for 9/29: responding to posts (Charlotte's death and after)

You should have finished the novel by Thursday of next week. We will go on discussing the ending while reading the critical articles noted on the syllabus. While your post does not have to relate directly to your "theme" - you should indicate your choice of theme in your post.

1. The uses of imagery: Humbert's obsession with the concretization of memory shows in his imagery. And, of course, the whole novel is retrospective - it is a memory. Using Juno's examples of concrete imagery for intangible things, look through the text for signs of the ways Humbert uses imagery to make a point, convince himself or the reader of something, or represent an event as something it is not.
2. Justifications: Tene' wrote about a TV show in which the pedophile character goes to bizarre lengths to deny his own nature. Respond to Tene' by finding another pop culture use or reference to Lolita - other than the one Tene' mentions in her first post. What is a "Lolita" in the popular imagination?
3. Kayla points out various ways that Humbert uses language to define, describe, and excuse his abnormality. In the "lap" scene, discussed in my previous post, we see that Humbert uses language to deceive himself about what he is actually doing. However, as the story goes on, before and after Charlotte's death, Humbert's beliefs about himself start to break down. Looking, as Kayla did, at the narrator's language, trace this increasing tension - it is one of the most important aspects of the story. Also, notice the split between body and mind and the pose of the scientist - justifications highlighted in Shea's post.
4. Stella points out another of Humbert's delusions or masks: he considers people "vulgar" who may be simply normal (and sexually mature) adults (after all, Valeria is unhappy with him due to his inability to provide the marital relations she expects - and she chooses a "vulgarian" instead of him). As the story goes on, Humbert's "sophistication" and Carlotte's, the Farlow's, and Lolita's "vulgarity" clash continually. Through this clash, Humbert struggles to maintain his sense of himself as a poet or a singular, gifted man. Discuss this key conflict.
5. Mary Linh describes the encounter with Lolita as a "return" of Annabelle. Her description brings up everything associated with Annabelle: the kingdom by the sea, the sunglasses discussed by Aaron, the name Annabelle, Hourglass or Our Glass Lake, Poe's poem, the theme of bells, etc. Discuss these and other mementos in the passages about Humbert's marriage, his and Charlotte's social life, and his eventual life as a widower.
6. Amy points out how Humbert, in spite of his disdain for psychoanalysis, presents himself in a way that justifies his tastes through the use of oppositions: virility and impotence; normal sex and his more poignant kind, animal pleasure and dazzling otherworldly beauty - and so on. His argument is aesthetic: he is a seeker of beauty, not a normal (vulgar) person or a normal pervert. As the story goes on, Humbert's oppositions break down... look for instances of this happening and Humbert's responses.
7. Bonus question! Appel usefully provides the magazine ad VN may have had in mind - "the conquering hero" - which leads Humbert to contemplate married life. And throughout his second brief marriage, Humbert compares himself to a movie star; Lolita also has a lively interest in the movies and associates him with a glamorous leading male, as does Charlotte. How does the celluloid world relate to Humbert's world of bad intents and self-deception?