Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Annotation Of Page 75

Four of the annotations made by Appel, on page 75, made me think of a few themes that are throughout the entire book of Lolita. The first annotation he makes is when Charlotte is talking to Humbert and the word "Turk" gets mentioned. Here she is not sure of what race Humbert is , and through out the story, there is speculation on what race Humbert Humbert actually is. Jean Farlow makes specualtions on his race and the manager at The Enchanted Hunters also wonders what race HUmbert HUmbert is.

The second annotation is the word "contretemps" the dictionary definition is: an embarrassing minor disagreement, but Appel defines it as an embarrassing or awkward occurance. when i first read through the passage i looked up the word on the internet because i was confused as to what it meant and it didnt really fit, but then reading the annotation it fit for my understanding better. throughout the entire book i had awkard moments while reading the text because of the subject matter. so much of what humbert writes about is disturbing and awkward in itself, it is hard not to feel awkward while reading.

the third annotation is rattles, i find it interresting that Humbert is speaking of himself in terms of a rattle snake, because fromt he very beginning of the novel i felt he was a snake in the grass... a predator and someone or something that one would want to stay away from.

The fourth annotation is the word rubrique. I dont have this in my notes but im almost possitive that in class we have talked about newspapers and lolita a few times, and also spoke about how Nabokov disliked newspapers so much. and i start to wonder why? why if Nabokov has such a dislike for newspapers would he write so much about them in Lolita, and let alone that but he puts the word in italic letters as to play with the reader. at least when i read and see a word in italics it always peaks my interest and i either look the word up or pay even more close attention to that word and words alike.

All these annotations that Appel gives to the reader are interesting to me, while reading through the story all these things were something that i have picked up on and thought about myself. so to find four points on one page that i have sat and thought about really intrigued me.

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