Re: Favorite part of Tuesday's lecture and interesting stuff

I also thought it was interesting to learn that the forward by a John Ray, PhD, was fictional. Here it the real start of Nabokov's jabs at psychology of the day, by criticizing his book in a nonsensical, Freudian way. We also see more feelings toward the field when Humbert repeatedly speaks of magic and fate and imagination rather than psychiatry. As Krzys mentioned in lecture, Humbert voluntarily and on numerous occasions places himself in a sanitarium and taunts the staff and their analysis methods.

It was also interesting to learn that Nabokov studied butterflies, one because it is an unusual subject of study and two because I began to see how lolita is seen by Humbert as a sort of butterfly, but a butterfly that evolves in reverse. Humbert is so hell-bent on keeping Lolita near, and making sure that she remains his personal "nymphlet" so she will remain a beautiful innocent twelve year old girl. But she does end up evolving with the more time she spends with Humbert, and she becomes resentful and deceptive towards him. I also have the annotated version of Lolita and in chapter 35 of part 2, when Humbert confronts Quilty, Quilty calls him self "Maeterlinick-Schmetterling" Schmetterling is German for Butterfly, and Maeterlinick was a Belgian playwright. I just thought that was interesting that he threw that reference into the novel and the purpose for which it serves.