up with an extremely confusing idea in which there would be a question regarding 5 topics (memory, time, illusion, framing, and coincidence). Somehow we were trying to make the answer for each question correspond in a way with all of the other questions. However, a number of the group members found the game too confusing, and we figured it might be too confusing for the class as well so we nixed that idea. Next, we talked about doing a kind of jeopardy type game or possibly a cranium kind of thing where a representative from each team would come up and try to act out, draw, or sculpt something for their team to guess. This is similar to what we ended up with, but felt that we needed to participate more in the game, and so we decided to do the acting ourselves.
First we decided that we wanted the last question to be an anagram composed of the first letter of each answer. So we came up with the word "lepidoptera." It was a word that we thought would be relatively hard to guess, although that didn't end up being the case. From there, we decided on answers who's first letters begin with letters in the final word and have to do with discoveries (a lot of them were literary allusions that we discussed in class) from the novels. Once we came up with those, each person was assigned certain ones to act out or draw, and we went from there.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Infinite Cats and Rungs
Last night my little sister, a senior at Bozeman Highschool, asked me to help her pick out a book to analyze for her AP English author paper. The paper has a required length of 10 to 15 pages, and can be on basically any significant book pre-approved by the teacher. Although they are not limited to it, each student was handed an extremely long list of suggested books to chose from. It included many expected authors, such as Jane Austen and Mark Twain, but to my surprise included a book from Vladimir Nabokov as well. It was not Lolita, quite arguably his most famous novel, but Pale Fire!
Upon seeing this I was taken aback. Had we not just written a short essay on the extreme complexity and never ending discoveries to be made in this very novel on our last test? How could any student, much less a highschool student with an extremely limited knowledge of literature, be expected to analyze Pale Fire in 15 pages or less? The thought is absolutely absurd! One could not even write a great analyses about the index in 15 pages, much less the whole book.
I just found the thought of attempting to write such a paper amusing, in fact it makes me chuckle. I know that if I had chosen it as the book to write my paper on when I was in the same class, I would have panicked and absolutely gone out of my mind. You would be quite unpleasantly surprised after doing even a minute amount of research. If I had to write a paper analyzing the entire novel now, even after all of our conversations in class about the novel, I would still go crazy. One would have to write an entire book in order to even begin to shed light upon the infinitely deep shadows that make up Pale Fire.Whoever put that book on the list has obviously either never read it, or just not understood even the most basic parts of it. A book with infinite levels of understanding and never ending supply of cats to be taken out of the bag is most definitely not a good candidate for this paper.
Upon seeing this I was taken aback. Had we not just written a short essay on the extreme complexity and never ending discoveries to be made in this very novel on our last test? How could any student, much less a highschool student with an extremely limited knowledge of literature, be expected to analyze Pale Fire in 15 pages or less? The thought is absolutely absurd! One could not even write a great analyses about the index in 15 pages, much less the whole book.
I just found the thought of attempting to write such a paper amusing, in fact it makes me chuckle. I know that if I had chosen it as the book to write my paper on when I was in the same class, I would have panicked and absolutely gone out of my mind. You would be quite unpleasantly surprised after doing even a minute amount of research. If I had to write a paper analyzing the entire novel now, even after all of our conversations in class about the novel, I would still go crazy. One would have to write an entire book in order to even begin to shed light upon the infinitely deep shadows that make up Pale Fire.Whoever put that book on the list has obviously either never read it, or just not understood even the most basic parts of it. A book with infinite levels of understanding and never ending supply of cats to be taken out of the bag is most definitely not a good candidate for this paper.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Lolita vs Lilith
I stumbled upon something interesting that kind of connects with Lolita being presented as an Eve like character.
While going through names that sound similar to Lolita, I found the name Lilith. It is of Babylonian origin, and means "belonging to the night." I thought that was kind of funny because night or darkness generally represents evil and can be used to represent temptation, and Lolita is most definitely characterised as a temptress. However, that is not all. According to middle aged legends, Lilith was also the names of Adam's (as in Adam and Eve) first wife. I don't come from a particularly religious family, so I'm not sure if that is generally taught when speaking about Genesis, but this was news to me. Apparently, as the legend goes Lilith refused to obey Adam, and as a result she was turned into a demon and Eve was created to take her place.
I just found this interesting because it ties into my paper topic in kind of a weird way.
While going through names that sound similar to Lolita, I found the name Lilith. It is of Babylonian origin, and means "belonging to the night." I thought that was kind of funny because night or darkness generally represents evil and can be used to represent temptation, and Lolita is most definitely characterised as a temptress. However, that is not all. According to middle aged legends, Lilith was also the names of Adam's (as in Adam and Eve) first wife. I don't come from a particularly religious family, so I'm not sure if that is generally taught when speaking about Genesis, but this was news to me. Apparently, as the legend goes Lilith refused to obey Adam, and as a result she was turned into a demon and Eve was created to take her place.
I just found this interesting because it ties into my paper topic in kind of a weird way.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Test 2 Study Guide
1. When does Gradus first come into the story?
In the first word of Shade's poem (his character is a function of the poem itself)
2. Who are the main three characters according to Kinbote?
1. Kinbote
2. Shade
3. Gradus
3. What do the daughters of Judge Goldsworth and the Zemblan Royal family have in common?
Their names are alphbetically arranged according to the letter that they start with
4. Beauty + pity = art
5. What type of butterfly lands on Shade right before he is shot?
A Vanessa Atalanta
6. According to Kinbote, what is it that gives Shade's poem reality?
His own commentary
7. What two primary Shakespearean plays could the title of the book possibly come from?
1. Timon of Athens
2. Hamlet
8. What does "kinbote" mean in Zemblan?
king killer (Botkin = dagger/stilleto)
9. What is the password?
pity
10. How does Shade predict his own death?
In the last refrain of the poem (the gardener)
11. Where in the poem does Hazel commit suicide?
The exact center (line 500)
12. Who gives Gradus a ride to Dulwich Lane to kill Kinbote?
Gerald Emerald
13. Ultima Thule means what?
"ultimate land"
14. What was the title that Kinbote thought Shade should give to his poem?
Solus Rex ("sun king"; also a chess problem)
15. Who translated, albeit poorly, Timon of Athens into Zemblan?
Jack Conmal
16. According to the index, what is Zembla?
A distant northern land
17. What word game does Shade like?
Word Golf , an example of which can be found in the index changing one letter at a time to form a new word (from last to male in index)
18. Who is the toilest?
T.S. Eliot
19. What is the misprint on which Shade had based life everlasting?
white "mountain" instead of white "fountain"
20. What does Kinbote think the last line of the poem should be?
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain (A repetition of the first line of the poem)
21. What is the one thing that Kinbote says he cannot forgive?
treason
-->Shade says he can forgive everything other than not having read the assigned text
22. Just this. Not text, but texture.
23. What are the names of the two books (the first and last) at Judge Goldsworth's house?
1. Forever Amber
2. The Prisoner of Zenda
24. Kinbote is like who?
Hazel Shade -- both have a tendency to reverse words
25. What does "Bretwit" (pg. 180) mean?
Chess intelligence
26. Zembla = resemblance
27. IPH
Institution for the Preparation of the Hereafter
28. How many days does it take to write each of the Cantos?
3-7-7-3
29. What is Kinbote's supposed wife's full name?
Paradisa Duchess of Payn and Moan
30. Ampersand
& (brought with the dropping of the rubber band)
*READ THIS ARTICLE* http://www.tnr.com/article/books/bolt-the-blue
In the first word of Shade's poem (his character is a function of the poem itself)
2. Who are the main three characters according to Kinbote?
1. Kinbote
2. Shade
3. Gradus
3. What do the daughters of Judge Goldsworth and the Zemblan Royal family have in common?
Their names are alphbetically arranged according to the letter that they start with
4. Beauty + pity = art
5. What type of butterfly lands on Shade right before he is shot?
A Vanessa Atalanta
6. According to Kinbote, what is it that gives Shade's poem reality?
His own commentary
7. What two primary Shakespearean plays could the title of the book possibly come from?
1. Timon of Athens
2. Hamlet
8. What does "kinbote" mean in Zemblan?
king killer (Botkin = dagger/stilleto)
9. What is the password?
pity
10. How does Shade predict his own death?
In the last refrain of the poem (the gardener)
11. Where in the poem does Hazel commit suicide?
The exact center (line 500)
12. Who gives Gradus a ride to Dulwich Lane to kill Kinbote?
Gerald Emerald
13. Ultima Thule means what?
"ultimate land"
14. What was the title that Kinbote thought Shade should give to his poem?
Solus Rex ("sun king"; also a chess problem)
15. Who translated, albeit poorly, Timon of Athens into Zemblan?
Jack Conmal
16. According to the index, what is Zembla?
A distant northern land
17. What word game does Shade like?
Word Golf , an example of which can be found in the index changing one letter at a time to form a new word (from last to male in index)
18. Who is the toilest?
T.S. Eliot
19. What is the misprint on which Shade had based life everlasting?
white "mountain" instead of white "fountain"
20. What does Kinbote think the last line of the poem should be?
I was the shadow of the waxwing slain (A repetition of the first line of the poem)
21. What is the one thing that Kinbote says he cannot forgive?
treason
-->Shade says he can forgive everything other than not having read the assigned text
22. Just this. Not text, but texture.
23. What are the names of the two books (the first and last) at Judge Goldsworth's house?
1. Forever Amber
2. The Prisoner of Zenda
24. Kinbote is like who?
Hazel Shade -- both have a tendency to reverse words
25. What does "Bretwit" (pg. 180) mean?
Chess intelligence
26. Zembla = resemblance
27. IPH
Institution for the Preparation of the Hereafter
28. How many days does it take to write each of the Cantos?
3-7-7-3
29. What is Kinbote's supposed wife's full name?
Paradisa Duchess of Payn and Moan
30. Ampersand
& (brought with the dropping of the rubber band)
*READ THIS ARTICLE* http://www.tnr.com/article/books/bolt-the-blue
Paper One Topic
I started out with two ideas on what to write my first paper on. The first of which was brought up in class by John, and it was the relationship of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" to Lolita. I had just read this play in my world lit class, and one could make a number of connections between the two. First off, either Humbert or Quilty could be compared to Prospero. Both manipulated things in a way so as to cause certain events to happen. In the end like Prospero, Humbert comes to see that what he did was not necessarily as good as he had originally intended it to be.
The second paper topic, and the one I am going to pursue is the inclusion of Genesis in Lolita. There are numerous instances in which Lolita is compared to Eve, and in which Humbert compares himself to Adam. He represents himself as an innocent man tempted by Lolita into taking a bite of the sweat flesh of "knowledge." Humbert blames her more than once in the book for his fall into a world of chaos. There are a lot of other religious images strewn throughout the book as well. My focus, however, is going to be on how Lolita is connected to Eve in the story.
The second paper topic, and the one I am going to pursue is the inclusion of Genesis in Lolita. There are numerous instances in which Lolita is compared to Eve, and in which Humbert compares himself to Adam. He represents himself as an innocent man tempted by Lolita into taking a bite of the sweat flesh of "knowledge." Humbert blames her more than once in the book for his fall into a world of chaos. There are a lot of other religious images strewn throughout the book as well. My focus, however, is going to be on how Lolita is connected to Eve in the story.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Emily Dickinson
So we talked briefly in class about Emily Dickinson, and am reading her work in another class, Dr. Leubner's 19th Century American Lit. One of the assigned poems was the one below, and although Nabokov surely was not referring to Dickinson when searching for the title of Shade's poem, aspects of it did remind me of "Pale Fire."
Dare you see a Soul at the "White Heat"?
Then crouch within the door -
Red - is the fire’s common tint -
But when the vivid Ore
Dare you see a Soul at the "White Heat"?
Then crouch within the door -
Red - is the fire’s common tint -
But when the vivid Ore
Has Vanquished Flame’s conditions -
It quivers from the Forage
Without a color, but the Light
Of unanointed Blaze -
Least Village, boasts its Blacksmith -
Whose Anvil’s even ring
Stands symbol for the finer Forge
That soundless tugs - within -
Refining these impatient Ores
With Hammer, and with Blaze -
Until the designated Light
Repudiate the Forge -
It quivers from the Forage
Without a color, but the Light
Of unanointed Blaze -
Least Village, boasts its Blacksmith -
Whose Anvil’s even ring
Stands symbol for the finer Forge
That soundless tugs - within -
Refining these impatient Ores
With Hammer, and with Blaze -
Until the designated Light
Repudiate the Forge -
-
-
-
Not only does she talk about include "White heat" in her poem, but about the light blaze of a really hot fire. This imagery has obvious similarities to a "pale fire." I think that the above poem could also be construed as a poem about the creation of a poem by a poet. The poet continues to "refine" his poems until the intended light shines through and captures the spirit the poet intended. Shade himself does this. There were a number of passages which he decided to omit and replace with others. He played with the words of the poem until he had molded something truly beautiful, a work of art complete with pity, and a poem that served as a remembrance of his lost daughter.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Gretchen Minton's Presentation
I thoroughly enjoyed Gretchen's presentation today. I will be the first to admit that I not very familiar at all with the majority of Shakespeare's works, so pretty much everything that she said revealed something new to me and helped me to further understand what is going on in Nabokov's novel Pale Fire. It never ceases to amaze me how many literary allusions Nabokov sneaks into his works. For example, the names of the street signs in Zembla being taken from Shakespeare works. That is something that I never would have noticed on my own, and is so random that is difficult to believe that he would put something like that in. I cannot even imagine how much time he must have spent just doing research in order to write his novels. In a time where the Internet was not accessible, it is insane that he could even find as much information as he did. Minton too has retained an incredible amount of knowledge it seems. I was blown away by how familiar she was with both "Timon of Athens" and "Hamlet." Something that I would never have noticed had she no pointed out is the switch of gender in the passage about the moon stealing light from the sun. It is likely that Nabokov did this in order to make Kinbote give himself the greater power, since that is what he does throughout the novel. I thought that the interpretation of the colors green and red as indication of heterosexuality and homosexuality was interesting as well. Overall, it was a great presentation and led to an interesting discussion. I'm sure that everyone on class was thankful that she came in.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
1st Paper: Humbert's Femme Fatale
Humbert Humbert, the not so reliable narrator of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, is not only a somewhat offensive pedophile, but a creator. Humbert and Lolita, the nymphet who becomes the apple of his eye, take on the role of two primary characters in his story, and together take a fantastical journey across the United States and boundaries of morality. By incorporating elements of numerous fairy tales and myths into his own experiences, he creates a unique story of love and obsession. One of the myths that he, somewhat ironically, peppers throughout the novel, particularly in character of Lolita, is that of the biblical genesis. Lolita is characterized repeatedly throughout the novel as the very first femme fatale, the one temptress who instigated the fall of all men, Eve.
Humber Humbert evokes the image of Eve in the Garden of Eden from the very moment he glimpses Lolita for the first time. The instant he walks into “the breathless garden” (Nabokov, 40) he is struck by the beauty of Lolita. At this point in his mind she is still innocent and seeing as he has “a gross liking for the fruit vert” (Nabokov, 40), he falls head over heels for her. She becomes an obsession for him. He frequently dreams of intimacy between them and stays in the Haze house only to be close to his Lolita. Although he arranges for them to spend as much time in the same vicinity as possible, it is not until later that he takes a nibble of the forbidden fruit.
“God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die" (Genesis 3:3). Although Humbert does not enjoy the “forbidden fruit,” Lolita’s body in this case, to the fullest extent on their first encounter, he does touch make the mistake of touching it. This action occurs in the living room while Humbert and Lolita are alone, and is perhaps the most obvious allusion to Eve in the entirety of the novel. Not only is Lolita “holding in her hallowed hands a beautiful, banal, Eden-red apple”, but she “grasped it and bit into it” (Nabokov, 58). This is a very obvious allusion to Eve, who first ate of the forbidden apple. He also calls Lolita “apple-sweet” in the same passage, intimating that he has had just a taste of the sweet juice. It is after this that, while moving her body to a song, Humbert brings himself to climax, and therefore has nibbled the forbidden fruit of Eve and begun the infamous fall.
Humbert finds himself in a similar situation in the Enchanted Hunters Hotel, where he initially plans on putting Lolita in a deep sleep before taking advantage of her, but in the end doesn’t. However, rather than claiming responsibility for the situation he places the blame on Lolita. He says to the reader, “I am going to tell you something very strange: it was she who seduced me” (Nabokov, 132). This evokes the image of Adam placing the blame on Eve or eating the forbidden fruit, for like Lolita, she seduced him. In this point in the Bible Adam said to God, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (Genisis 3:12). Like Adam does with Eve, Humbert characterizes Lolita as a temptress who seduces him into the act of intercourse. It also intimates that he would not have done it, but he could not muster the power to resist the temptation put before him by his lover. For the first time takes a full bite of the forbidden fruit, and he and Lolita’s fates are sealed.
Upon reflecting on that night, Humbert says this, “I should have known (by the signs made to me by something in Lolita—the real child Lolita or the angel behind her back) that nothing but pain and horror would result from the expected rapture” (Nabokov, 125). The fall has occurred, and things slowly go downhill for Humbert. His obsession continues, but the two begin to fight, and although he continues to submit power over her, she openly objects. As Eve began to think for herself and consider her desires as well, so does Lolita, ultimately causing Humbert to become dejected. He realizes that “there was in her garden […] regions which happened to be forbidden to me” (Nabokov, 84). He also notes that they are living in a “world of total evil.” The world, his wondrous “nymphetland” has lost much of its allure, and Humbert is left dreaming of the past.
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta” (Nabokov, 9). Although Eve is not technically Adam’s sin, it was her that brought it on him. Lolita not only causes Humbert, in a way, to sin, she is in fact his sin. This is one aspect of his story that differs from Genesis. By the end I think that he realizes, perhaps, that Lolita was not so much like the temptress Eve that he evokes through much of the story, but the innocent and curious Eve. She was a young female who wanted to experience knew things and gain knowledge of the world. She was lead to do this in a unorthodox way, by a troubled man. If Lolita is Eve, then Humbert is the snake that tempted her in the first place, and I think he begins to realize this.
Humber Humbert evokes the image of Eve in the Garden of Eden from the very moment he glimpses Lolita for the first time. The instant he walks into “the breathless garden” (Nabokov, 40) he is struck by the beauty of Lolita. At this point in his mind she is still innocent and seeing as he has “a gross liking for the fruit vert” (Nabokov, 40), he falls head over heels for her. She becomes an obsession for him. He frequently dreams of intimacy between them and stays in the Haze house only to be close to his Lolita. Although he arranges for them to spend as much time in the same vicinity as possible, it is not until later that he takes a nibble of the forbidden fruit.
“God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die" (Genesis 3:3). Although Humbert does not enjoy the “forbidden fruit,” Lolita’s body in this case, to the fullest extent on their first encounter, he does touch make the mistake of touching it. This action occurs in the living room while Humbert and Lolita are alone, and is perhaps the most obvious allusion to Eve in the entirety of the novel. Not only is Lolita “holding in her hallowed hands a beautiful, banal, Eden-red apple”, but she “grasped it and bit into it” (Nabokov, 58). This is a very obvious allusion to Eve, who first ate of the forbidden apple. He also calls Lolita “apple-sweet” in the same passage, intimating that he has had just a taste of the sweet juice. It is after this that, while moving her body to a song, Humbert brings himself to climax, and therefore has nibbled the forbidden fruit of Eve and begun the infamous fall.
Humbert finds himself in a similar situation in the Enchanted Hunters Hotel, where he initially plans on putting Lolita in a deep sleep before taking advantage of her, but in the end doesn’t. However, rather than claiming responsibility for the situation he places the blame on Lolita. He says to the reader, “I am going to tell you something very strange: it was she who seduced me” (Nabokov, 132). This evokes the image of Adam placing the blame on Eve or eating the forbidden fruit, for like Lolita, she seduced him. In this point in the Bible Adam said to God, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (Genisis 3:12). Like Adam does with Eve, Humbert characterizes Lolita as a temptress who seduces him into the act of intercourse. It also intimates that he would not have done it, but he could not muster the power to resist the temptation put before him by his lover. For the first time takes a full bite of the forbidden fruit, and he and Lolita’s fates are sealed.
Upon reflecting on that night, Humbert says this, “I should have known (by the signs made to me by something in Lolita—the real child Lolita or the angel behind her back) that nothing but pain and horror would result from the expected rapture” (Nabokov, 125). The fall has occurred, and things slowly go downhill for Humbert. His obsession continues, but the two begin to fight, and although he continues to submit power over her, she openly objects. As Eve began to think for herself and consider her desires as well, so does Lolita, ultimately causing Humbert to become dejected. He realizes that “there was in her garden […] regions which happened to be forbidden to me” (Nabokov, 84). He also notes that they are living in a “world of total evil.” The world, his wondrous “nymphetland” has lost much of its allure, and Humbert is left dreaming of the past.
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta” (Nabokov, 9). Although Eve is not technically Adam’s sin, it was her that brought it on him. Lolita not only causes Humbert, in a way, to sin, she is in fact his sin. This is one aspect of his story that differs from Genesis. By the end I think that he realizes, perhaps, that Lolita was not so much like the temptress Eve that he evokes through much of the story, but the innocent and curious Eve. She was a young female who wanted to experience knew things and gain knowledge of the world. She was lead to do this in a unorthodox way, by a troubled man. If Lolita is Eve, then Humbert is the snake that tempted her in the first place, and I think he begins to realize this.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
On page 36 in Pale Fire, Shade writes about an article in Aunt Maude's room that reads, "Red Sox Beat Yanks 5-4 On Chapman's Homer." In class today Dr. Sexon informed us that this is not only a reference to a baseball game, but a poem by John Keats as well. Below is a copy of John Keat's poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer."
John Keats. 1795–1821
MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
John Keats. 1795–1821
MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Waxwing
This is a picture of a waxwing, the bird mentioned on pg.33 and pg.37 in Nabokov's Pale Fire.
Kinbote's Irksome Qualities
1. His narcissistic nature. Kinbote is quite possibly one of the most narcissistic literary characters to ever be written. He takes Shade's beautiful poem, and makes it all about himself. I HATE people like that.
2. His habit of spying on John Shade. He is CREEPY!!! Not only does Kinbote spy on him with binoculars in order to track his and Sybil's every move, he invades their privacy in other ways as well.
3. The fact that he stole Shades poem at the end rather than try to care for his "good" friend. He claims to love Shade, yet when he is shot, Kinbote is more concerned about the manuscript than his friend. The fact that he thinks he is qualified to write the last line is annoying as well.
4. His psychotic belief that he is in fact a king of a "distant northern land" named Zembla and is being pursued by the Gradus. He is basically crazy, yet attempts to make it seem like he is a totally credible narrator and it is everyone else that is mistaken.
5. His extreme dislike for and endless amount of things. He doesn't like the pictures of Judge Goldsworth's daughters, so he throws them in the closet. He dislikes Sybil Shade as well as the cat that lives in Goldsworth's house. Other than Shade, he really likes very few people. It seems like he is always complaining about people and his surroundings.
6. His laziness. Kinbote spends so much time telling his story, yet there are numerous instances in which he blames other people for not knowing Shade's story. Although his story is a construct of his imagination, he goes into detail about things that happened when he wasn't present. If he really cared about giving an accurate commentary as he claims, he would have taken the necessary time to come up with the missing information.
2. His habit of spying on John Shade. He is CREEPY!!! Not only does Kinbote spy on him with binoculars in order to track his and Sybil's every move, he invades their privacy in other ways as well.
3. The fact that he stole Shades poem at the end rather than try to care for his "good" friend. He claims to love Shade, yet when he is shot, Kinbote is more concerned about the manuscript than his friend. The fact that he thinks he is qualified to write the last line is annoying as well.
4. His psychotic belief that he is in fact a king of a "distant northern land" named Zembla and is being pursued by the Gradus. He is basically crazy, yet attempts to make it seem like he is a totally credible narrator and it is everyone else that is mistaken.
5. His extreme dislike for and endless amount of things. He doesn't like the pictures of Judge Goldsworth's daughters, so he throws them in the closet. He dislikes Sybil Shade as well as the cat that lives in Goldsworth's house. Other than Shade, he really likes very few people. It seems like he is always complaining about people and his surroundings.
6. His laziness. Kinbote spends so much time telling his story, yet there are numerous instances in which he blames other people for not knowing Shade's story. Although his story is a construct of his imagination, he goes into detail about things that happened when he wasn't present. If he really cared about giving an accurate commentary as he claims, he would have taken the necessary time to come up with the missing information.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Test 1 Study Guide
In the past I have found that making study guides is a helpful way for me to study....so...here it goes.
1. What was the name of the only hotel that HH and Lolita stayed in part 1?
The Enchanted Hunters
2. What is the significance of the number 342?
a) The address of the Haze home
b) 342 hotels on the road trip
c) Their room number at the Enchanted Hunters
3. Nabokov talks about the instances that logicians loath and poets love. (pg.342)
4."You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. (pg. 9)
5. Memorize the last line of the book Lolita.
"And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita."
6. What does Nabokov think he was really born as?
A landscape painter (pg. 342)
7. Who can recognise a nymphet?
An artist and a madman
8. What was Nabokov plagued by?
Synethesia (when your senses are confused. Nabokov heard colors)
9. What mustached man does Quilty resemble?
a) Adolf Hitler
b) Charlie Chaplin
c) Uncle Trap
10. Humbert is to Quilty as the Reader is to Nabokov.
11. What does Nabokov think about sleep?
He finds it unspeakably repulsive because you are parting with consciousness.
12. What is the formal name from which Lolita is derived?
Dolores (sorrows)
13. Mater Dolorosa: mother of sorrows
14. "Life imitates art more than art imitates life."
15. What are the names of Jean Farlow's dogs?
Cavall (King Arthur's hunting dog) and Melampus (one of Actaeon's dogs)
16. How is the story of Diana and Actaeon significant to Speak, Memory?
When Nabokov was young he came upon a pool with a number of young, and naked, girl(nymphets), similar to the scene in which Actaeon came upon Diana
17. What are the four things that all good readers should have?
1. memory
2. imagination
3. artistic sense
4. a dictionary
18. Three things that every author should be.
1. a story teller
2. a teacher (least important)
3. an enchanter (most important)
19. What color is Quilty's dog's ball?
red
20. Describe HH forearms in two words.
Hair and Masculine
21. What word comes to HH's mind when he finds out who took Lolita?
"Waterproof"
22. Name one of the plays that Clare Quilty wrote.
"The Little Nymph," "Fatherly Love," "The Strange Mushroom" and "The Lady that Loved Lightening"
23. Who drove the car that killed Charlotte Haze?
Frederick Beale Jr.
24. What are the two words used to describe how HH's mother died?
Picnic, Lightening
25. What is the difference between parody and satire?
Parody is a game, Satire is a lesson
26. In Speak, Memory, what did Nabokov's mother like to collect from the woods?
Mushrooms
27. What is the order of Lolita's favorite kind of movies? (pg. 170)
1. musicals
2. underworlders
3. westerners
28. Who is "Jutting Jaw"? Dick Tracy
29. "Reality" (according to Nabokov the word must have quotes around it)
30. Lolita, Don Quixote, and The French Lieutenant's Women are all examples of what?
Metafiction
31. What kind of car did Masonovich, the man who stole HH first wife, drive?
a taxi
32. Which passages are the ones that Nabokov says he is most proud of?
1. The Ramsdale Class list
2. The Creation of the character Taxivich
3. The Kasbeam Barber
4. Lolita playing tennis
33. What did Lolita seem to represent while playing tennis?
The very geometry of reality
34. What could Darwin not explain with respect to butterflies? (pg. 95)
Their imitative behavior (it is solely aesthetic)
35. What are HH's age regulations for a nymphet?
9-14 years old
36. What regions are nymphets not found in?
The polar regions
* Read blogs
1. What was the name of the only hotel that HH and Lolita stayed in part 1?
The Enchanted Hunters
2. What is the significance of the number 342?
a) The address of the Haze home
b) 342 hotels on the road trip
c) Their room number at the Enchanted Hunters
3. Nabokov talks about the instances that logicians loath and poets love. (pg.342)
4."You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. (pg. 9)
5. Memorize the last line of the book Lolita.
"And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita."
6. What does Nabokov think he was really born as?
A landscape painter (pg. 342)
7. Who can recognise a nymphet?
An artist and a madman
8. What was Nabokov plagued by?
Synethesia (when your senses are confused. Nabokov heard colors)
9. What mustached man does Quilty resemble?
a) Adolf Hitler
b) Charlie Chaplin
c) Uncle Trap
10. Humbert is to Quilty as the Reader is to Nabokov.
11. What does Nabokov think about sleep?
He finds it unspeakably repulsive because you are parting with consciousness.
12. What is the formal name from which Lolita is derived?
Dolores (sorrows)
13. Mater Dolorosa: mother of sorrows
14. "Life imitates art more than art imitates life."
15. What are the names of Jean Farlow's dogs?
Cavall (King Arthur's hunting dog) and Melampus (one of Actaeon's dogs)
16. How is the story of Diana and Actaeon significant to Speak, Memory?
When Nabokov was young he came upon a pool with a number of young, and naked, girl(nymphets), similar to the scene in which Actaeon came upon Diana
17. What are the four things that all good readers should have?
1. memory
2. imagination
3. artistic sense
4. a dictionary
18. Three things that every author should be.
1. a story teller
2. a teacher (least important)
3. an enchanter (most important)
19. What color is Quilty's dog's ball?
red
20. Describe HH forearms in two words.
Hair and Masculine
21. What word comes to HH's mind when he finds out who took Lolita?
"Waterproof"
22. Name one of the plays that Clare Quilty wrote.
"The Little Nymph," "Fatherly Love," "The Strange Mushroom" and "The Lady that Loved Lightening"
23. Who drove the car that killed Charlotte Haze?
Frederick Beale Jr.
24. What are the two words used to describe how HH's mother died?
Picnic, Lightening
25. What is the difference between parody and satire?
Parody is a game, Satire is a lesson
26. In Speak, Memory, what did Nabokov's mother like to collect from the woods?
Mushrooms
27. What is the order of Lolita's favorite kind of movies? (pg. 170)
1. musicals
2. underworlders
3. westerners
28. Who is "Jutting Jaw"? Dick Tracy
29. "Reality" (according to Nabokov the word must have quotes around it)
30. Lolita, Don Quixote, and The French Lieutenant's Women are all examples of what?
Metafiction
31. What kind of car did Masonovich, the man who stole HH first wife, drive?
a taxi
32. Which passages are the ones that Nabokov says he is most proud of?
1. The Ramsdale Class list
2. The Creation of the character Taxivich
3. The Kasbeam Barber
4. Lolita playing tennis
33. What did Lolita seem to represent while playing tennis?
The very geometry of reality
34. What could Darwin not explain with respect to butterflies? (pg. 95)
Their imitative behavior (it is solely aesthetic)
35. What are HH's age regulations for a nymphet?
9-14 years old
36. What regions are nymphets not found in?
The polar regions
* Read blogs
Thursday, September 17, 2009
To Amanda
In response to Amanda's question regarding why Nabokov wrote a novel about a pedophile, I have this to say:
There are a number of reasons he could have decided to write about a pedophile, and we will probably never know for sure why he made his choice. However, one possibility could be that he did it because it is an authors responsibility to represent reality. Unfortunately, pedophilia is a real thing, and there are men like Humbert out there. Another reason could be to toy with the reader's emotions. Nabokov loves to make his readers reflect deeply on his writings. What's a better way to do that than to portray a man who we should be immediately repulsed by, but then add in factors that make the reader feel sympathy for him. It really causes one to question morality by blurring a line that seems like it would be well defined.
It is very possible that neither of these are the real answer to her question. Nabokov, and Nabokov alone, knows the answer...or maybe even he doesn't. People often don't know he real reason behind things that they do.
There are a number of reasons he could have decided to write about a pedophile, and we will probably never know for sure why he made his choice. However, one possibility could be that he did it because it is an authors responsibility to represent reality. Unfortunately, pedophilia is a real thing, and there are men like Humbert out there. Another reason could be to toy with the reader's emotions. Nabokov loves to make his readers reflect deeply on his writings. What's a better way to do that than to portray a man who we should be immediately repulsed by, but then add in factors that make the reader feel sympathy for him. It really causes one to question morality by blurring a line that seems like it would be well defined.
It is very possible that neither of these are the real answer to her question. Nabokov, and Nabokov alone, knows the answer...or maybe even he doesn't. People often don't know he real reason behind things that they do.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Lolita Annotations
So the photo copy didn't come out as clear as I would have hoped, but the page number is 58, and the circles on the left have numbers in them and denote a annotation. I will do my best to include the subjects which the numbers refer to below.
1. "...banal, Eden-red apple": This is one of the many references within Lolita to the scene in Genesis where Eve eats an apple from the tree of knowledge. The allusion continues on in the page as well with her tossing the apple up and down, as if playing a game with him, and then taking a bite out of it.
2. "And her white Sunday purse lay discarded near the phonograph": white often refers to innocence, and the fact that it has been thrown to the side and she is not in church could allude to the lack of innocence in Lolita. This would go along with the loss of Eve's innocence after biting into the apple as well.
3. "I produced Delicious": A Delicious is a specific kind of red apple, and it is an obvious reference to this type. Delicious could also possibly refer to either Lolita, or possibly and erection since Humbert has become extremely aroused in this scene.
4. "She grasped it and bit into it, and my heart was like snow under thin crimson skin...": This could refer to the story of snow white, who also bites into an apple and is poisoned. As Lolita bites into the apple, she takes a piece of his heart, and in the end she kind of acts as a poison in his life. Humbert also speaks of a kind of mist which surrounds him after she takes a bit, which could be from a kind of spell from the apple.
5. "...a plaster replica of the Venus di Milo...": Venus (also known as Aphrodite) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Venis di Milo is a marble statue of the goddess, and although her arms were broken off, it is said that in one hand she used to hold and apple and with the other she held her dress at the knee. This image is another reference to the apple/forbidden fruit. Lolita is like a Goddess to Humbert, and he finds her extremely beautiful and arousing. Also, Lolita's knees are exposed as well in this scene with her hands resting on them. (Below I have included a picture of the Venus di Milo)
1. "...banal, Eden-red apple": This is one of the many references within Lolita to the scene in Genesis where Eve eats an apple from the tree of knowledge. The allusion continues on in the page as well with her tossing the apple up and down, as if playing a game with him, and then taking a bite out of it. 2. "And her white Sunday purse lay discarded near the phonograph": white often refers to innocence, and the fact that it has been thrown to the side and she is not in church could allude to the lack of innocence in Lolita. This would go along with the loss of Eve's innocence after biting into the apple as well.
3. "I produced Delicious": A Delicious is a specific kind of red apple, and it is an obvious reference to this type. Delicious could also possibly refer to either Lolita, or possibly and erection since Humbert has become extremely aroused in this scene.
4. "She grasped it and bit into it, and my heart was like snow under thin crimson skin...": This could refer to the story of snow white, who also bites into an apple and is poisoned. As Lolita bites into the apple, she takes a piece of his heart, and in the end she kind of acts as a poison in his life. Humbert also speaks of a kind of mist which surrounds him after she takes a bit, which could be from a kind of spell from the apple.
5. "...a plaster replica of the Venus di Milo...": Venus (also known as Aphrodite) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Venis di Milo is a marble statue of the goddess, and although her arms were broken off, it is said that in one hand she used to hold and apple and with the other she held her dress at the knee. This image is another reference to the apple/forbidden fruit. Lolita is like a Goddess to Humbert, and he finds her extremely beautiful and arousing. Also, Lolita's knees are exposed as well in this scene with her hands resting on them. (Below I have included a picture of the Venus di Milo)
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Butterflies
Over the summer I spent 8 weeks in Costa Rica, and while there saw some amazing things. It was some of the most beautiful landscape that I have ever seen, and to go along with the beauty of the land were thousands of butterflies. They were everywhere, and one of the things numerous that caught my attention. Although I would say that most young boys are not avid collectors of butterflies, and are generally more enthralled with other more "gross" insects, I can see why Nabokov was so fascinated with them. Butterflies are beautiful creatures, breathtaking even. They float through the air with a grace unmatched by any other insect or animal. They come in a huge variety of shapes, colors, and forms; all designed for specific purpose. The enigma that is nature never ceases to amaze me. It is filled with creations more beautiful and inricate than anything designed by the human hand. Butterflies, in my opinion are just one such creation. I thought that I would include some of the pictures of them that I took while over there since Nabokov loved butterflies so much. Unlike him, I am not a butterfly conesieur, and don't know the names of the different species so I have just included the pictures.
This is a moth, not a butterfly, but I loved it for it's
unique look. It is difficult to tell from the picture, but it had
a much different texture than any moth I have ever seen. The
coloring is unique as well.
The next two pictures are of the same species of butterflies,
but show the difference between the
colors found on the inside and the outside of the wings.
Note the eyes, which Nabokov mentions a number of
times throughout Speak, Memory, on the outside wings.
Also, they reminded me of the species that he discovered because of
the brilliant blue hue of the their inner wings.
These last two pictures are of the same kind of butterlfy as well,
and look similar to the ones above, but are different.
One can see the differences if they look closely.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
My Discovery of Literature
In class today we briefly discussed our first discovery of literature. Some people had a relatively vivid memory of that discovery, but I most definitely do not. I started classes at a Montessori school when I was three, and from day one we were taught to read. Up until highschool our teachers always read to our class, and we generally had "reading time" as well. I remember in fourth grade each student had to make a life sized cutout picture of them doing their favorite activity, and I painted myself reading a book. Literature has been a part of my life since I can remember. I have always had a love for reading. However, that said, it was not until college that I really learned to read critically. In fact, it was not until my third semester of college, because before that I was a mechanical engineering major. Before that I read a lot for pleasure, but did not get nearly as much out of the books as I do when I read now. College has transformed the way that I read a book, and greatly increased the discoveries that I make. So I guess if I had to give an exact moment when I truly discovered the depth and complexity of literature, it would probably have to be in the first class that I took from Doctor Sexon. He has helped me so much to become a more critical reader, and I can't tell you how that has opened my eyes to the immense world of literature.
El Salto del Puente Colorado
This picture was taken by my father on July 27, 2009 in Costa Rica. I remember the exact date for two very specific reasons. The first being that the moment captured in this photo occurred the day before my family left Costa Rica, and also because of the action which we had all just completed prior to the this picture being taken.
The three people standing in the forefront of the photo are my younger sister, me, and our Tico guide Fernando. The three of us, as well as my father, had been travelling together for a total of five days and were on our way back to San Jose to catch a plane back to the US when we stopped at this location. We had discussed stopping here on the way to Monteverde, a beautiful mountain town surrounded by thick rainforest and located strategically located between two national parks, but had put it off due to nerves. The thick metal railing dissecting the picture hint at the fact that we are standing on a bridge, as does the plethora of green trees who's height is dwarfed by our own elevation, but it is impossible to gauge the distance between it and the ground. There is an approximately 265 foot drop from the bridge to the roaring water rushing below us. If one is afraid of heights, which I admittedly am to some degree, looking straight down would not be advised.
The two men wearing yellow shirts in the background were responsible for tightly securing our ankles to a long rubber band of a rope and fashioning our wastes with harnesses just in case something went terribly wrong. For a few brief moments, our lives were completely in their hands. They were encouraging, although somewhat sarcastic and taunting at points, and assured us that everything would be fine. The instructions that they gave us went something like this, "You will sit on the edge of the bridge facing us as we secure your ankles. After we have finished you will turn around and step out on the ledge, which looked very much like a diving board, and drop the rope over the edge in front of you. You should align your toes with the edge of the ledge while holding on to the pole beside you, and we will begin to count from four back to one. At the point that one is called out, you jump, hands out beside you as if you are flying. Oh, and don't look down..." As if we hadn't already looked down and our hearts were not beating fast enough already. I remember my hands feeling like they were being pricked by a thousand little needles and feeling my heart beat in my ponytail, which was obviously taken out before the picture.
All four of us had already made the jump before the picture was taken, and although one cannot easily glean it through our smiling faces and laid back postures, we were still shaking from the surge of adrenaline that shot through our bodies moments before. My shoes have yet to be put back on after the jump, even though I went first. My camera is hanging across my body, still warm from shooting the descents of my father and sister. My sister still holds my father's belongings, including his wedding ring and pocket change, removed before the big jump. The Tico's behind us are undoubtedly still laughing softly to themselves about the terror that they saw cross our faces in the moments between stepping out on the ledge and flinging our bodies toward potential death by impact.
This picture captures the aftermath of few mere seconds of my life that I will never forget, and that I hope to reenact someday in the future.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Earliest Memory
The first memory that I can conjure up, without the help of external associations, occurred when I was three years old. The memory is incomplete, undoubtedly due to the fact that at that point in my life that which was not visually stimulating was deemed unimportant and therefore lost somewhere in the abyss of time. I remember being one of a number of people sitting in a rather small room, and I am sitting on my father's lap. My grandfather, much less gray than he is now, is garbed in a black suite, by no means his usual attire, and is sitting facing the rest of the group. He is the only one speaking, the exact words I no longer recall, ad the rest of the room is silent except for the intermittent sniffles and and the rustling of cloths as hands wipe tears from people's eyes. I remember an elderly lady, not someone that I recognise, laying in a large shiny box next to my grandfather. She is completely still and seems unaware of, or at least unaffected by, that which is going on around her. This woman has grey curled hair, and I was quite enthralled by the bright colored flowers decorating her white flowing dress. The next thing that I remember is an empty, well lit, and blindingly white hallway. I was aggravated and fighting to free myself from the grasp of my father's hands. I wanted to run and break through the barrier of silence back into the normal world. A world full of interesting things, different noises, and a world full of smiles and unwavering attention on me. It was then that my gaze fell upon a drinking fountain. Not one like you would find in a school, but one similar to those placed in the lobbies of psychiatrists or lawyers. One with two different knobs, red and blue, and a huge tank of water resting at the very top. That very drinking fountain is the last thing I remember from that time.
A few years ago I asked my father about it, unsure weather such an event was simply a figment of my imagination, perhaps originating from a dream, or an actual occurrence. He was taken aback by the fact that I remembered that day and told me that it had been the funeral of his great grandmother. His father, previously a priest, had in fact lead the service and it was his mother who had died. It is funny what we remember. I had no connection to this lady, except through blood, but I remember her funeral. I barely even remember the funeral of my great grandfather who died years and years later. What is it that keeps some memories so vivid in our minds and makes some lost forever? I don't know...but it is interesting...
A few years ago I asked my father about it, unsure weather such an event was simply a figment of my imagination, perhaps originating from a dream, or an actual occurrence. He was taken aback by the fact that I remembered that day and told me that it had been the funeral of his great grandmother. His father, previously a priest, had in fact lead the service and it was his mother who had died. It is funny what we remember. I had no connection to this lady, except through blood, but I remember her funeral. I barely even remember the funeral of my great grandfather who died years and years later. What is it that keeps some memories so vivid in our minds and makes some lost forever? I don't know...but it is interesting...
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