Creative Writing
Lolita
In the past, people had said to me how Lolita was a classic, and how the writing was eloquent and rich, but I never expected their claims to be this true.
Not only is the writing a fantastic representation of the variety in the English language, but it is also carries a fascinating story.
I started reading Lolita late last week, and I found that since then, I haven’t been able to put the book down.
The story follows Humbert Humbert, who becomes infatuated with a young person named Delores Haze.
The story is told with Humbert Humbert as the narrator, and instead of portraying a realistic view of the situation, portrays Humbert Humbert’s thoughts and feelings.
Since Humbert Humbert’s thoughts and feelings aren’t very reasonable in the book, the reader is required to depend on themselves for their opinions on the matter, instead of their narrator.
Despite the eloquence, the story is fast-moving.
It nearly never lingers on sequences of events.
I think that Lolita isn’t just about Delores Haze, but the life of Humbert Humbert, and his infatuation with girls that are half his age, or sometimes even younger.
Though the story is primarily about Humbert Humbert, Delores Haze is an important character in the story.
She is portrayed as charismatic, but since Humbert Humbert is the narrator, one can’t really decide if his description of her is accurate or not.
What I really like about this story is I never know if anything Humbert Humbert is saying is sincerely true, as he’s a really undependable narrator, with many problems that make it nearly impossible to trust the accuracy of anything he claims.
This forces the reader to think for themselves, which is something not found or required in many books.
I’m extremely glad that I chose Lolita as my first book to read for this class, as I’ve already learned so much about writing from it.
Nabokov is a master writer, that is for sure. I am curious about the idea of the narrator. What do you think might be untrue? Is it his lens on events or ... he seems brutally honest, doesn't he? What claims are you questioning?
ReplyDeleteWhat, specifically, have you learned about writing? What does Nabokov do well and can you provide examples?
I’ve heard of Lolita before, and the other things I’ve read by Nabokov, like his essay on reading like a writer, I’ve really enjoyed. I might be interested in reading Lolita soon!
ReplyDeleteI think it’s kind of weird how Humbert is infatuated with Dolores. Does this just mean that he’s interested in her, or that he feels an emotional or physical attraction to her? It’s interesting that Nabokov would write about something so controversial. I also find it intriguing that the narrator is unreliable. I love books that leave room for interpretation, and doubts in what actually happened. I think it’s really cool how some authors manage to get you to think certain things without outright saying that you should think about the certain ideas. One of the stories that I read for school, “Chronicles of a Death Foretold” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, uses a lot of different perspectives. Each story tends to contradict itself, leaving a lot of space for interpretation by the reader. There are some events in the story that are definite, and everyone has it in their story, like one character was killed by two brothers, and there was a marriage, but other than that, there wasn’t much that stayed the same over all of the accounts. It sparked a lot of differing opinions in our group conversations, and I think that Lolita would probably spark a similar reaction.
I’m still curious about the relationship between Dolores and Humbert. Does he know Dolores personally, or is she just an acquaintance? Does he admire her from afar, or if he more up front about his feelings? Maybe I should read it myself to find out!
I’ve heard of this book before, but I never knew what it was about. So the guy’s name is actually Humbert Humbert? That sucks for him. The way you described it, it seems really mysterious. What’s the setting? Is it in the present? What is really intriguing me is what kind of relationship the two have. You say he’s infatuated with her, but does he even know her personally? Are they friends? Does he just see her occasionally? The whole time, I got this sort of stalkerish feeling about him. Is he mentally unstable? I’m wondering, since you say he’s always unclear and unreliable, and here he is obsessed with this girl. If so, that’s really creepy yet really cool. I feel like a book told from the stalker’s or creep’s perspective would be really fascinating, in a dark sort of scary way. It makes me think of that book The Lovely Bones, and the character Mr. Harvey, the pedophile who murders the main character Susie. You say Humbert gets obsessed girls almost half his age and younger, and that right away raises some red flags. On another note, why is the book called Lolita? You would think it’d be called Delores. And is it sort of comedic or satirical? The fact that his name is Humbert Humbert makes it sound like some sort of dark satirization. I can’t really think of an example, but there’s definitely something different about that. Sort of a corky darkness, I guess. Either way, sounds like a really interesting book, and I’m excited to learn more about it.
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