SHADE

well i cant figure out how to get a depiction of shade on my blog so i am just going to get pictures from online like we did in class to try and find at least a small resemblance of what shade could look like.... here goes...

in class there was a lot of talk about how generous Shade was..... and i think i have somewhat touched on that subject a little bit, but not to the point where our conversation went today in class. i think that Kinbote can see the generostiy in shade and at times uses it against him.... he tries to get all that he can from shade and doesnt seem to care if shade wants it that way or not.... and really kinbote just takes from shade any time he can, even after shades death.... right away after his death..

another point made in class was that through pictures of shade, Kinbote can see shades soul... if he could see shades soul, wouldnt he know that really the poem has nothing at all to do with kinbote... but again he is the type of person that thinks all things revolve around him.... he really truly amazes me as a character and as a person.... there is no generosity in Kinbote... maybe he latches on to shade because he can see that good in shade and wants to have that same good.... hmm

The color Blue

Well i started to get slightly obsessed with the color RED in Lolita and i am finding myself getting yet again slightly obsessed with another color in PF, BLUE. durring my, oh i dont know, fourth or fifth time starting the commentary over again i started to realize that the word blue, and azure, are all over thenovel. is it a way to express the sadness that follows John Shade around? Blue seems to be a color of sadness or at least for me it does. and throughout reading PF i find myself feeling somewhat sad for shade.... he seems to be a man that just goes along with the flow... and doesnt want to hurt anyones feelings. and not that that is sad, but to have an existance where all one does is try to make people happy and feel that they are so wonderful, like Kinbote thinks he is, is sad to me. again i feel like my thoughts are confusing, but i am getting used to it since i feel pretty much confused everytime i read nabokov, especially PF!

anyway back to the color BLUE. Sexson even in class today, said that it is all over the place.... i have decided i am going to try to count how many times the color in any shape or form comes up in the text to see how many times its there.... for some reason i feel that if i can get myself to count there might be 999 times that it shows up.... but thats just a guess... everything with Nabokov has some sort of twist and weird connection so who knows..... maybe he was particular in how many times he used that color..... ill keep you posted if i can make myself get that crazy about blue while reading...

Minton

Today in class we had the honor of having Gretchen Minton come and speak to our class about Pale Fire and Timon of Athens. then shakespeare play that seems to pop up all over the novel.

It was a real treat to have Minton come and give some great ideas on how Nabokov shaped the characters in Pale Fire.

For me like i have said before in the blog, Nabokov writes about a lot of people and is able to write about people who a reader can connect to. I think one of thegreatest things about Shakespeare is that he to wrote about things and happenings that all people can really relate to... so after having such a concentrated lecture in calss today about two great writers, that at the begininng i would have never found similarities i have!

a minor discovery for myself i suppose but one that i think wil open my eyes a little bit more into the world of Nabokov.

In the handout Minton had printed out for our class she had a quote from Timon of Athens, and when she talked about the quote she had said that in nature, everything steals from everything else. so maybe Nabkov took shakespeares way of writing and turned it into a way for him to writesuch dynamic and interesting characters.... just a thought

The Ladder of Pale Fire

Sexson has been talking about the Ladder of knowledge that as a class we are climbing to get to a full understanding of the work Pale Fire. i feel that i will never get to the top... is there anyway of reaching a point of ful understanding when it comes to Nabokov? i cant imagine. but at the same time, as a reader we are all able to get into the deep thoughts of this illusive writer that seems to pop up everywhere. i dont know if all of what i see and hear throughout any given day is just coincidence .... but i feel that everywhere i look and every time i have a conversation with someone i am taken back to a part in one of Nabokovs crazy , wonderful stories. maybe i am just reading into things far to much but i feel like there is so much about what i read on his pages that are things that happen daily. there is always that one person who makes all things about them, like Kinbote. i mean really does anyone NOT have friend like that? or maybe i just have a couple weird friends... haha but really when i look around a see all that is around me i feel likei can pick out people in a crowd that could essentially be a Nabokov character.

Maybe that is what is so wonderful about reading Nabokov..... his characters have so much realism to them, even HUmbert, they all have something that a reader can connect to , or at least connect to another person.

i realized i really dont have enough pictures on my blog of butterflies... and thats just not right while reading Nabokov... and we all know why.....



i have given some more thought on the beauty +pity = art

and i think a lot of it is that all of Nabokovs characters are full of beauty in their own right and many of the characters one feels pity for, or at least has a pitiful way about them. in the words that humbert writes while speaking of Lolita and the way that Kinbote finds so much beauty in his native country of Zembla there is beauty through out all of nabokovs words and writing.

Pale Fire

Starting Pale Fire has been much easier to read through then Lolita for me.But again i have had to stop myself and re read certain parts of the commentary. i think i have started thecommentary three times already.... but i just find myself reading and then getting lost. obvioulsy because Kinbote, is well CRAZY! but even though he is crazy, the way he writes and assumes all that shade wrote is about him is very entertaining.... and very comical when i sit back and think about how he is able to be so self involed.

After reading through most of the classes papers. i really enjoyed reading Jareds. He had the same type of focus that i did and brought up some great i deas and made me realize, that well, i didn get deep enough or narrowed down enough in my short paper. but that is just a problem i have when writing papers... need to work on that! : )

today in class we talked about Nabokovs definition of art, which is BEAUTY + PITY

i have been thinking about it, and it seems to contradict itself in my mind, but i guess it all depends on what one believes is pity and what one believes is beauty. just like art, these words are very subjective and no one person can say that a piece of art is the best.. just like no one can say that a certain type of beauty is the only type of beauty and so on for pity.. i need to think a little more on this and figure out what i find beauty and pity to be...

Paper #1

Lolita and Red

After reading through "Lolita", and each time finding something new and interesting, a thought came to mind right away, while reading the novel comes back. There are quite a few similarities between Lolita and Red Riding Hod. For years there have been speculation the Red had a type of "daddy complex", that is why her cape was red, why she acted so foolishly with the wolf. While reding "Lolita", there are many times where this same "Daddy complex" comes to mind. Lilita is more than wiling to go along with HUmbert on their little trip to 342 different hotels. Lolita wants male attention and that is very clear while reading with how she constantly tries for Humberts attention. Not that she must try hard, but there are some interesting undertones of whatLolita really wants from HUmbert. The one thing that sat all these thought off was the color red. Right after Humbert and Lolita are intimate or the first time, the word red seems to be very prominent when HUmbert is describing situations and conversations he and Lolita are in.

When HUmbert is describing Lolita sitting in the lobby, "in an overstufed blood-red armchair,"(138), he is stil having thoughts of what he and Lolita had done the previous night. It seems that whenever the color Red is written down, there are strong sexual undertones. it is known that the color Red always seems to beused in the same light of seduction, sensual hapenings, and i sthe most emotionally intense color. With all the little meanings Nabokov has all over his work, it seems very fitting that he chose to use the color Red to give the reader just that much more intense , sexual , and even emotional feeling, since that color is seen in the world as encompassing all those things.

After thinking more about red, one has to wonder if maybe Nabokov could have gotten ideas to write Lolita from Litle Red Riding Hood. Its obvious that throughout the book ther are hints of fairy tales; the way all the places they go to, that are worth being mentioned by Humbert, have names that fit the situation too well. For example, the very first hotel where HUmbert and Lolita are intimate is called the Enchanted HUnters. Isnt the wolf a hunter in the forest that Red is walking through? HUmbert describes himself as such an animal and beast, and even calls himself a beast throughout the story, couldnt he be the wolf? The predators in both stories are prying on young, seemingly innocent young girls. But how inocent is Little Red? And how innocent is Lolita?

After Humbert and Lolita are intimate, HUmbert is very aware that he was not Lolita's first sexual experience and soon after, learns about her first sexual experience. Lolita having these types of experiences and knowing what happens between men and women, seems to almost want Humbert to take her innocense away. She is well aware of what she does to him, granted he shouldnt take anything she does too seriously because of her age. But it seems as though Lolita wants to be grown up, she wants to be a woman, and wants the attention she recieves from HUmbert. Lolita wants to be part of the "grown up world". Lolita is constantly trying to be around her mother and doing things with her mother that would represent her as a more mature older girl. And Charlotte see's this in her daughter therefore wants to separate HUmbert and Lolita. Lolita is what the color red is, sexual, emotionally intense, and seducing. It is only fiting that Nabokov uses this color throughout the novel.

Well all i have to say is that the test was just what i expected... but i didnt quite prepare myself for all of it! of course having tuesday to go over questions was a huge help but geez.... that section where we had to match up words from the text i got a little flustered.... but it turned out ok, i guess :) it just made me feel like i didnt read the text close enough... now i know that when i start reading Pale Fire a closer reading needs to be done.... i think i go a little crazy when i read it too close but obviously that is what needs to be done with Nabokov!

Test # 1

well i think as all of us know... for this first test.... we need to read Lolita.. and expect a Sexson test as well as a test that Nabokov would have given his students... i guess i need to finish the novel, well.. NOW!! im of to conquer Lolita all the way through!

Still reading through Lolita, and for some reason i have to stop, and start again on certain parts of the novel. I get so into reading the words that Nabokov has written and then i begin to lose myself in the words, and after that.. well i dont know where i am in the story and what is going on. so nedless to say, im stil getting through the novel. There is something so captivating in the way that Nabokov writes. there seems to be secret meanings in ALL he is writing and i think that is why i am having a hard time getting through it! every time i think a word has a special meaning behind it, or that a whole scene means something new, thats when i have to step back and read through it again.... it is as if i am reading the first book ive ever read, which is obviously not the case! but in class we sit and talk about all the things that we have discovered and then listening to how Sexson explains all the things that us readers have missed, i think i start to second guess myself in how i am reading it... ok, imjust confusing myself... but i have been ever since i started reading nabokov so nothing new there!

Finally!

After a day of doing nothing with my time but have Nabokov on my mind, i think i have finally found a couple small little discoveries. They arent big but just interesting enough to have kept my interest long enough while looking for them.

The last name of Lolita has always slightly confused me. I couldnt figure out why, Nabokov would spell Haze the way he did as a last name. I have known people with that last name and never had seen it spelt that way. So I spelt it Hayes. Just out of curiosity I looked up Howard Hayes. Since Lolitas fathers name was Howard i though i could possibly find a little something with that name. Turns out that there was a Howard Hayes Scullard. He was a british historian and was one who edited the Oxford Classical Dictionary. that i thought was pretty interesting, Nabokov being a writer and he taking a name of a person who loved words was kinda cool. But then as i looked a little more i found that Howards fathers name was Herbert Hayes Scullard. That little name looked and sounded familiar. not only is it similar to Humbert but it also is mentioned in Lolita when they are checking into the Enchanted Hunters hotel.

the second discovery i found was pretty neat too, i had thought that parkington was an interesting town name and googled that. when i did i found that there was a man named Gersham Parkington who had a very unusual clock and watch collection. could be a coincidence of course but i thought it was pretty cool . Not only that but Gersham means, little surprise.