On Foutteccini's Lugubriosity:

Dear Benjamin Foutty.

I have at once become utterly discombobulated with the stakes at which these blog posts may ascertain. It seems pernicious that not only have I purposely populated these literal practices with precedent of a prose unattainable my many of my haters, but also with a titch of tired repetition, ultimately lacking a diversity that your fancy may be tickled under. My pet, I wish you only to find my work a gallant gantry of the gangrene Humbert Humbert grasps, not to be taken under pretenses which perpetrate penniless princes gallavanting bitches the likes of Lo across metaphysical and nymphic borders.

Adieu,

e que les etoiles brille toujours,

DeMarco Murray

Intoxication Frustration!

I traced drinking through the story. Although the trail began as a way to follow culture and examine communion between characters, alcohol and intoxication begins to completely encompass Humbert's state of mind near the end of the account.

 At the beginning, alcohol is not very prevalent, although it appears on the first page, as Humber’s father “sold wine”(Nabokov, 9). It’s clear Humbert’s absolute obsession with Annabell and the Lolita is a kind of intoxication, many times similar to drunkness. On page 26, Humbert discusses how in Europe they ate many times at a resteraunt “where there were wine stains on the table cloth and a good deal of foreign babble”(Nabokov, 26). This contributes to the presence of alcohol in Humbert’s surroundings and his fondness for it, although it is in a very normal and casual setting. two pages later, the man his wife is leaving Humbert for “ordered wine”(Nabokov, 28), trying to preserve a sense of normalcy and politeness amid the awkward situation. Again, when Mrs. Humbert realizes his obession with Lo, H scrambles to restore the situation. “I opened a bottle of Schotch. She could never resist Scotch”(Nabokov, 96). Alcohol begins to be the social grease, a tool for him. Only three pages later “I was so drunk that I slept as soundly as the child who had slept in that bed.”(Nabokov, 99). Alcohol as a desperation, as a crutch. When he finally traps Lo at the hotel, almost immediately he notes “In common parlance, I needed a drink”(Nabokov, 125). Later in the story, alcohol becomes more present as Humbert’s countenance begins to slip. As his relationship with Lolita lengthens, his portrayal that she is actually obedient and fine with his abuse begins to fade, and we see Lolita as rebellious, emotionally distant, and altogether odd. Humbert drinks more and more, only mentioning it in certain spots, but contributing to the overarching motif that he drinks very very frequently. For example, when he reluctantly lets Lo have a party at the house, “I had drunk a little too much in preparation for the ideal”(Nabokov, 198). Obviously no responsible adult gets wasted before their daughter’s friends come over. On page 209, although he claims it is a joke, he even threatens her, (“The tour of your thigh, you know,  should not exceed seventeen and a half inches. More might b fatal”(Nabokov, 209)) something he would have never done a year before. His paranoia also plays into his drinking, his deadly sense that Lo is conniving against him. Intoxication of alcohol and jealousy begin a dangerous cycle for him, revealing a more animalistic persona than he puts on in his show at the beginning. Eventually this culminates when H pulls over, “Lo looked up with a semi-smile of surprise and without a word I delivered a tremendous backhand cut that caught her smack on her hot hard little cheek bone”(Nabokov, 227). Although H had always been demanding in bed, this is the first time he physically abuses her out of pure anger that he admits. He begins to hallucinate Trapp everywhere, and when Cue replaces him in tennis it is too much for him to take, causing him to vomit and “lay in a lounge chair swallowing pony upon pony of gin”(Nabokov, 238). Next, when Lo gets sick and he has to take her to the hospital, he is drunk. This begs the question of how much driving does he do while drunk. At the hospital, he reflects “knowing I was drunk, I decided to withhold the information till later if necessary”(Nabokov, 240). The next day, “I was shivering, and boozing, and dying in the hotel bed she had used”(Nabokov, 244). He recognizes he is very sick, intoxicated, and even hallucinating, yet drives the next day to see her, desperate “sideswiped a parked car… the gin kept my heart alive but bemazed my brain, and after some lapses and losses common to dream sequences, I found myself in the reception room, trying to beat up the doctor, and roaring at people under chairs…”(Nabokov, 246). At this point his drunkenness has overtaken him. He has lost all sense of that humorous, sly poet from before and is now erratic. He goes off the deep end, hunts trapp, hires a detective, and then is lost, until he meets Rita. Although he doesn’t specifically say it, the next two years are spent with her mostly in a drunken haze, after he picks her up at “a darkishly burning bar under the sign of the Tigermoth, where she was amiably drunk”(Nabokov, 258). As he hunts down Trapp, then meets Dolly and hunts down Quincy, he is essentially drunk the whole time, even if it is not specifically mentioned. At the climax of it all, when he reaches the Manor, he announces “The elaborate and decrepit house seemed to stand in a kind of daze, reflecting as it were my own state, for I could not help realizing, as my feet touched the springy and insecure ground, that I had overdone the alcoholic stimulation business”(Nabokov, 293). Keeping his incessant intoxication in mind, H.H.’s character develops further, establishing a man that is not who he claims at the beginning, and is in fact hopelessly depressed, ashamed, and in love with forbidden fruit he spoiled himself. Alcohol's effect on Humbert is crucial to understanding his actions and complements his irrationality with a self-confident rigor. His isolation is heightened and adds to the drama of his pitiful cross-country escapade, haunting his own demons. Ultimately, it pokes the holes in his appeal to the jury, and proves that he is truly insane, not simply to be pitied as a man afflicted but to be avoided as a twisted soul.

Parlez Vous! /// (in)Dependance!

His use of french throughout the novel is also very precise, coming in at certain moments to confuse the english reader, or perhaps to reveal something that cannot be captured in English. The way his french cuts in creates another narrator in itself, another voice in a story written by a very conflicted soul. For example, a little past halfway through the book, he loses a game of chess to Gaston, a man he doesn’t particularly like because Lolita “misbehaves”. Immediately after he discusses the losing move, he says: “mon pauvre ami, je ne vous ai jamais revu et quoiqu'il y ait bien peu de chance que vous voyiez mon livre, permettez-moi de vous dire que je vous serre la main bien cordialement, et que toutes mes fillettes vous saluent”(Nabokov, 203). This translates to “My poor friend, I 've never seen and although there is little likelihood that you see my book, let me tell you that I shake hands cordially, and all my girls greet you”. This is just one example of how Humbert (if that is even his real name) constantly cracks jokes to himself, inserts obvious symbolism, foreshadows purposefully, and adds sly commentary on every scene of the book. He specifically does this about his own use of french in the text later, when Dolores says “But do you mind very much cutting out the French? It annoys everybody”(Nabokov, 243). He then speaks in french on the same page.

Truly this book contains humor and irony on a level that makes Humbert incredibly self-concious.

However, Humbert’s mental state slowly degrades as the power continuum in his relationship between Dolly shifts. At first, he is in total control and love. However, quickly the situation degrades. It starts with Lo beginning to hate him, not specifically mentioned by Humbert until their first road trip ends, when Humbert describes Lo post-sex, “her sobs in the night-every night, every night-the moment I feigned sleep”(Nabokov,176). Slowly, he becomes more and more jealous and controlling, first fearing the neighbors in their new home, then making specific rules for Lo, “Absolutely forbidden were dates, single or double or triple-the next step being of course mass orgy. She might visit a candy bar with her girl friends, and there giggle-chat with occasional young males, while I waited in the car at a discreet distance”(Nabokov, 186). His initial love begins to evolve into a sickening obsession, an uncontrollable need to be her sole lover. Their stiff negotiations become more of a battle than a relationship, Lolita pushing hard bargains for higher allowance in exchange for sex. It is at this point we see Humbert begin to lose control, saying “it was in her power to deny me certain life-wrecking, strange, slow paradisal philters without which I could not live more than a few days in a row”(Nabokov, 184). Again and again Humbert admits his love for Lolita is a plague, something he cannot escape and which drives him to extreme circumstances even though he knows it pains Lo as well.

Trust Issues And Sweetmeats!

Never trust a first person narrator. Think back to Catcher in the Rye, to Holden Caulfield and his particular struggles, his coming of age, his naivety and misconceptions. In Lolita, Humbert Humbert is Nabokov’s take on a first person narrator that seems to relate to Holden, but pierces a very different human quality, one that focuses on love and relationships instead of the masses and societal pressures. Although this is an atrocious understatement of both books, Catcher was my best experience to parallel this novel and give a first impression of how to meet Humbert.

The narrative is intensely personal, seeming to portray an incredibly honest account (“I still squirm and emit low moans of remembered embarrassment”(Nabokov, 54)) of pedophilia and its split nature. He makes it clear from the start he feels he is not a monster, but a normal man afflicted. He pities himself, in regards to his lack of taste in flashy women, he claims “which goes to show how dreadfully stupid poor Humbert always was in matters of sex”(Nabokov, 25). Later, “Despite my manly looks, I am horribly timid”(Nabokov, 53). Frequently, he calls Lo a little devil, and acts as if she corrupts him. His personal appeal is also accomplished by his frequent cries directly to the reader, breaking the fourth wall and addressing his audience. He even makes it clear from the very beginning of the story he is a “murderer”(Nabokov, 9) and brings up his lawyers, creating the appearance his audience is a jury and this text an appeal to pity (because he sure isn’t sorry) or insanity in court. He claims “I want my learned readers to participate in the scene I am about to replay; I want them to examine its every detail and see for themselves”(Nabokov, 57). Earlier, he claims “If and when you wish to sizzle me to death, remember that only a spell of insanity could ever give me the simple energy to be a brute”(Nabokov, 47). The view we gain of Humbert is of an animal, rabid, salivating over his prey. He has incredibly evil and immoral motives-like entertaining the debate whether he should simply kill Lo when she loses her nymphet magic, or having a child with her and taking it on as a replacement years down the road, "practicing on supremely lovely Lolita the Third the art of being a granddad"(Nabokov, 174). Sick, but still there is this incredible sense of pity because he cannot control himself, his affliction parasitic and irreversible.

I absolutely love it. Reading it is a guilty pleasure, a compact analyzation of such dark subject matter framed by charm that slowly decays. In reference to Good Readers and Good Writers, Nabokov does an amazing job at creating a world in which nothing from reality exists. Although his characters come from an enormous range of backgrounds, styles, and voices, he strongly grounds them in a story telling truth (much like Tim O'Brien does in The Things They Carried) that needs no extrapolation by the reader. This allows the reader to focus solely on the characters and how the relationship between Humbert and Dolores develops, ultimately the entire purpose of the narrative. Nabokov starts the book very slowly, establishing Humbert's character long before he meets Lolita and gives him a personality before we identify him as a monster. The persona that we meet in Europe is educated, brutal, and entirely calculated, perhaps a pedophile, however does not connote the festering, the ghastliness he develops after his nymphet punishes him for years. He is attracted, but restrained, creating a parallel to many people in the real world, resisting their desires for the sake of their reputation or standing.

Welcome To The Riviera!

In Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, character development is the name of the game. Written in first person, Humbert Humbert tells his story to the jury and to the reader after being convicted of pedophilia, crafting a narrative that is both painstakingly disturbing and charming. The prose is impeccable. Although Humbert establishes his character as a well educated European psychologist, his writing is almost lyrical. He uses alliteration, and even internal rhyme in his writing to make it a pleasure to the reader. His story begs to be read out loud, slowly, taking in each word and trying to decode it from a sane perspective. His vocabulary is fantastic as well. Reading this novel without a dictionary would be a sore mistake, as he uses synonyms on synonyms to bring back motifs that could be missed otherwise, not to mention casual french and historical jargon. His description of scenery is vivid and precise, counting exact numbers of objects and layering abstract metaphors to describe the temperament. This is especially noted in his countless descriptions of Lo and her activities, for example their meeting “beyond it, there came a sudden burst of greenery-’the piazza,’ sang out my leader, and then, without the least warning, a blue sea wave swelled under my heart and, from a mat in a pool of sun, half-naked, kneeling, turning about on her knees, there was my Riviera love peering at me over dark glasses”(Nabokov, 39). And it goes on. And on. Even in this passage, the layers of his prose are evident. On page 9, the first page of the book he discusses his father, who owned a “luxurious hotel on the Riviera”(Nabokov, 9), showing the Riviera reference to his past love with Annabell and the seaside adventures which fostered his first love as a child. At points the writing is poetic, for example “I might have sat there in the rocker and pretended to read. Playing safe, I kept away, for I was afraid that the horrible, insane, ridiculous, and pitiful tremor that palsied me might prevent me from making my entree with any semblance of casualness”(Nabokov, 42), and later on the same page “on her stomach, showing me, showing the thousand eyes wide open in my eyed blood, he slightly raised shoulder blades, and the bloom along the incurvation of her spine, and the swellings of her tense narrow nates clothed in black, and the seaside of her schoolgirl thighs”(Nabokov, 42). Again on page 56, “Aubrey McFate (as I would like to dub that devil of mine) to arrange a small treat for me on the promised beach, in the presumed forest. Actually, the promise Mrs. Haze had made was a fraudulent one” (Nabokov, 56). Every sentence just drips with imagery and contains a natural rhythm. In reading this book, I have taken Prose’s advice to “put every word on trial”. Nabokov himself, in Good Readers and Good Writers, charges the reader to detach themselves from the emotional level with the characters and cherish the art, the creation, the mastery of words that the author uses to fully realize story. Humbert as a narrator gives that “spine-tingling” sense, proving himself incredibly human, capable of emotion and diction on a high level. However at the same time he is pompous and repulsed by essentially anyone who is not a nymphet, creating a self-humored distance from other people and reinforcing his incredible loneliness. Ultimately, his rhetoric establishes his slice of the human condition, demonstrating real and normal things to create credibility, then delving into how sanity is bent due to disease, love, vampirism, desperation...