short paper

Jon Orsi

Short Paper Page 57

Ouroboros: the snake that eats itself. Page 57: Lolita in a page. While Nabokov is not marred nor deeply invested in a tautological novel, page 57 of Lolita is an introspection, and distillation of the whole of book 1. The voice, subject, struggle, narration and eventual conclusion are all represented in nine, tight-but certainly not simple- sentences.

The passage begins, “Main Character: Humbert the Hummer. Time: Sunday morning in June. Place: sunlit living room. Props old, candy-stripped davenport…” The setup is that of stage direction, of a play. A play by Humbert, in which he is the writer/director, the puppeteer of his subjects. A prelude to an orchestration. This small passage is a mirror to the structure of Nabkov’s own role and work. The stage direction even posses the beauty and clever humor of book 1, “…and mementoes, among these Dolores, were all over the place.” The puppets tethers have been tied with tight poetry.

After the stage has been set, Humbert instantly drives toward the subject of the novel: Lolita: his sin his soul, our story. Lolita is immortalized in the beauty of this passage, the attention to obscure detail, careful crafting has made her into our (his) Venus. We are helpless to the visualization portrayed, “She wore that day a pretty pink dress that I had seen on her once before, ample in the skirt, tight in the bodice, short-sleeved, pink, checkered with darker pink…” Centered here in the passage, Lolita becomes the focus, the subject. We see her; she wears the dress of innocence. It floats as smoothly in our minds as it reads on paper.

Nabokov’s language radiates in these sentences profoundly as the whole of book 1 can accomplish, the beauty is lighting, and a picnic for the reader. Even the structure of the passage reads as we would see Lolita, slowly letting our gaze take her in, “…and, to complete the color scheme, she had painted her lips and was holding in her hollowed hands a beautiful, banal, Eden-red apple.” The subtleties grow and ripen. Temptation flowers. Even the reader, whether or not they will admit, wants a bite of that apple. This image of her tossing the apple and catching it with a “cupped polished plop.” Turns the written word into streaming realism, inducing a literary synesthesia. It also manages to turn character psyche, in that innocence is lost. Lolita-as Humbert would like us to believe- has become the seductress. Tossing. Tempting.

Humbert however, changes this, abruptly. This image of the seduction clad in innocence, flirts with the reader throughout book 1. In this passage, flirtation is carried out, temptation is presented, and in little time, the original sin is indulged, “Humbert Humbert intercepted the apple.” While graphic detail is spared, this passage and book is engrossed in that –awfully sensual- awful sensuality. As Humbert plucks Lolita’s fruit book one comes to a close.

The story has been completed. In the book’s most powerful concentration, Nabokov has saturated these short lines, the page almost leaks. Within the novel itself the story comes full circle, the serpent eats its tail. The content here will suffice for anyone unfamiliar with the book, they need only read these nine lines and they will be irrepressibly beckoned to either read Lolita by the fire, or throw the damned thing in.