More about games in LOLITA

• When Lolita asks H.H. about the name of the hotel where he raped her and which she undoubtedly remembers, they are acknowledging two realities: the fictional nature of this story with its outrageous coincidences; and the fact that he raped her rather than her having "seduced" him. Humbert's uncomfortable awareness of his own physicality after their encounter at The Enchanted Hunters hotel is a sign of physical reality breaking through his screen of poetic language.
• A game has borders: during the one-year drive around America (the first one), Humbert cannot leave the borders of the US. 
• Humbert's apparent amorality is appropriate for a game player - no one feels remorse when taking a series of pieces in checkers.
• A game, like a work of art, is a symbolic system. But while traditional art is understood to refer to reality, the pieces in a game are meaningful only within the borders of the game.
• Why does Humbert know that he will leave clues if he tries to poison or drown Charlotte? Well, no action is hidden in a game. Humbert cannot kill because his role does not allow it. He cannot do things that are outside of his stated powers - like a bishop on a chess board. Jean Farlow is the referee of the "lake game." She sees everything and says she might put Charlotte and Humbert "in the lake" (of her painting). She also shows her moral watchfulness and curiosity by alluding to Quilty's crimes - which she heard about through Ivor Quilty, the dentist.
• Theater, as opposed to writing, makes the distinction between reality and fiction explicit, since th audience can clearly see that the stage is not real. In fiction, the audience imagines the story is real, which makes immoral content less acceptable. (However, Nabokov's style emphasizes that the actions of the story are only symbolic since they occur in language, not in reality. He uses extreme situations to emphasize this distinction between the symbolic and the real.) Drama tends to be self-conscious. One of the writer figures is Quilty the playwright; another is Vivian Darkbloom, associated with Nabokov. She not only writes plays, but a retrospective book about her lover, My Cue. And Lolita is a retrospective book about Humbert's lover.
• Speech is associated with power in Lolita (not power in the Foucauldian or broad sociological sense, but in the practical and interpersonal sense). Humbert's well-bred speech gives him power over Charlotte and the reader, but is useless agains Lolita and Quilty. He loses his ability to speak at times (notably when kissing Lolita for the first time). Maximovich and Charlotte both speak poorly (French, correct and incorrect, is a sign of status here, one that does not impress Lolita). She speaks less to Humbert as the story goes on.
• Part of the "game" of a novel, is the withholding and revelation of knowledge. Nabokov misleads us about whom Humbert has killed. He lies to Charlotte. Valeria lies about her past, as does Humbert (he exaggerates his polar exploits). But Humbert fails to understand Lolita's relationship with Quilty, and Lolita deliberately controls this knowledge. We see her taking on the role of the playful novelist late in Part Two, as if she has learned from both Humbert and Quilty.