Men Explain Lolita To Me

[Mark Kohut]

Lotsa insight in what you say yet we differ. So it is. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 18, 2015, at 5:17 AM, Ray Easton <raymond.lee.easton at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I was aware that you were alluding to words of HH himself -- all the more reason to be wary!  HH makes a fictional living out of manipulating the way we see him.
> 
> And one ought to be especially wary in this case, given that the novel explicitly pokes fun at the view that this is a morality tale -- that is John Ray's view of the story!
> 
> Lolita is indeed more than a stylistic exercise.  It is a presentation of obsession,  perhaps the best there is; certainly the best with which I am acquainted.
> 
> The novel itself requires no "moral lesson" for its validation.  It is we, the readers, who want rather desperately to find such a lesson present -- in this we are like HH himself. HH no doubt would say to us, while charmingly smiling,  "Hypocrite lecteur..."
> 
> Ray
> 
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> 
>> On December 18, 2015 3:25:35 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Yeahp. One--I--can sound silly defending fictional " truth" in such a writer. so it be. We differ. Nabokov's LOLITA would be nothing but a stylistic exercise if he did not believe and show in the novel awareness that pedophilia IS pedophilia. My perhaps lame remark on him " getting what he deserves" was, if I remember correctly, a verbal allusion to Humbert's very words as HE suggested his proper punishment, if you will remember.
>> 
>> Totally amoral or whatever as you position re Nabokov , you will need to explain Humber's recognition scene and subsequent awareness.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On Dec 17, 2015, at 7:37 PM, Ray Easton <raymond.lee.easton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> When I say 'Nabakov does not care a fig...' I am not referring to what the man in his "non-fic life" did or did not believe.  (I don't care about such things.)  I mean that his novels have no moral viewpoint and present no moral lessons.
>>> 
>>> HH "gets what he deserves" -- you sound like John Ray, Jr., PhD.
>>> 
>>> Ray
>>> 
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>>> 
>>>> On December 17, 2015 5:35:40 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> yeah, Nabokov greatly dissed 'morality' in fiction all his non-fic life...
>>>> but he did believe in themes and human goodness and badness..
>>>> 
>>>> some take Nabokov's constant dissing of 'morality' as part-act (against
>>>> lousy, sentimental poshlost fiction) and part unreliable narrator...
>>>> 
>>>> Anyway, he recognized love and death and themes related to and life
>>>> and sense perceptions and
>>>> so much more in his own
>>>> and in others' fictions.
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 5:50 PM, Ray Easton
>>>> <raymond.lee.easton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Morality -- Nabakov does not care a fig about morality.  And  the novel is
>>>>> designed to force us to identity not with Lokita, but with HH.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Ray
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On December 17, 2015 4:40:02 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> we have to identify with Lolita because common human morality....to
>>>>>> read it right....
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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