Spiderweb

I am not quite sure what more to say of the novel besides the paper, except to say that Lolita captures older men, and I do not see this as a pattern in most adolescent’s life. She is idolized and described as though she would be young forever. It is easy to forget that all youth never stay as such. She is immortalized in this novel as this young, vibrant character. I agree with many critics that said that Lolita was not someone to be pitied or at least thought of as a weak or easily manipulated character. Everything she has done has been out of her own interests. It was mentioned in a source, that most of the young lover’s of protagonists in novels have committed suicide after the affair had ended, or somewhere amongst the time they had spent together. The novel Lolita differs from this outcome because she does not seem remorseful for what she has done, and the act of making love to her step-father has not made her overly attached, or someone who is reliant on him. If anything, Humbert is reliant on her. He knows her games, and when she is lying, but he continues to dote on her like a fool.

Lolita holds a lot of power over her lover, which is different than most men would like to believe, was possible for a girl of such a young age. Most women in history have been prided on their fragility, and reliance on a significant other. Women are supposed to be sensitive, and mold themselves to the humors of others. Lolita is a modern day obsession. The author even points out the difference between someone like Lolita, and someone from novels of previous authors. He wants to mold Lolita to the obsessions that these previous authors have had over similarly aged girls, but Lolita is rambunctious. The whole appeal towards a young girl like this is to be able to be their guardian, and protector. The point would be to have someone rely upon you at all costs. This, of course, is a sick concept, but Lolita does not fall for it. She even playfully calls her lover “Dad” to get a rise out of him. She is doted upon, but she never dotes on him. She uses him for what she wants, and then goes behind his back and becomes interested in others. She was not ruined by him, but he somehow becomes ruined by her. Humbert becomes obsessed with trying to appease Lolita. He becomes obsessed by her habits.

The novel thus far offers no apparent ending. There is no obvious outcome for either of the two characters. Time has not moved, Lolita has not grown older for Humbert, and it is not apparent at how their relationship will progress, without saying that it is obvious that it will not, except for the fact that he is also her legal guardian. Much confusion lies ahead, but I must find time to finish this novel! (503)

Halting of Time

Even though I was continuously logged out of JSTOR while reading a passage, I managed to drudge up some thoughts of my own while reading other’s own opinions. I have concluded that the narrator is full of himself. He believed that Charlotte, Lolita’s mother, was a dumb American who spoke French horribly, and was too obsessed with a life she did not lead. His description leads us to believe that she lead a shallow existence watching soap operas, and chasing after people of wealth. Poor Charlotte he says. He lacked sympathy when she died. He whisks Lolita away on a road journey that was described by the author of the article, “Lolita’s Loose Ends: Nabokov and the Boundless novel”, James Tweedie, that the narrator went on this journey to escape time and the aging Lolita. He believes he is better than everyone, and therefore everyone must be wrong when they say that the relationship between Lolita and he is not normal. He looks down on everyone because he is afraid they might look down on him.

The narrator thinks that everyone at Beardsley is ridiculous, that Charlotte was ridiculous, her friends were, Lolita, her friends, and many others. He is cultured, and looked up to in his mind for it. He satisfies his bad thoughts by saying that he is an artist. It was stated in an article by Mathew Winston that he is a Jekyll and Hyde type character. He can act as though he is a murderer, but he speaks in a cultured manner, even fooling other authors such as Dorothy Parker who stated that she thought Humbert to be cultured and sophisticated, and it made no sense that he should be with such a brat type such as Lolita. Many people thought it interesting that she was not innocent like a child, so the narrator never really took anything away from her. This boggles many since children are related to innocence. Many people have their preconceptions, which may taint some opinions as stated by James Tweedie, of Humbert, and Humbert is caste off as a rapist, child molester, or habit to incestual relations, which he was, but he somehow was not evil. He was ignorant, or psychotic, but weirdly in love.

Humbert immortalizes Lolita as did many authors that he mentions of their child lovers. It is hard in this novel to tell whether he loves Lolita for her age, or for who she is. One is more socially acceptable, and therefore highly relevant. Lolita is Humbert’s “souvenir” in his passage of time (Lolita and the Dangers of Fiction; Mathew Winston). Humbert must want to stunt her growth and have her love him forever, but she is not at the stage that he is in. He is fully developed, and she is not. I love how this book starts out with her coming on to Humbert and how Lolita is not the innocent flower that she is supposed to be. It was also mentioned by Mathew Winston, that as Edgar Allen Poe wrote of “Annabel Lee”, so did the narrator of his first love, Annabel Leigh. I thought this was very interesting since the author shows off his literary knowledge often, and breaks out into French many a time which makes it hard for a modern day American teenager to read, but the reference to “Annabel Lee” was something that I knew, and found similar to his wanting to put down Lolita as immortal.

By the narrator wanting to stop the passage of time, it is ruining both Lolita’s and his life. She misses out, and so doe he since it is not possible to halt time, and by attempting to do so, it causes them to miss out even more. It is too dramatic to say that love can allow this since it is such an awesome thing because Lolita’s immature demeanor and the narrator’s acknowledgement of this behaviour is only evidence that it should not be taken seriously. Students do not doubt the love that was shared between Romeo and Juliet even though they had such a distance in age. They were both mature and held respect for one another. In Lolita, the narrator holds no respect for Lolita as anything but a doll. This reminds me of the short story “A Doll’s House”, and how love does not emerge from such situations. Both parties must love one another, but in this situation, convince the reader of the mutual respect, not lustfulness, and a true excuse for the halting of time is approved.

One Hundred Love Sonnets (V) Pablo Neruda

This sonnet, "One Hundred Love Sonnets (V) by Pablo Neruda, captures the feeling of longing for another, and not being able to keep them off one’s mind. This is told in a private conversation between the author and "you". The author's lover is in the clay, the earth, and in memory. The author lives on the memories of feelings that have inspired him to keep interest in his love. When he is around her it is one thing, but when he is away from her, she becomes this being that he describes in this sonnet that has transcended all human existence, but has become eternal in his thoughts, and earth. Now that he is away, he knows now what love is. He knows that wherever he should be, it must be with her, and that is where he belongs; of this unknown place of “kisses and volcanoes”. To a reader, this can mean a land where she is present.

The first four stanzas give the impression that he is not worth enough to touch the essence which surrounds the author's lover's being. He is only worthy enough to worship the ground she walks on, literally the earth, as he says, “I did not touch your night, or your air, or dawn: only the earth”. He uses the adjective “sweet” to describe homely things that we all deem ordinary such as the clay, resins, and water of the earth. These things are not things that ordinary people may regard as “sweet”, or anything extraordinary, but to the author, anything associated with his lover is utopian.

The next four stanzas give the impression of a woman the author possesses. He describes the creation of his lover as being for no one but himself. He does not give thanks to a higher being, but a factual account of her body parts, and how their sole purpose were to love him as a whole. It is interesting how the language draws the reader from a real-life visual of touching her hips, to a flash of wheat in a field. Anyone can almost picture the flash on a movie screen, from the sensual imagery of the texture of clay, and him physically being able to touch her, yet he is not so close to draw us all back to the imagery of reality of touching the wheat in his field. This statement is a reluctant one, with sadness as reality sets in. She was built for him, but it is somehow felt that he author does not own her, only in words.

The third set of stanzas set a declaration to another town in Chile. Differing from the possession the author felt from the single woman from Quinchamali, he declares to his past experiences of woman from Arauco. When he says that “before I loved you I forgot your kisses”, he is explaining that he has also only began to love someone when they are gone. He eventually moved on with nothing to hold on to but a memory.

The last three stanzas describe the author's experiences through the battlefield of love in Arauco which led him to sink so low that he finally understands love once he has found a mate. He has finally stopped searching from town to town all around Chile, and had settled on a mystical place of “kisses and volcanoes”. This, of course, is a metaphor for conclusion the author has found from the emptiness, and homelessness that the author has felt for so long. It might be cliché, but home is where the heart is. The author has described for the reader in fourteen lines his search for love in memory, and in the dirt that surrounds him. He has nothing concrete, and no specific land where his lover resides except in metaphor. He declares to Quinchamali, and Arauco, but his lover is nothing concrete. She would transcend anything concrete or able to define. His lover is of no menial location, but of a land where all there is is explosions of love. His lover is everywhere, not one single town in Chile, but every specific object that has been created, and as she is, specifically for him.

This poem has a light and airy tone with no depth. Love is too deep of a concept to define in a poem. The reason why all poems appear cliché, is because love does encompass all, and in this sonnet, the author tries to explain this feeling of being overpowered. He is overwhelmed by the love he feels, but it is in no way scary for him. He has succumbed, and admitted to finding a home with no longer searching for a new love.(917)

Social Distortion

It was intriguing to start reading a book in which I had to repeat twice that that was indeed the book I had intended to choose; there was no error in my decision. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Lolita and have also found the language to be very unique, descriptive, and lovely even though its intentions were to be an expression of love towards a thirteen year old. This may have been a “Harold and Maude” type love story had it not been an older male in this case instead of a female. This somehow makes the story pedophilic and twisted. Ignoring the knowledge of one’s age, we can see that anything the narrator says could be directed towards anyone of any age and it would be deemed romantic and idyllic; however, age immediately becomes an issue with whoever discusses this book with me. It can be a tad obsessive, but I find it similar to most of Marquez’s novel’s descriptions of younger women. Somehow it is different in this book than it is in the Latin versions by Marquez. This I find interesting, that it is accepted in some cultures, but not in others. Americans find it weird in any situation, but other cultures do not. Similar to the book Memories of my Melancholy Whores, it is shown that it is never too late to love, and instead of living one’s life by one’s age, it is shown that these men throw age out the window and instead rely solely on what their age might be according to their heart. Being “in denial” has bad connotations, but it may be sensible to live one’s life to the fullest, even if it may be against all civil teachings. Not much has happened except for the culmination of the narrator’s love for Lolita, and getting closer to her. He confesses his love not to her, but to himself over and over until it may succumb him, and action may take place leading to a climax later perhaps. He has taken advantage of Lolita’s mother, and all I could think of while reading that he has married his love’s mother was that this may be why those weirdoes do it. They have a fetish, and do whatever they can to get what they want. I felt so horrible that he was using the mother, since she seems just as vulnerable as a child being single, and she is mean to Lolita because Lolita reminds her of the mistakes she has made in the past, but in a permanent version that she has to deal with on a day to day. The narrator gets upset with the mother and sees Lolita as being perfect, but he is blinded. This is love, and so far it does not sound sick. (467)