Eng 387: Literature & Politics / Writers in Exile

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Internal & External Exile

In Lolita, Humbert experiences two types of exiles: an internal exile and an external exile. His internal exile comes from his sick views of love and lust. Humbert believes that there is nothing wrong with loving his underage "nymphets", but we all know that it's not the norm. His internal desire for young girls causes an exile which he is subconsious to: an exile of normality. Humbert is out of reality, internally trapped by his lust for the wrong type of women. He has become so detached from normal society that he doesn't realize how rash his actions are. His voluntary external exile occurs when he comes from Europe to America, and becomes nomadic, moving constantly and not belonging to one fixed place.

Annabel

One of the more fascinating aspects of Lolita was actually getting a sense of why Humbert turned out the way he did, and why he developed such disturbing thoughts about young girls. His relationship with Annabel and the lack of closure that he received had a signigificant impact on Humbert as he grew older. Humbert was never able to consummate the relationship with his young, first lover. This had reprecussions on his character for years to come. When Annabel dies it is as though there is a void in Humbert's mind, which can only be filled by someone he can compare her to. He developed such strong feelings about Annabel, or perhaps the idea of Annabel, that he starts to become obsessed with "nymphets" like Lolita The problem is that he continued to grow older and older, his feelings remained toward young girls, even when he was able to have relationships with adults. This in no way rationalizes Humbert's feelings or his actions, but it does give a little bit of insight as to why he behaves in such a sick way. This also made me think about why people become exiles, and how often a traumatic experience can play a major part in making someone an exile. It is important to try and understand the psychology of an exile in order to determine why they do what they do, and why they have become isolated from social norms because of it.

One of the finest English professors I've ever had explained to my class that writing creatively means creating sensations through expression. In her own words, "if you try to describe a homeless person on the streets of New York, I want to be able to smell him." It may sound a bit theatrical, but that is because very few writers are capable of producing such an effect on the reader. Only a master can elevate language to the point of transcending mere communication or even eloquent description. In Nabokov's Lolita, he succeeds in establishing himself not only as a 'writer in exile', but as one of the finest American authors of this century.
More than anything, I believe Lolita shows that the content of a novel-- and in this case, I found the topic very disturbing-- has little to do with the craft of writing. Nabokov chose an "untouchable" subject matter, one that conventionally is viewed with disgust. To many, pedophilia is seen as a more repulsive crime even than murder. The storyline has all the elements of a twisted, dark, and sordid tale even by today's standards, yet was hailed as a masterwork, which it is. Reading Lolita was a profoundly moving experience, but not because the story or the characters are inspiring or pretty. Rather, the quality of the writing and the boldness of the narrator in revealing his life's deepest secrets transforms the book into a journey. If the reader commits to the book, he commits to entering a life, a forbidden world that Nabokov bravely created.

Attraction

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita depicts the psychologically disturbed narrator, in exile as he hopelessly attempts alluring a young teenager. Meanwhile, throughout the narrative, the reader is in distrust of the narrator Humbert for he is conveying Lolita's lust for him as factual, when his reality may be derailed by his pedophilia desires.
While there may be many levels of exile contained within this book, the most concerning form is found within the character Humbert, and his desire for younger girls. It isn't perfectly clear whether or not Lolita lusts/loves Humbert...for she is only a teenager. As in: "She was not pretty, she was a nymphet...The pale child noticed my gaze (which was really quite casual and debonair), and being ridiculously self conscious, lost countenance completely" (Nabokov 126). Lolita isn't taken for what she is, she's a young girl who just might be attracted to Humbert's charms, and active infatuation, but all in all, she's unable to make a decision. And even if she were to decide, Humbert would be in the wrong anyway because he should know better than to pursue a young girl. Humbert however presents his exile by means of his blatant attraction and inability to contain a desire that is not kindly viewed in society.

Lolita as a form of Exile

The novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov can be seen from two different perspectives one as a man who has been deeply hurt due to a frustrated love and therefore, has gone mad and committed a great number of immoral and unethical acts; or two, as a man who has deeply fallen in love with a GIRL and cannot see beyond that point, and cannot measure the degree of his acts, and ultimately learns his lesson and receives what he deserves, or better yet what he has generated from the beginning. However, in both perspectives Lolita seems to be Humbert's way of exile from a painful world in which he cannot seem to fit in, either because of his terrible and frustrated love for Annabel, or the constant appearance or encountering with "nymphets" that are provoking him.
What is most outstanding of the novel though is that at the beginning Humbert seems completely mad and just out of all his senses, but as the novel progresses he seems to reach closer to serenity and understanding. When he starts making his case and defense, he can only talk about the nymphets, but at the end he seems to realize that his behavior is damaging, and Lolita's ultimate fate is only the result of his misdoings to her, and that perhaps she deserves to be away from him.

Eyes on Both Ends of the "Exile Spectrum"

After reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov I realized that there is a strong theme of exile flowing through the novel. Two of the main characters, Humbert and Lolita are exiles but what sets them apart from eachother is the fact that one of the character's exile is voluntary, while the other is involuntary. This is where Nabokov allows the reader to examine both ends of the "Exile Spectrum". Humbert chooses his exile willingly when he leaves Europe, and journeys to America. Lolita on the other hand is forced into exile when Charlotte dies, leaving her behind with Humbert. They are alienated from the societies which they are familiar, and they find themselves in ambiguious moral territory where the old rules do not tend to apply. Humbert and Lolita are so disconnected from odinary society that they can acknowledge how immoral their actions become, Humbert can see the claws he sprouted, and Lolita maintains the role of a silent lamb. Tqwards the end, both Humbert and Lolita experience the ultimate blow from exile's thunderous fist, Lolita held by Dick Schiller, and Humbert held by the iron cage in prison. Exile in this novel is final, there is no way out, no mobility. Here we see the both ends of the spectrum, but when it all boils down, for these characters Exile is not a bed of roses, but a harsh and brutal way of life.

Lolita Starts a Trend That is Unfortunately Followed

The story of Lolita reminds me of how today’s society is when it comes to adults having sexual relations with young adults specifically under 18. Today in our society, it has happened and people condemn things like that. Maybe Humbert felt that it was the norm. Though it was wrong for Humbert to have feelings for Lolita in that way, you can’t help but feel sympathy for him because he wanted to fill that void of extra space with companionship. What was wrong about the whole situation is that he married Charlotte to get to Lolita, which was wrong because she had hoped that he was the man of her dreams. Sadly this was not the case.
Humbert did what he did because he missed Annabel and wanted to recapture that moment in time, when he was thirteen. The only problem is that he waited until he was a lot older and fell in love with a girl the same age as Annabel. It’s a sad ending to a rather unique love story, but received criticism because of its plot. Age is nothing but a number but when it is thirteen, then it becomes wrong whatever way you think of it.

Lolita- The View of a Pedophile

Lolita , a beautifully written novel by Vladimir Nabovok is also an eerie tale of a pedophile and his obsession. Humbert begins his memoiré by recounting his childhood and his first sexual experiences. Ironically the first sexual experiences he can remember are with a young American boy in the rose garden talking of “purely theoretical…pubertal surprises” (p11) After recounting these he goes on to his first love Annabel who was twelve when he was thirteen. He explains his sexual encounter with her in graphic, however beautiful detail. In the end though, Annabel and Hunmbert can’t finish their sexual experiences and 4 months later Annabel dies of Typhus.
Humbert becomes a pedophile after this, watching little girls and referring to those who catch his attention as “nymphets”. The referral to magic and spells is to discredit the psychological field and steers the explanation of Humbert away from being considered a pedophile and instead into that of a bewitched man. This is a frivolous attempt on Humbert’s side to clean up his image.
These “nymphets” that infatuate him are in fact 9-14 year old girls. He falls in love with Lolita, also known as Doris while taking a trip to America. His trip to America is his willful journey into exile. Humbert marry’s Lolita’s mother in order to stay close to Lolita, and when her mother dies he takes Lolita on a road trip where they become nomadic. Humbert and Lolita willfully exile themselves from any specific home.
Humbert is obsessed with these "nymphets" because of his unrequited love for Annabel, and he is still in the mind-frame of her twelve year old figure. He makes frivolous attempts at love but no woman can compare to Annabel, and until Lolita, his nymphets couldn’t fill his memory of her either.
Memory is another important aspect of the novel, Humbert recalls two types of memory and attributes the general memory to Annabel where he can “skillfully recreate an image in the laboratory” of his mind, and the more passionate, vivid memory is attributed to Lolita which is an “absolutely optical replica of a beloved face”.
Nevertheless, the novel captures the inner workings of a select pedophile’s mind and then shows how this man, H.H. justifies his feelings for young girls.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

In Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov we take a look at Humbert Humbert's obsession with "nymphets" in particuarly Dolores Haze. Throughout the novel is apparent that because of his obession with adolescent girls, Humbert feels exiled. We see him rationalize this obession multiple times, including illusion to historical figures, like Dante or Petrarch whom both fell in love with their lovers when their lovers were young. This shows an exile in time period. Humbert feels like he is exiled by his time period because as he even mentioned in 1840 over 1940 it was acceptable for a young girl to be married off to a man. He is exiled by his time period because he sees no problem with this obession of "nymphets". One could call it his rationalization of a morally unacceptable obsession, but he defends himself throughout the whole book. He constantly mentions other cultures that are still around in which it is socially acceptable to marry young girls. Humbert's exile is one of time, and place. In America and Europe it is unacceptable for him to have any form of relation with a young girl, when 100 years earlier or in a different country he very well could. He feels that the normal standards for living are not what he believes in. This exile of time and place I feel is the most important in the novel, because even when he is finally able to have his Lolita any time he wants, he still has to hide it from everyone around him because it is not socially acceptable, when he sees no problem with it. Throughout the novel we also see a small exile on Humbert for being European. We see that Charlotte and other people considered him a European man due to his accent, and mysteriousness. Dolores even teases him at one point for his polite European way of asking for directions. He could tell that other people would tease him to, because he does do what she imitates. This exile due to his descent is important for Humbert's exile from the place he is currently in. Due to his descent is exiled from America just like his obsession with nymphets.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Exile in Suicide

In the book: "Things Fall Apart" the author Chinua Achebe presents the ultimate downfall of the Ibo tribe as they are forced into the 'white world.' One of the main characters Okonkwo, a devout presence in society, feared by many due to the fact that he cruelly beat his wives. In the core of Okonkwo's being is a sincere and dreadful form of exile that exposes itself the moment he decided to commit suicide.

Throughout the novel the reader was given many different descriptions of gods and ceremonies engendering the sacredness of this tribe. Their beliefs and holy commitment definitely infiltrated itself on every day life, even when their tribe was slowly heading toward extinction. Okonkwo, a brute was affected greatly by this change the Ibo tribe faced...rather than having to succumb to customs not of his own he hung himself, ultimately exiling himself from his Ibo tribe. Suicide is highly condemned, and a refusal of burial is enforced to those who commit the ultimate sin. A painful moment in the book would be toward the end when members of the tribe ask the 'white men' to bury Okonkwo for they cannot, it is against their beliefs. The reader is able to see the connection between these tribal members, and even though Okonkwo went against the tribal rules they still wanted him buried.

Things Fall Apart

Things fall Apart:
Perhaps the most interesting thing about "Things Fall Apart" is Achebe's character: Okonkwo and Hemingway's Cohn. Both authors start off describing these characters strongest points and how thoses pionts make them week, both of them want to be liked or excepted but fail. Okonkwo does this by making it his personal goal not to display any of the qualities that were like his fathers. Because of this he was a rich man with several wives and was well know throughout all the villages. Cohn was admired for his ability to stay calm and not fight although he was a boxer, the same way in which Okonkwo was admired for his display "manliness". Unfortunately, Cohn snapped one day by beating up the bull fighter and that display of anger became his down fall, the same way in which Okonkwo's need to be ultra manly leads to his distruction at the end of the novel.

Achebe's Exile

I have read this novel before and remember being struck by the same question: how personal is this story? Does any one character in the novel represent Achebe? I do not know for sure but if I were to guess I would think that it is Nwoye. Nwoye leaves his family and all things familiar in search of something new. This seems similar to Achebe's writing of the novel and exile from Nigeria. Achebe clearly has very mixed feelings about tribal life and very strong feelings about the colonization of Nigeria. Perhaps however, he is not a character in the novel but rather in the novel itself.

Language in "Things Fall Apart"

This novel reminded me of the Analzuda passage we read, where the author wrote in both English and Spanish as a representation of her mixed cultures. Achebe does the same in "Things Fall Apart". I found myself skipping over some of the words and names of the African dialect because they were so difficult. By keeping certain words in the Igbo language, he shows that they are too complex to be translated. It gave the novel a real effect to me, even though I had to use "context clues" to figure out what was being said.

Nwoye's exile

Long before Okonkwo is forced to take his family into exile to atone, there is a complex parallel of exile to be seen with his true son, Nwoye. Okonkwo finds Nwoye to be lazy and isn't very proud of his son. He harbors this attitude because he is afraid Nwoye could end up like his father, Unoka. He is more or less ashamed of Unoka's behavior while he was alive, especially his cowardly actions and his struggles with owing money. Since Okonkwo makes the comparison from Nwoye to his father, he ultimately seems to reject him and leave him isolated and lonely. When Okonkwo takes charge of Ikemefuna, he seems to look at him as an ideal son. Nwoye forms a bond with Ikemefuna as well, but his own father Okonkwo never seems to embrace his real son. He is happy with the notion of Nwoye developing a more masculine character, which largely comes about because of Ikemefuna's influence. Ikemefuna, in many ways, is not only an "older brother" to Nwoye, but a father figure as well. Okonkow's neglect for his son may reveal a lot about how his own father treated him. Nwoye cries when he finds out Ikemefuna is leaving, and eventually realizes that he is dead. He has, in a sense, been exiled from his father, and has instead taken comfort in his relationship with Ikemefuna. Once Ikemefuna is also taken from him, he is being further driven away from filial ties.

Some Things Never Change

After reading the novel entitled Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, I realized that some things never change especially the domination of women by a male figure. The protagonist, Okonkwo strives to be the epitomy of masculinity by being really ignorant and selfish in my opinion. We learn that their are many influences in his life that make him act the way he acts, but his opinions seems to be misguided, and chavinistic. His relationship with his father caused his violent behavior because many a times he was not able to put food on the table for Okonkwo, and siblings. Okonkwo saw this as being weak and feminine. What!?! This reason is just unbelievable, and unacceptable. Give a woman a chance, and you'll see she would definitely have something on the table at the end of the day. Then the narrator goes further by saying that a man who has not taken any of the expensive, prestige-indicating title is called a agbala, which means woman. Honestly, this inferiority of woman is driving me nuts, thank God I'm not living in this clan, and I am in a society where Kimora Lee is the owner of the huge BabyPhat business empire, and Hilary Clinton, a woman maybe the next President. In addition, Okonkwo associated masculinty with being abusive to his wives, and children, and often blocks off his sentiments. In my opinion, look at Tom Cruise, he professed his love for Katie Holmes on national television by jumping on the sofa on Oprah's talk show, and this didn't make him less of a man. And luckily there wasn't any child care services back then because Oknokwo,"the big MAN on campus" would have been in a lot of legal troubles for assaulting his kids. Above all, this just goes to show that Okonkwo has a notion that men are stronger than women, which in my opinion (pisses me off), really irritates me.

Falling Apart of Government

Some parts of this story relates to “The Lottery,” because the fact that in both stories, a person is sacrificed for the sake of the people. In this Things Fall Apart, two people were sacrificed, which were a virgin to become a future wife, and a boy that was later killed. This was to prevent a war from creating. This novel also changed the perception I had of Africa, in that I never imagined Nigeria had a Democratic government in that the town decided what to do in certain situations, like whether to decide to go to war or not. After reading such books like Heart of Darkness, one would have the perception of Africa as a savage area, most notably in the late 1800s.
During the story, I noticed that Okonkwo was a very aggressive person, probably because he wanted to be taken seriously and not be like his father Unoka. Because of his aggression, this may have led him to his demise because he killed the court messenger boy.

The Exile of "Destruction"

As I first started reading Things Fall Apart by, Chinua Achebe I was honestly astonished and a bit in shock of the traditional customs and practices of the clan, but as the story and the great fall started to develop, I felt not only sympathetic towards Okonkwo (I didn't really like his character at the beginning), but perhaps as angry and frustrated as he felt. I could not understand how people did not see what Okonkwo pointed out to them, and the fact that they were erasing an entire culture and exiling themselves from what they had known throughout their entire life. Furthermore, I realize that this too was a culture that had rules, norms and hierarchies, and most important a logical system of life. The part that made this point the most obvious to me was:
"You carve a piece of wood[...] and you call it a god. [...] It is indeed a piece of wood. The tree from which it came was made by Chukwu, as indeed all minor gods were. But He made them for His messengers so the we could approach Him through them. (Achebe 179).

One can derive that this book shows a clear aspect of exile, an exile that seems harsh and almost unbelievable, an exile that is human made and is the result of the destruction of a culture. It feels as if the protagonist's end is perhaps his last resource to preserve what he knew (his ideal tribe), before he is destructed or "converted" and gives in to deleting all his traditions, beliefs and memories. Furthermore, the fact that the Great Fall is so realistic and still happening (Iraqi War) makes the Fall a lot more difficult and rough on the reader.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Projected Memory:

I find it interesting the way in which imagery is used to convey ideas constantly throughout the text. When speaking of Novack and the way in which she represents herself as “branded by the harrowing memory of Nazi genocide” (p 266) she could be taken quite literally because she body is “inscribed with the story of those other children”. By doing this the children loses their physical boundaries and “merge with one another”. I think this shows the way in which no one child stands alone but each one can be a representation for the other, “the faces are stripped of individuality” (p 271). The text goes on to say that by simply looking at the image, “we enter its space, the visual space of postmemory”. Postmemory is described as a powerful form of memory because of its connection with objects. Perhaps this gives readers some insight as to why or even how people in general and those in holocaust can be attached to objects even after something tragic has taken place. Postmemory is further described as “The relationship of children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma to the experiences of their parents, experiences that they 'remember' only as the stories and images with which they grew up, but are so powerful, so monumental, as to constitute memories in their own right"(267). This reminds me of the discussion we had in class about the younger generations of Jews not fully understanding what the experience of the Holocaust was like. I think that its important that this generation continue to use imagery as we have been in museums and galleries to serve as our own form of post memory.

What constitutes memory? This is primarily the question being asked by Marianne Hirsch in Projected Memories-- and it's a very complicated one. What struck me most when reading the piece was the idea that memory is not composed of snapshot images, but of an intricate blend of emotions, thoughts, and powerful impressions--- the whole experience of life contributes to the way our memories are formed.
I couldn't help but think of some of the most moving and disturbing pictures I've seen from events which took place (or are taking place) during my lifetime--- the 9/11 attacks, the genocide in Darfur, or the terror attacks which wreak havoc in Israel on a too-frequent basis. I may not have seen the buildings fall, but I felt the panic and grief of the situation in a major way. The emotions associated with that day have always been a part of my "human experience", but the images accompanying my own perceptions made it even more profoundly personal for me. Now there are dust-covered faces running across a bridge (faces that could have been mine or my family member's), whereas before there was a blank, to be filled with faceless horror. The images make my own memories of the terrible event that much sharper. It is interesting that merely seeing pictures of people I don't know changes the way I remember that day, especially since I didn't see those pictures until months later. However, I know that they do, and that the change is meaningful.
For me, Projected Memories was illuminating and revealing--- I know I will never look at a photographic image, either of myself or of other people or things, without considering it, even on an unconscious level, as part of a vast temporal, spatial, and creative way of producing memories.