Lolita, part 1, chapters 28-33

[Ophelia]

Lolita, part 1, chapters 28-33

[realiz]

I thought this section had a humorous quality to it as Humbert spends the whole night secretly trying to touch the disappointly 'undrugged' Lolita. After his torchurous night of just wanting a little touch, a little stroking which would be enough to get him off, she wakes up and offers him everything almost to his disappointment that is all came so easily.

I would disagree that Lolita was 'eager' ( as quoted from Ophelia's post in the previous chapter post) to experiment. I think it was more a case that she knew he was interested and looking for this and she was trying to act knowledgeable about it, to act like she knew it all, a kind of adolescent bravado from a rebellious teen.

It is also comical, darkly, that Humbert looks back and feels like he was the one seduced when he has schemed, lied, and manipulated this girl into a bed with him, spent months working on this situation and then when she offers him what he was trying to sneak, to steal, he feels like she is the demon.

[Ophelia]

I would disagree that Lolita was 'eager' ( as quoted from Ophelia's post in the previous chapter post) to experiment. I think it was more a case that she knew he was interested and looking for this and she was trying to act knowledgeable about it, to act like she knew it all, a kind of adolescent bravado from a rebellious teen.

You may well be right Realiz.
As this is a one-sided story we'll never know. It would be so interesting for the reader to have Lolita's point of view-- on the other hand there are a lot of advantages to having only Humbert's viewpoint: it gives a unity to the novel, it gives his obsessiveness an all-pervasive quality, and above all it makes the book mysterious, as we keep wondering who she was and what she thought.

[giselle]

As this is a one-sided story we'll never know. It would be so interesting for the reader to have Lolita's point of view-- on the other hand there are a lot of advantages to having only Humbert's viewpoint: it gives a unity to the novel, it gives his obsessiveness an all-pervasive quality, and above all it makes the book mysterious, as we keep wondering who she was and what she thought.

I'm still trying to figure out Humbert's "viewpoint"? We read the events from his perspective and we see the way he manipulates people to his advantage. But I'm not much closer to understanding Humbert, to crawling inside his head and understanding why ...

[realiz]

I'm not much closer to understanding Humbert, to crawling inside his head and understanding why ...

Because he loves her.