The Clockwork Orange Technique

Reading Lolita in public is still a bit dramatic for me. I found myself folding the cover of the book so no one could see me reading it on the train this morning.

But what I'm noticing is that the subject matter is repugnant, as is the narrator, but the way that narrator talks about the subject matter is anything but repugnant. Which, I guess, is the point of the book.

A cluster of stars palely glowed above us, between the silhouettes of long thin leaves; that vibrant sky seemed as naked as she was under her light frock. I saw her face in the sky, strangely distinct as if it emitted a faint radiance of its own. [pg 15]

He takes you from the "cluster of stars" to "under her light frock." Yikes!

The poetic language isn't reserved for his first love, Annabel, who he's describing the passage above. He maintains that beatific language to describes his "degrading and dangerous desires"[pg24].

He's poetic observations are what brings you into his perverted world.

"Her hips were no bigger than those of a squatting lad; in fact, I do not hesitate to say (and indeed this is the reason why I linger gratefully in that gauze-gray room of memory with little Monique) that among the eight or so prostitutes* I had operate upon me, she was the only one that gave me a pang of genuine pleasure. 'The man who invented this trick was a smart one**,' she commented amiably, and got back into her clothes with the same high-style speed.

I asked for another, more elaborate , assignment later the same evening..."[pg22]

*=Nabokov, who spoke several different languages, keeps infusing French words into the story. Not sure why, but my book, thankfully, has translations. Instead of "prostitute," Nabokov used the French word "grues."

**=Translated from French.

He calls refers to it as "an assignment" and skips over any obvious detail of their encounter, which would remind the reader that they're reading something which, in real life, would disgust them.

It's sort of the technique used in A Clockwork Orange. Most of the deranged, offensive stuff done by the main character there, is filmed in a long shot - literally, distancing the audience from what they're seeing. Topped with some orchestral music, and you got yourself a recipe to accept almost anything.