Novelists have long strived to make their works original, to either add variety to their work or to not have stories that are too similar to one another. At the same time however, authors still want to play it safe and stick with a formula for writing that is familiar. This can ease the writing process and ensure that their readers will enjoy their writing. It has long been a struggle for many authors to find an equilibrium to his issue, wanting to write unique stories, yet, wanting to create something they know will be popular. Nabokov finds balance to this struggle in his novel, Pale Fire. Pale Fire, published seven years after Nabokov’s most well known title, Lolita, had a lot to live up to. Lolita was controversial yet, considered one of …show more content…
Adding on to their last names being similar, John’s daughter Hazel’s name like Dolores’ surname (Haze) as well. The word shady can sometimes also mean hazy as, they describe things that are unclear and uncertain. This could signify how the details of these characters given by, Charles Kinbote and Humbert Humbert are doubtable and can be questionable or unclear. In Lolita, Humbert Humbert describes Dolores as young and innocent even after she grew up and was no longer a child. He also, reprimands her even though she was not doing anything wrong but, he describes what she had done in a way that makes the readers sympathize with Humbert Humbert and agree with the punishments given to Dolores. Moving on both, John and Dolores had lost a close family member due to tragedy, Dolores’ mom was hit by a car right after she found about Humbert Humbert's feelings for her daughter. John’s daughter, Hazel committed suicide by drowning herself in a lake due to depression. Finally the last similarity between the two is that, neither of them are able to communicate their side of the story in the novels and are both taken advantage of by the protagonist. Since, neither of them can influence the readers thinking, that is taken advantage of by the narrators. The narrators take advantage of this and make the readers sympathize with them and agree with what they say even though it may not be correct. The characters are especially taken advantage for in the story. He takes advantage of the fact that her mother died and that he is now her guardian to take her away. Humbert Humbert frequently takes advantage of their power imbalance by punishing Dolores for virtually nothing and beginning a romantic relationship with her when she was just a child despite being much older than
The entire novel is a memoir to a court jury that is following Humbert’s case of murder, harassment, and pedophilia. Starting the novel is the poetic line “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins” (Nabokov 9) already dragging the reader in as well as the jury. Calling her the light of his life almost makes the reader feel the strong emotion that Humbert feels for Lolita. The reader understands that he is deeply in love with this girl… (Mulready). Humbert even says that you can “count on a murder for a fancy prose style” (Nabokov), already suggesting that he’s aware in his way of voice and dialect… he is showing
“The Slynx”, the first novel of Tatyana Tolstaya, had been under process of writing for nearly 14 years and was finally released in 2000. Tatyana Tolstaya is a Russian author, who began her writing career in mid-1980s as a publisher of short stories in various literary magazines. In 1986 she started working on “The Slynx”, a.k.a. “Кысь”. This novel is an intentional example of writing during the censorship period. Therefore, it is largely inter-textual, ironical and, most importantly, Aesopian. The plot is based in “the town of Fyodor-Kumichsk” (Tolstaya 10), which is in fact, the city of Moscow, 200 years after a mysterious and apocalyptic catastrophe – the Blast. The society, however, is not advanced at all, it reminds more of the medieval communities full of exclusion, inequality, tyranny and illiteracy.
His adept style of writing washes skillfully through the book as the adventures of Norman Felskin, Betsy Poldosky and Julio Velasquez progresses. Albeit, while the book does not have the expected flow, like other books of fiction, his words do flow with ease and paint vivid images that stimulate the reader's curiosity as well as the
Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita not only to create controversy and shock the public, but also for money and fame. Nabokov wrote Lolita to get attention. This novel engages moral dilemmas that are sensitive to its readers. The sensitive subject matter created such a controversy that it perpetuated sales and made it a bestseller, and he knew that if he wrote a book shocking and personal enough he would become wealthy. The novel speaks as though it were a lived event which adds to the intensity of Humbert's actions and to the shock of the reader. The delivery and depth of his thoughts make one think this is a true story, and the effect can be that the reader finds the action even more appalling.
When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
Gary Soul Morson, The Boundaries of Genre - Dostoyevsky's Diary of a Writer and the Traditions of Literary Utopia.
Although controversy about Lolita lasted for decades, it is clear that whether it is pornography or not, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita will always remain a controversial new form of work of art. What is known is that masterpieces like Lolita, always have secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the years. The amount of controversy that this novel brought has led Lolita to become one of the best novels known to bring a new form of writing into the US. For this reason, Lolita’s legacy will remain forever a part of literary art.
Gary Soul Morson, The Boundaries of Genre - Dostoyevsky's Diary of a Writer and the Traditions of Literary Utopia.
One of the sweet comforts in life is to curl up in a favorite chair with a short story that will briefly carry people away from their everyday lives. On rare occasions, a tale mirrors real life in such a way that one is strangely comforted by the normalcy reflected in the words. A perfect example of a story about ordinary life that will soothe the soul in search for some insight on understanding the human behavior is Anton Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” This style of writing has such a mass appeal because the characters wear recognizable social masks and reflect an everyday reality. In his simple story of a chance meeting between a middle-aged, chauvinistic, repeat-offender adulterer, unhappily married man, and a young, naïve, in-search-of-something-new, married woman, Chekov paints a picture that gives a startling representation of how these two characters are influenced by the settings in which their chronicle takes place, especially with the budding of their relationship.
Toni Morrison now at eighty-three years old as yet written work, and there are numerous regions to be investigated of her noteworthy accomplishments as one of the principal fiction authors of the world today. As of late, her advantage is by all accounts slanted towards investigating new procedures also, shapes in a musical show. Be that as it may, she is truly a writer. Her narrative techniques, style, and language are a portion of the noteworthy regions for further research. What is more, an excellent author like Toni Morrison, whose genius extends to every possible domain of fiction which required to examined is certainly past the limited scope of the present theory and which I leave to future
By the end of the novel, the only thing that Humbert and Lolita share is “work of art” (6). Art, here, becomes a synonym for beauty, or the eternal power of language – both of them are immortalized through prose. By toying with the virtues and pitfalls of both plot- and character-driven novels, Nabokov writes a “unique story” that comments on the way a book is made. Aware of “dangerous trends” and consumed by “potent evils” (6), Nabokov conveys that only Humbert Humbert, not Delores Haze, can be “solipsized”
This book is a slice of Timofey Pnins life narrated by Vladimir Nabokov himself. Unlike most books Pnin is not inspiring, amazing, or wonderful it is just silly, this makes Pnin an outlier in literature and makes the book both boring and interesting a quality so odd that it makes this book a great piece of literature. Unlike most biographies Pnin is written as a collection of stories each detailing a chapter in Timofeys life that can each be considered a whole piece of writing
...haracter occupies the second largest frame and has the most authoritative voice within the narrative. At first it seems like this character is Kinbote as he guides Pale Fire’s narrative despite seeming completely unsuited to write a work of criticism. His commentary on the poem “Pale Fire” takes the shape of his own fancies, often lapsing into a personal voice that is fully unsuitable for criticism due to its lack of relevance to the poem. In the Preface, his exclamation of annoyance that “[t]here is a very loud amusement park right in front of [his] present lodgings” (Nabokov 11) is a parody of the convention of the neutral, objective critic who avoids irrelevant personal trivia in his analysis. In this way, his commentary breaks the frame of his critical project as an implicit commentary on the nature of the text, and shifts into the metafictional mode of writing.
When I read Nabokov’s memoir and confession of the times he spent with Lolita, I can feel his emotions. I can sense the truth is his voice and I feel the compassion that he felt towards Lolita. While my morality tells me to feel disgust towards him because he is what we would consider a pedophile, I can’t fully submit myself to feeling this way simply based on what society deems to be ethical. Tolstoy would agree, that although Lolita meets some of the criteria to be considered a work of art, it lacks the capacity of expressing a universal feeling that all can agree with; there is no clear emotional link that ties the audience and artist univers...
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan thoroughly demonstrate that the fallacy of romance is enhanced by dominant possession, sexual obsession, and societal standards of the previous century. What one can learn from the themes of Lolita is to increase the protection of children under the care of parents or social workers to prevent pedophilia, because whether or not Humbert was in love with Lolita or not, it was still morally wrong. Generally, a lesson can be taken from both novels to be careful in all aspects when it comes to acting upon feelings for a significant other because it can result negatively as it did for the some of the main characters in the second novel discussed.