Wednesday, September 25, 2013

lolita and ramsdale

I just find it a little comical of Humbert's description or his approach to his description of Mrs. Haze.  "I think I had better describe her right away, to get it over with."  She had "quite simple but not unattractive features of a type that may be defined as a weak solution of Marlene Dietrich,"—basically a vulgar face.  But ultimately, Charlotte is Lolita's mother.  Lolita's features, personalities and/or qualities of being are all derived in some sense from Charlotte, or her husband.  Essentially, Humbert is in love with a previous version of Charlotte or her husband, and neither of those possibilities seem like a really good thing.

Humbert wanted to be in the New England countryside or the sleepy small town because he was getting interested in his studies again, and wanted to spend a studious summer.  On top of that, Mr.McCoo, with whom he was going to stay, had two daughters, one of twelve—a possible victim to Humbert's sinful indulgence.


1 comment:

  1. If you're willing, I'd like you to beef up your posts a bit.... more discussion of the writing, quote a bit more... I'm going to suggest a "topic" for your posts if you're willing: the use of images that physicalize. You would hunt for examples of this, but also try to figure out how they fit into Humbert's world and the world of the book.

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