Thanks for the link to the opening of Lolita. It's time to
reread-- which means buying another copy as I'll never locate
the box my original is in.
I briefly complimented his Pale Fire in an earlier post but I
completely agree with your comments. It is a more challenging
book for a reader than Lolita, which smoothed the way with a
lascivious plot and (to some at least) more overt humor, yet
it may be a more brilliant piece of writing.
Richard Moore
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "bobav1" <rav7@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Hi Patrick:
>
> Coming out of lurkdom to point you to
>
>
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/nabokov/lo_excerpt.html
>
> for Lolita's opening. If you don't see the humor in
"(picnic,
> lightning)", "and some interesting reactions on the
part of my
> organism to certain photographs, pearl and umbra,
with infinitely
soft
> partings . . . " . . . actually, I was going to
quote more, but I
find
> humor all over Humbert's voice. Do you, a member of
this listserv
and
> a reader of hardboiled fiction, not find something
funny about a
> sentence like: "You can always count on a murderer
for a fancy
prose
> style"?
>
> So much to say about Nabokov (and professors and
grad students have
> made careers saying it), but humorless he
ain't.
>
> Bob V in NYC
>
> PS: Pale Fire is my favorite, the most
extraordinarily constructed
> novel (I think it's a novel?!?) I've ever read. Even
the index has
> jokes and puzzles.
>
> PPS: I wouldn't consider it noir or hardboiled
either, despite some
> notable elements.
>
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Patrick King
<abrasax93@>
wrote:
> >
> > Could you possibly quote some of the
especially
> > hillarious passages you recall so I can
understand at
> > least what you mean? I remember the Catcher In
The Rye
> > chapter in church in which a former student
was
> > speaking about the fine education he'd received
and
> > Holden was commenting on the side as
causing
> > unrestrainable laughter. I never had that sort
of
> > experience with Lolita.
> >
> > Patrick King
>
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