Themes

I saw that there were two main themes I am going to talk about in the book as a whole. First would be love and second would be this sense of innocence. This book I really enjoyed and like I talked about in my last post I feel like this could go along with the AP curriculum because of some of these themes and the delivery of them.

First off, the idea of "love". This happens to be a theme in just about all the books we read this year. In the Song of Solomon and The Handmaids tale,  love is a huge theme which overarches everything. All these characters have something in common, as they will do anything to fill this void. As we have learned before in this class, love can make you do just about anything because of how important it is to us as humans by nature. In Lolita, this is a huge theme because it makes Humbert do what he does. He needs to fill this void and the only way he can do so is through loving nymphets, specifically Lolita. We see again that love can make someone do anything and this is a huge theme throughout a lot of novels that continued through this one.

Next I thought the idea of innocence was a huge one. Through Humberts acts and through descriptions we see this. We see that Humbert plays as though he is doing nothing wrong. He will always brush it off as if he's doing nothing. This is part of why it is so interesting to read but also allows us to see a theme. He plays as though he is innocent and has done nothing wrong. He claims these are just acts of love and nothing more. He paints this picture as everything is fine when it really isn't. The way Lolita is portrayed is also as if she has no idea what is going on half the time. There is this whole motif of theme of innocence which is a huge premise to why this book is so creepy.

Overall I took these two themes as some of the main ones. This idea of innocence and then the overarching need for love that we have seen before. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and blogging my experiences and thoughts. Thank you guys all for reading and I defiantly recommend everyone to read Lolita.

AP Worthy?

Would I consider this book of an AP level? My initial reaction is to say of course, but it is a little more difficult than that. I think like some of the other books we have read in class this year it has some of the same themes including relationships, love, and connections but at the same time part of me says that this book would not be good for a class. I think that the book is definitely up to AP level but may not be able to be taught in a class. Now this book was very memorable but part of me thinks thats why it shouldn't be taught in a classroom setting.

I am very torn. I believe that because of how intricate the meaning and the style of the novel was it should automatically by of this level and I think that is true. BUT I do not believe this should be taught because of how memorable it is, (or should it because kids don't live under rocks and they have heard of things of this nature). Overall I am conflicted.

I believe that the book has the style and formatting to be a great AP level novel which I throughly enjoyed because it was very different than some of the books we have read this year. At the same time though I believe that it was a good book for a free choice because it allowed us to pick what we read and how we wanted to respond. This allowed me to put myself into this position to read the book rather than being forced to read it. Lolita was definitely an amazing memorable book which was up to the AP standard in my opinion, my only concern would be the delivery.

Character

Abducted in Plain Sight (Jan and "B") 

Real Lolita case 

Lolita is fully consuming my life! Well sort of. I went on Netflix one night and was trying to find a movie that I was going to watch. I then stumbled upon this movie that was on my recommended which is called Abducted in Plain Sight. This movie is completely crazy but at the same time it is literally the same thing as Lolita. This is basically the same story, which I am not going to explain all over again but it basically is the story of a man (who was 40) who abducted this child (she was 12) and he took her and put her on these missions to have sex with him to save the world. Now this is the part that is different but the reasons that it is the same is because of how she acts. She is this very sassy girl who has a spunky personality and who defies everyone other than this guy. She is twelve in this movie and is some what in this mind game with this guy. But there are a few similarities other than the just obvious plot. First thing that I found weird was that this man said that he had to go to therapy because when he was four he had sexual relations with his aunt who was much older than him. Now this seems like the same thing that happened to Humbert, he didn't fulfill these needs when he was younger so then there was this need to fill this void that he had. In both these circumstances they seemed to go through trauma which makes them need this love for these nymphets. The second thing that was weird that was much of a smaller detail that may actually have no connection but I thought it was strange. But in the movie this man took his little girl to Mexico to marry her because the legal age was 12 and they got married there and then came back to the United States, in this section on page 173 where he states that he regrets moving east and wishes he just hops the border into Mexico. This literally could have no connection but I thought this was weird that it was brought up in the book and in this movie that I watched.

Now I am going to talk about character but how it is relates to this movie and the book because I found it very interesting. First off I saw that the girls are typically very spunky and resilient towards everyone other than there partner. This is what happened in this movie I watched and in the book. These are girls that seem to be some what hypnotized by these men. This shows the character of Lolita and Jan in this movie.

Next I would like to talk about the character of the predator. I found that in both of these stories that there were usually something wrong with these men. In the movie we see that there were signs of sexual abuse, disconnect, mental health, and the need to take care of someone. Now this is what I believe happened to Humbert, like I stated we see that he failed when he tried to have sexual relations when he was younger and so I think that he is stuck in this time and he can't get passed this time and needs to fill it with a nymphet. I also believe there has to be a clear sign of mental illness because Humbert acts like the stuff he is doing is completely okay, which is clearly not. I also found this in the movie that I watched, he really doesn't feel that there is anything wrong with what they are doing which is completely wrong.

Lolita has been such a good book and a story in a creepy way and I think that watching this movie also added to my knowledge because you can see connections between the two. I think whoever is reading this book should definitely watch this movie. These are two completely different stories but we see how the characters are similar in both occasions. I am excited to finish this book!

Style

After reading the second section of Lolita I have really caught on to some of Vladimir Nabokov stylistic decisions. In the first section I was really focused on the meaning of what was being said but this section on focused on the style. I found that the narration and descriptions played a key role in the understanding of this section.

First off I noticed that Humbert is a strange character, obviously this is seen as a given because we know that he is a character who has a love for "nymphets", also known as little girls. But I am not talking about him as a character but instead just the way that he presents himself. First the book is written in his perspective so we get a weird twisted view of the story. I think this was stylistically a really good choice. He adds commentary that we don't get if he wasn't the one writing the story. He talks as if he is writing to us and that he know someone will be reading this story. "please, reader: no matter your exasperation with the tenderhearted, morbidly sensitive." (Nabokov 129). He writes as if he knows that someone will be reading his pieces which makes it just that much creepier. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child." (Nabokov 88). He always addresses what he is doing as not as bad as it could be, like he has good intentions but as we know as much as he tries to convince us otherwise we still know that what he does is plain out creepy. I think that Nabokov's idea to have Humbert be talking to us as if he knows he has an audience is a really effective one. This adds to the creepiness but also makes us relate more to him because he is speaking directly to us and trying to justify what he is doing.

Next another thing that I realized was his use of imagery and descriptions. Some of the images are so clear and distinct that it is extremely creepy. There are parts where Humbert describes settings and images like they are right in front of him. He states that he "could of course visualize Lolita with hallucinational lucidity" (Nabokov 107) basically him stating that he can clearly see her when she is not there in a way of recalling this memory of something that isn't there. Now that sounds normal to be able to picture someone when you aren't with them but in this case that is not what is being stated. This is a case where basically you make up things that happen, you are hallucinating and will make up things in this process. Now knowing this, this makes us question what is real or what is just being told to us by him. There are just so many times where he seems to recall these experiences in great detail that should be seen to us as very non monumental moments. "She was all rose and honey, dressed in her brightest gingham, with a pattern of little red apples, and her arms and legs were of a deep golden brown" (Nabokov 111). These are just such small details that seem to be imprinted into this mans memory. He remembers her facial structure, what she wears, the way her hair falls, and much more that should be things that someone does not pick up on. The use of these descriptions adds to the overall creepy affect of the book, it paints these images that we don't want to see but have to, to understand what is happening.

Overall the use of narration and descriptions really played a huge role in this section of the book. I am very excited to continue to read to see how these stylistic techniques play out in further sections. As I continue to read, the hype did not fall short. I really like this book even though it is insanely twisted it is very interesting. I can not wait to read more!

Initial Reactions

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I am so excited to be reading the well known, "Lolita." For years my little sister has always talked about this crazy story of an old man who is in love with a young girl and I am finally getting a chance to read this twisted "love" story. I already knew going into this free reading what this story was or just the basic term of a "Lolita Complex", which basically describes when an older adult male is sexual attracted to a younger girl. As gross as the story is, I was super excited to begin reading this novel by Vladimir Nabokov.

Now when I started reading I decided to do my first post on my initial reactions when I read the first 17 chapters. I know this is terrible but the way that Vladimir Nabokov writes makes us kind of ignore what is actually wrong. Obviously I had the initial reaction to thinking what is wrong with this man and how could this possibly happen?! But after reading I came up with some questions.

My first question is how in the world is Lolita not super creeped out about this man who is always around and is looking and being extremely creepy towards her? There are so many points in these chapters that make me so confused to how she is okay with this happening. Like everyone always thinks about him being the bad guy but how would she let this happen. I guess she is younger so she may not "know any better." But in my opinion this doesn't make complete sense to me but this may resolve itself.

Then I also realized that there are multiple occasions that we see that he feels shame for what he is doing. "This is all very interesting, and I daresay you see me already frothing at the mouth in a fit; but no, I am not" (Nabokov 19). He seems to have this sense that he knows that he is doing something wrong but doesn't really care but at the same time he seems to care a little bit and this is seen in the form of shame. He has such a strange perception on his life and what he is doing. "Which my huge hairy hand massaged" (Nabokov 60). I think it is just strange the way he perceives himself and the way that he describes himself. I think that it is just overall strange that he knows what he is doing wrong but he really just addresses that its weird but doesn't change anything. This has me wondering about the mental health of this man.

I am extremely excited to continue reading because I have so many questions that I want answered. I would like to know more about this relationship they have but also more about Vladimir Nabokov and his style of writing. I already see that the book is written in his perspective which makes it even creeper because you get his thoughts and his commentary which he somewhat justifies. I am excited to continue and to see how this will play out.