Vladimir Nabokov Himself
The writer's job is to get the main character up in a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them. -Vladimir Nabokov
Hello again!! It's time for my fifth and final blog post about Lolita. For this, I had no idea what to write about. However, I figured, why not bring it back, and focus the blog on who created the novel? So today, I'll be talking about a few excerpts I find interesting from an interview I found on YouTube with Vladimir Nabokov on the the show "Close Up" on CBC in 1950.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldpj_5JNFoA
***
Interviewer One: "Some would call [the book] 'a satire on sex', a 'mirror of a human frailties', another called it a cutting expose of American adolescence and shabby materialism. Is that so? Is that what you were intending?"
Nabokov: "No, no I don't think so. I don't wish to touch hearts, and I don't even want to affect minds. What I want to produce is that little sob, in the spine of the artist reader."
Interviewer Two: "Mr. Nabokov may not have meant to move hearts but he moved mine. He may not have meant to affect minds but he affected mine. I think I found it more than just a tingle at the bottom of my spine. We can't trust a creative writer to say what he has done, but, what he has intended to do."
I find it a little confusing when Nabokov says that he doesn't wish to touch hearts or minds, because he says he wishes to produce that "little sob, in the spine for the artist reader". Doesn't that mean he wants to evoke feeling in the reader? Doesn't that mean he wants the reader to feel affected, to feel connected to the story of the book? This is why I found it most important when the second interviewer commented that he felt that Nabokov's book had indeed affected his heart and his mind. Nabokov may never fully understand how his book affect the lives of many, but he knows his own intentions were to not affect the heart and the mind. I think what the second interviewer says is extremely important in the understanding of what I felt when reading Lolita. The book made me question a lot about my own values and personal character, and I think the perspective of the interviewer is important with this interview with Nabokov.
***
Nabokov: "I think some of you have noticed just how hopeless and beautiful [Lolita] is. It was fun to breed her in my own laboratory."
I thought this excerpt was interesting because it shows that Nabokov really crafted each character with a microscope, in a way. He made each part of them, almost like Frankenstein did to his monster, and made them exactly how he wanted them to be portrayed.
***
Interviewer One: "So, Mr.Nabokov, what gave you the idea for Lolita? The story of a middle-aged man and a twelve-year-old girl and their love affair?"
Nabokov: "Yes, in an afterword I write after writing the book, I mention the story of an ape, who was taught to use a charcoal and to sketch the bars of his own cage. I read that story in a newspaper, and if I try to rationalize the impact of that image, I would say that my baboon, Humbert Humbert, is doing exactly that. He is drawing and shading and erasing and redrawing the bars between him and the passion he has for his Lolita."
This excerpt from the interview was the one I found the most interesting, and important to the novel. When Nabokov mentions that Humbert is his "baboon", I thought it was hilarious and extremely accurate. Nabokov is the puppet master to his own works, and his characters are his play-things. Humbert is portrayed as a baboon by Nabokov; a man, blinded by his love for an adolescent child, recklessly spending countless amounts of money to make sure she remains his. Humbert writes and recites his love for Lolita in many different ways throughout the novel. He redraws the way the reader should view his love, by using his swift and lyrical language we have discussed before.
Humbert is trapped behind the bars of his own fantasies and desires. These feelings trap him within his own cage, and these bars are his main concern. Humbert wants to break free of his cage and be free to love who he wants without judgment from society. Like an ape, Humbert is looked at through the bars of his cage, like a baboon is at the zoo. A rarity to see up close, a rarity who is mocked and teased and has things thrown at his through the bars of his cage. However, like an ape at a zoo, Humbert is forever trapped in his cage, mocked by the outside world.
***
Many metaphors can come out of this analogy Nabokov provides us in this interview. You could dig so deep into this idea of Humbert being trapped that it would take more than just a blog post to discuss! My question to you is, does Humbert deserve to remain trapped behind his bars of desire? Or, should he be allowed to break free and be who he wants to be, out in the wild? I'd love to know your thoughts!
Thanks for reading my final blog post. Cheers to the last one!
Hello again!! It's time for my fifth and final blog post about Lolita. For this, I had no idea what to write about. However, I figured, why not bring it back, and focus the blog on who created the novel? So today, I'll be talking about a few excerpts I find interesting from an interview I found on YouTube with Vladimir Nabokov on the the show "Close Up" on CBC in 1950.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldpj_5JNFoA
***
Interviewer One: "Some would call [the book] 'a satire on sex', a 'mirror of a human frailties', another called it a cutting expose of American adolescence and shabby materialism. Is that so? Is that what you were intending?"
Nabokov: "No, no I don't think so. I don't wish to touch hearts, and I don't even want to affect minds. What I want to produce is that little sob, in the spine of the artist reader."
Interviewer Two: "Mr. Nabokov may not have meant to move hearts but he moved mine. He may not have meant to affect minds but he affected mine. I think I found it more than just a tingle at the bottom of my spine. We can't trust a creative writer to say what he has done, but, what he has intended to do."
I find it a little confusing when Nabokov says that he doesn't wish to touch hearts or minds, because he says he wishes to produce that "little sob, in the spine for the artist reader". Doesn't that mean he wants to evoke feeling in the reader? Doesn't that mean he wants the reader to feel affected, to feel connected to the story of the book? This is why I found it most important when the second interviewer commented that he felt that Nabokov's book had indeed affected his heart and his mind. Nabokov may never fully understand how his book affect the lives of many, but he knows his own intentions were to not affect the heart and the mind. I think what the second interviewer says is extremely important in the understanding of what I felt when reading Lolita. The book made me question a lot about my own values and personal character, and I think the perspective of the interviewer is important with this interview with Nabokov.
***
Nabokov: "I think some of you have noticed just how hopeless and beautiful [Lolita] is. It was fun to breed her in my own laboratory."
I thought this excerpt was interesting because it shows that Nabokov really crafted each character with a microscope, in a way. He made each part of them, almost like Frankenstein did to his monster, and made them exactly how he wanted them to be portrayed.
***
Interviewer One: "So, Mr.Nabokov, what gave you the idea for Lolita? The story of a middle-aged man and a twelve-year-old girl and their love affair?"
Nabokov: "Yes, in an afterword I write after writing the book, I mention the story of an ape, who was taught to use a charcoal and to sketch the bars of his own cage. I read that story in a newspaper, and if I try to rationalize the impact of that image, I would say that my baboon, Humbert Humbert, is doing exactly that. He is drawing and shading and erasing and redrawing the bars between him and the passion he has for his Lolita."
This excerpt from the interview was the one I found the most interesting, and important to the novel. When Nabokov mentions that Humbert is his "baboon", I thought it was hilarious and extremely accurate. Nabokov is the puppet master to his own works, and his characters are his play-things. Humbert is portrayed as a baboon by Nabokov; a man, blinded by his love for an adolescent child, recklessly spending countless amounts of money to make sure she remains his. Humbert writes and recites his love for Lolita in many different ways throughout the novel. He redraws the way the reader should view his love, by using his swift and lyrical language we have discussed before.
Humbert is trapped behind the bars of his own fantasies and desires. These feelings trap him within his own cage, and these bars are his main concern. Humbert wants to break free of his cage and be free to love who he wants without judgment from society. Like an ape, Humbert is looked at through the bars of his cage, like a baboon is at the zoo. A rarity to see up close, a rarity who is mocked and teased and has things thrown at his through the bars of his cage. However, like an ape at a zoo, Humbert is forever trapped in his cage, mocked by the outside world.
***
Many metaphors can come out of this analogy Nabokov provides us in this interview. You could dig so deep into this idea of Humbert being trapped that it would take more than just a blog post to discuss! My question to you is, does Humbert deserve to remain trapped behind his bars of desire? Or, should he be allowed to break free and be who he wants to be, out in the wild? I'd love to know your thoughts!
Thanks for reading my final blog post. Cheers to the last one!
"Does Humbert deserve to remain trapped behind his bars of desire?"
ReplyDeleteHey Amanda! That's an awesome question :)
Personally, I would answer yes, he does deserve to remain trapped. The way I view the 'ape analogy' is this: In his cage, Humbert-the-ape's hairy hands clutch a second, smaller cage. His eyes leer in at the small figure trapped within. Dolly Haze is the figure trapped inside the second cage. Humbert may be trapped behind his bars of desire, but the bars are not trapping him from Lolita. He already has Lolita. The bars are trapping him from social acceptance. He persuades the reader to release him from his cage, and accept his behavior, but ultimately, any acceptance of his behavior is akin to denying Dolly's her own existence and her own freedom from abuse.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this question! GREAT JOB with your blog-- I've really enjoyed reading it!!
I generally avoid introducing too much about an author before reading a book with students, wary that it will shade their reading of the novel too much. However, I find it interesting to read about the author and their inspirations after finishing the novel with students, to compare our impressions with the author's intentions. For this reason, I like the placement of this post here, at the end of the reading.
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