Go, Yield, Stop

GO (I like this):

I really enjoy our open class discussions on the readings. The syllabus structure has been relatively manageable. Last week was the first week that became rather hard to keep up with, but I believe that was due to the amount of work I had in my other classes as well. So overall, the quantity of work hasn’t been unmanageable but is definitely becoming increasingly necessary to put a lot of time into each reading. My favorite reading so far has been The Glass Menagerie. I thought it was an interesting story and I enjoyed the characters and plotline more than some of the other things we have been reading.

YIELD (things we should do more often):

I enjoyed how the other day we talked about the idea of people not working hard, but still making a lot of money. I like when we discuss topics brought up in the reading, and then share real life or personal experiences with the class. This makes it more interesting! We should definitely do this more often. The elimination of The Music of Chance definitely helped manage

STOP (please, no more!):

If I had to choose one novel to eliminate I would probably choose Lolita. Although it was written extremely well, the subject matter was definitely something that I was not interested in. It definitely opened my eyes to things that I have never really talked about in the detail we did in class, but I was also disturbed by the reading. I think we could have read something that was written just as well, with a more interesting and less creepy plot line.

Glengary Glen Ross p.9-78

The beginning of the play portrays a hostile work environment that comes across as being very cutthroat. The men are all screaming at one another, and yelling about various deals, and whether they, “closed” or not. There seems to be a great deal of pressure put onto the men that work for this company. They quite literally need to “close deals” in order to feed their families, as we are told, “those guys lived on the business I brought in. They lived on it…so did Murray, John.”

It seems as if Levene is acting as somewhat of a mentor to Williamson. He is trying to help him “get on the board” and close deals. He also gives him advice and says, “Permit me to do this a second. I’m older than you. A man requires a reputation. On the street. What he does when he’s up, what he does otherwise…”

In scene 2 they start out by discussing race. They seem prejudice when saying, “A dead beat Polack” and, “How you goan’a get on the board sell’n a Pollack? And I’ll tell you…I’ll tell you what else. You listening? I’ll tell you what else: don’t ever try to sell an Indian.” In this part it isn’t quite clear whether they are talking about trying to sell homes to Polacks and Indians or the homes of Polacks and Indians.

They then discuss the idea of the contest board that is used at work. It seems to be a tool in order to promote competition between the people in the company. They don’t like the contest board and say, “Some contest board…it’s not right. And it’s not right to the customers.”

At one point Moss goes on a tangent describing how he disagrees with the way the business is run. He believes that instead of tearing people down and putting these ridiculous incentives out there, they should be “build” the business up! At one point he says, “Look look look look, when they build your business, then you can’t fucking turn around, enslave them, treat them like children, fuck them up the ass, leave them to fend for themselves…no.” Although this was a very graphic way of putting it, he definitely get’s his message across very clearly.

Emergency

It is apparent from the beginning that something is wrong with Georgie, and he seems to possibly be troubled. He is crying hysterically while mopping up blood in an OR room. We are told that he has been stealing pills from the hospital and he alludes to possibly having a drinking problem by what he says after he is told that his shift is about half over, “Good. Because I really, really, really need a drink.” Then later when a man comes into the ER with a knife in his eye a nurse says, “I hope you didn’t do that to him”, alluding to the fact that Georgie may be capable of violence.

I thought it was bazaar that the nurse seemed to be very slow moving when meanwhile there is a man with a knife in his eye! She also seems to not take it very seriously when she pages for the doctor and instead of saying something like, “We have an urgent emergency” she says, “Got a surprise for you.” This seemed very unprofessional. If I was sitting there in the ER with a knife in my eye, I wouldn’t want a nurse referring to me as something positive or a “surprise”. We are given another hint as to there being something wrong with Georgie when the doctor says, “That person is not right, not at all, not one bit.”

I was shocked when Georgie walked out with the hunting knife that had been stuck in George Webber’s eye, that no one was supposed to touch, and no one even had the reaction they should have had. The only thing the doctor said was, “where did you get that?” It seems like this hospital is not being run very well and that no one is taking his or her jobs very seriously.

I was surprised with Georgie’s reaction when he ran over the rabbit. He said, “rabbit stew…where’s my hunting knife…” You would think that considering he works in a hospital, that he would have a little bit more respect for life. It’s also ironic when Georgie is on the side of the road cutting up the poor rabbit he had just run over and says, “I should have been a doctor.” We are later told that the rabbit he’s cutting up has babies inside. He then dumps them into his friend’s lap. This is absolutely disgusting and horrible that he is treating these innocent animals this way. They then go to a drive in movie and forget about the rabbits all together. Georgie is very scattered.

Then in the end when Hardee asks Georgie, “What do you do for a job?” And Georgie said, “I save lives.” This is by far the most ironic line in the whole story. We have just been told about how he killed a rabbit and it’s 8 babies, almost without guilt, and now he is saying that he “saves lives” for a living.

Lolita pg. 179-236

I think it’s interesting the way that Humbert describes his neighbors…almost as if they are a threat to him. This is shown when he says, “My east-door neighbor was by far the most dangerous one, a sharp-nosed character whose late brother had been attached to the College as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds.” It’s almost as if Humbert is paranoid that his neighbors will catch on to what is going on between him and Lolita. This is also shown when he says, “I had also to be careful in regard to Mrs. Holigan…that kindly and harmless woman had, thank God, a rather bleary eye that missed details…” This is showing that he believe if Mrs. Holigan was paying close attention to details, she would be able to figure out what was going on between Humbert and Lolita.

It is clear that Humbert feels comfortable around Gastin Godin. In a way, he tells us this when say, “The main reason why I enjoyed – or at least tolerated with relief—his company was the spell of absolute security that his ample person cast on my secret.” The key words that stood out to me from this quote were absolute security. Carrying around this burden and secret surrounding what he is doing to Lolita is clearly weighing heavily on Humbert’s conscience and is difficult for him to deal with. In this passage Humbert says, “had he discovered mes gouts and Lolita’s status…” I’m not quite sure what he means by mes gouts but I’m thinking it may be French?

Later in chapter 7, it is apparent that Humbert finally may be feeling more guilt about what he is doing to Lolita. He says, “I am now faced with the distasteful task of recording a definite drop in Lolita’s morals.” It is almost ironic that Humbert feel’s he has the right to judge Lolita’s morals, considering how Humbert clearly has no sense of morals or even a sense of right and wrong; for if he did, Humbert would know that his obsession with young girls is wrong, and what he is doing to Lolita is definitely morally wrong.

We are also showed in this passage how Humbert is able to twist the situation around as if Lolita was the one at fault. He says, “With the human element dwindling, the passion, the tenderness, and the torture only increased; and of this she took advantage.” The fact that in Humbert’s corrupt mind, he thinks that Lolita is the one taking advantage of him, is extremely concerning. While Lolita has had a few forward moments, in my opinion, Humbert is clearly at fault and is the one taking advantage of Lolita in this scenario.

It becomes evident in chapter 8 that Humbert has started to realize that boy’s Lolita’s own age are going to be attracted to her, and maybe even present some competition for Humbert. Because Humbert feels threatened he set’s rules for Lolita, for example, “absolutely forbidden were dates, single or double or triple—the next step being of course mass orgy. She might visit a candy bar with her girl friends, and there giggle-chat with occasional young males, while I waited in the car at a discreet distance.” Keeping Lolita on such a tight leash may cause her to rebel. Their relationship is already clearly on the rocks, and by Humbert feeling threatened and therefore putting all of these restrictions on Lolita, she is going to realize that what she is doing with Humbert is wrong, and that she has other options. Humbert’s jealousy is going to backfire and ruin all of his plans.

It get’s to the point in chapter 10 that Humbert would, “forget all my masculine pride-and literally crawl on my knees to your chair, my Lolita!” He is clearly desperate for her affection and Lolita is not willing to give in to his antics and says, “Pulease, leave me alone, will you. For Christ’s sake leave me alone.” This is clearly Lolita’s way of pulling away from Humbert. It’s almost as if Lolita is in control now, and Humbert is just her willing admirer.

Lolita pg. 109-140

When Humbert picks Lolita up from camp and see’s her for the first time, we are given a glimpse of hope that he would do the right thing when he says, “all widower Humbert had to do, wanted to do, or would do, was to give wan-looking though sun-colored little orphan aux yeux battus…a sound education, a healthy and happy girlhood, a clean home, nice girl-friends of her age…” But then we are told that “in a wink, the angelic line of conduct was erased and I overtook my prey again—and she was my Lolita again---in fact, more my Lolita than ever.” The way Humbert describes Lolita as “his prey” gives us another example of his twisted mind. It’s almost as if he see’s seducing Lolita as some kind of game.

It was surprising to me how forward Lolita was on the car ride home. After she says, “well you haven’t kissed me yet, have you?” Humbert pulls the car over and Lolita, “positively flowed into my arms.” He also says that she, “pressed her mouth to mine so hard that I felt her big front teeth.” I was shocked by Lolita’s abrupt actions and that she was forward with Humbert. I was also surprised that she would do this considering the fact that she think’s her mother is still alive, and had just a few minutes ago referred to Humbert as, “Dad.”

I was confused as to what Humbert meant by “Haze jalopy” when he says on page 116, “If we did not get to the hotel soon, I felt I would lose all control over the Haze jalopy with its ineffectual whispers and whimsical brakes…”

When Lolita and Humbert finally get to the hotel room, there is a scene where Lolita crept into Humbert’s waiting arms, after she had told him “let’s cut out the kissing game and get something to eat.” Then Humbert starts speaking very strangely and says, “What’s the Katter with misses?” and then later says, “Show wight ray.” It’s almost as if Humbert has lost control of his ability to speak, or maybe he is trying to talk in a baby voice in order to seduce Lolita? The whole thing was very strange and didn’t quite make sense to me.

I also thought it was strange when Humbert and Lolita are on the way to dinner we are told that, “daughter swinging her old white purse, father walking in front (nota bene: never behind, she is not a lady.) I thought this was also very odd that he would only walk in front of her because even though he was trying to seduce her, he didn’t consider her to be a “lady”, just a “nymphet”.

At dinner right before Humbert is going to give the sleeping pill to Lolita he says, “I can only explain my behavior then by the mechanism if that dream vacuum wherein revolves a deranged mind; but at the time, it all seemed quite simple and inevitable to me.” It’s almost as if he realizes what he is doing is so creepy and wrong that it belongs in a horror movie, but then he goes back to being his deranged self and says it seems inevitable.

It is unbelievable to me that Humbert thinks that telling the judge what he was doing was ok because, “I was still firmly resolved to pursue policy of sparing her purity by operating only in the stealth of night, only upon a completely anesthetized little nude. Restraint and reverence were still my motto.” Humbert is completely misunderstanding the fact that a jury will not be empathetic to him just because he was only doing dirty things to Lolita at night, or when she wouldn’t realize, in an attempt to preserve her innocence. He was still taking advantage of an underage girl, which is wrong and unnerving no matter when or how it is done.

Lolita pg. 62-109

In the beginning of chapter 14, Humbert Humbert is in complete denial that what he is doing is wrong. He says, “I felt proud of myself. I had stolen the honey of a spasm without impairing the morals of a minor. Absolutely no harm done.” This is complete ignorance on Humber Humbert’s part. His fascination and inappropriate feelings towards Lolita are completely sickening and unacceptable. He was even proud of himself for getting away with doing what he wanted to do without Lolita realizing. He is clearly a sick man and has no idea what he is doing, and how morally wrong it is.

Charlotte tells Humbert Humbert that she has decided to send Lolita away to summer camp. Humbert Humbert is upset and says,” Oh how I was taken aback—for did it not mean I was losing my darling, just when I had secretly made her mine?” The ownership and possession that Humbert Humbert feels towards Lolita is disturbing. He refers to her as his darling which shows his affection and then goes on to tell us how he had secretly made her “his” and acting as if she was an object he had bought.

Before Lolita is going to camp, Humbert Humbert thinks that Lolita may lose her “purity” at camp, and no longer be considered a nymphet to him. Right before Lolita get’s in the car, she runs back and kisses Humbert Humbert. This shows that Lolita was not completely oblivious to Humbert Humbert’s advances and feelings towards her. After Humbert receives the letter from Charlotte, professing her love for him, he decides to marry Charlotte in order to stay close to Lolita. This idea is absolutely crazy, and slighty disturbing. He even talks about an idea of giving both Charlotte and Lolita sleeping pills so he can fondle Lolita.