Well things have started getting crazy. Charlotte is dead, Lolita and HH fornicate. Yet, the craziest point is the fact that I’m sure many of us still do not see HH as the pedofile, rapist or criminal that he is. Were entranced by his words.

This story is littered with such obscene and repulsive subjects yet when asked what the book is about, or how the book made you feel, pedophilia may not necessarily be the first thing that comes to your mind. HH writes so beautifully to distract the reader from what is actually happening in the text. He is truly a horrible person, but the way he writes about the crimes he commits makes us see him differently. He defends his actions in such a way that the reader will never be able to see him for the person he really is without looking past the words. We dont really blame him for his crimes, or we accept them because he tricks us into it. “Suffice to say that not a trace of modesty did i percieve in this beautiful hardly formed young girl whom modern co-education, juvenile mores, the campfire racket and so forth had utterly and hopelessly depraved.”(133) What he is describing in that sentence is his first time having intercourse with Lo, but he writes it so intricately you would never see it as something repulsive which is what it is.

The way HH makes it so easy for us to forgive his crimes, shows his brilliance. He is manipulating our minds through the text.. “I am going to tell you something very strange: it was her who seduced me”(132) When Lo was first introduced, and her willingness was described to us I was baffled by the fact that she had little to no restrictions towards HH. However, now I realize that it could really just be further manipulation on the part of HH, trying to prove his innocence. Saying that it was not all his fault. This book is amazing.

The only impression I think people have about HH is pervert, sick, needs to be locked away etc. What most people dont realize is, until they begin to look past that, theyll never see the brilliance behind the pedophile.

HH is strategic and ingenious in every aspect of his life. He makes a mockery of distinguished medical professionals just for fun. the entire time he is in Lolita’s household, he is devising a plan to get closer to her under the radar of charlottle. Charlottle is not even aware of his feelings for Lolita, she only gets hints of it because Lolita continues to make her small feelings clear. Which angers her mother because she has feelings for him. Once HH hears about summer camp, you would believe his plans would be derailed, but clever Humbert concocts another plan of how to stay in the house. He decides hhe will marry the mother and then kill her so h can be alone with Lolita forever. What was intriguing is the fact that HH discovers he cannot kill Charlotte. “Now is the time! And folks, I just couldn’t!…and still I could not make myself drown the poor, slippery, big bodied creature.” (87) He is also confused about the fact that he does not find Charlotte repulsive. It is not hard for him to have relations with her and he does not find her ugly. He thought being married to her and pretending he loved her would be torture and he woould have to picture her as Lolita’s big sister to be enticed by her, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy.

Another thing that was extremely surprising was how willingly Lolita embraced HH. “Suddenly her hand slipped into mine and without our chaperon’s seeing, I held, and stroked, and squeezed that little hot paw, all the way to the store.”(51) I believe Lolita might have a variation of the same problem HH has. When he  is admiring or touching a young girl he does not see himself as the old man that he is. He sees girls in the same way an adult would see another adult, just the seduction and admiration, not the age. Lo sees how he makes her feel not how old he really is. “Then, with perfect simplicity, the impudent child extended her legs across my lap”(58) Humbert starts touching her and she gives in so carelessly, like nothing wrong is happening. She even enjoys it. “…and she wiggled, and squirmed, and threw her head back, and her teeth rested on her glistening underlip as she half turned away.”(61)

This is one of those books that you have to take your time reading it very slowly and sometimes a paragraph more than once. Luckily, the plot is interesting enough that you don’t get very bored reading it.

The fact that the narrator acknowledges the fact that he is sick but doesn’t stop lusting after the little girls is the biggest paradox to me. “…was my excessive desire for that child only the first evidence of an inherent singularity?”(13) He knows that it is wrong and just wont stop. I believe his sickness ranges to different things. He speaks about his exploits and conquests with such regularity its eerie. He tells his twisted stories and then ends with things like “…by the time of my arrest.”(16) As if getting arrested isnt an extremely significant action. He tells the story as if it is someone else going through it and he is completely unaffected emotionally and perhaps he is.

Another thing I find interesting is the subject of Humbert. I believe Humbert is his sickness personified, not actually the narrator himself because he always speaks about him in third person or how the narrator describes himself when the sickness takes over. “Humbert Humbert tried hard to be good.Really and truly he did.”(19) I could be completely wrong but this blog is supposed to be what I think right?

I enjoy the fact that the book’s setting is in Paris, but the fact that many sentences are in actual French makes it hard to read. But since I read it with a translator next to me and having to figure those out made the book more fun to read.