Semic Code |
The world saw Lolita as a child, even if Humbert didn't. Nabokov was using the scenery terminology to show a conflict between the cultural code that called Lolita a child and the unstable character narrator. |
Even in the "Not said" you can see, the character Narrator is ignoring what he doesn't want to see. He is justifying his own abuse of the child throughout the whole novel, but especially in the clipped text above- If Adults are one dollar- and she is $.50- what does that mean? She is not whole, not an adult. Just as in the quote below he can not feign the idea that she is happy, so he instead pretends he doesn't hear her.
...and her sobs in the night-- every night-- the moment I feigned sleep
Hermeneutic Code
Thematization- Humbert is communication and language obsessed he refers to literary styles, the effective reader. He talks often about reading and writing within the framework of the story, which is more mimetically about the rape/abuse of a young girl.
Proposal of the enigma
I believe above is the proposal of the enigma the moment where he is speaking to the reader asking them to see the underlying thought of the text. Nabokov is asking us to be the reader that can distinguish the unreliable narrator in Humbert.
I believe above is the proposal of the enigma the moment where he is speaking to the reader asking them to see the underlying thought of the text. Nabokov is asking us to be the reader that can distinguish the unreliable narrator in Humbert.
Formulation of the enigma- I think the- above might be that formulation- We create the story we read- like he creates his Lolita, out of his own sexual interests and intentions and the text becomes a used, abused child that dies before it can give birth to the replacement text.
Request for an answer- Is he gay? Is he Impotent? Is he Crazy?
Snare- He is allowing the reader to get caught in the idea that this is really a novel about the affair of a middle aged man and his step daughter.
“Imagine me; I shall not exist if you do not imagine me; try to discern the doe in me, trembling in the forest of my own iniquity; let's even smile a little. After all, there is no harm in smiling.”
Equivocation- It is not true if you read it textually assuming he is a person but if you read it with the authorial knowledge that he is speaking as a character- you know this is true- Characters are a compilation of traits ther reader creates with help of the writer's textual input.
Equivocation- It is not true if you read it textually assuming he is a person but if you read it with the authorial knowledge that he is speaking as a character- you know this is true- Characters are a compilation of traits ther reader creates with help of the writer's textual input.
Jamming- The idea of confusing their names along with the realization that they could be interchanged and that not even the real thing was what he made it out to be.
Suspended answer
The idea of reproducing generations of nymphets who would successively never be enough for him, can be analyzed next too the idea that he would recreate and interchange names for the reader who would only ever create a world dulled down in the word by the actual experience.
Partial answer- "Triumphantly ignorant of the English Language. There he was in priggish New England , crooned over by the old and caressed by the young--oh, having a grand time and fooling everybody-- Like he is fooling us-- the smart writer who understands the language
Disclosure- where he speaks of the nymphs being the poet's invention and then they realize the name of the play is the same as the hotel where first Lolita was raped. It leaves the whole story hypothetical-- like fiction:)
Suspended answer
The idea of reproducing generations of nymphets who would successively never be enough for him, can be analyzed next too the idea that he would recreate and interchange names for the reader who would only ever create a world dulled down in the word by the actual experience.
Partial answer- "Triumphantly ignorant of the English Language. There he was in priggish New England , crooned over by the old and caressed by the young--oh, having a grand time and fooling everybody-- Like he is fooling us-- the smart writer who understands the language
Disclosure- where he speaks of the nymphs being the poet's invention and then they realize the name of the play is the same as the hotel where first Lolita was raped. It leaves the whole story hypothetical-- like fiction:)