Lolita 129, bottom
« There is nothing louder than an American hotel; » to 131 bot. “… I would know she was farther away from me than ever.”
HH has just walked back to their bedroom at the Enchanted Hunters, after having given Lo a sleeping “purple pill”; he opens the door to discover an aesthetically striking scene, all dim lights and shadow: 128, 1-15 (pay attention to the vocabulary of light and shadow)
l.35 “ ‘gracious living’ and all that stuff.” H dismissing advertisement as deceptive; noise emphasized by his fear that Lo should awake? l.36 “northeast of my head” as though they were outside, which could be, so loud the place is; 130, 1 “the banging and booming” imitative alliteration; l.3 parenthesis “(always assuming that I ay on my back…)” ruins the truth illusion: H makes up the narrative as it goes (or simply reminds reader of circumstances? Doubt is shed, unreliable narrator); l.4 “my viler side” ambiguous, both concrete and abstract, physical and spiritual; “nebulous haunch of my bed-mate”: nebulous, “cloudy, foggy, misty, dank. … cloudlike, hazy, vague, indistinct, formless.” Lo’s body true to her name, “Haze”; indistinct shapes vs too distinct noise; blurred contours increase desire, because of indefiniteness, or also express confusion; “nebulous” [taken up l.20] opens a semantic field of fusion, hazy atmosphere, in which sounds become liquids: “corridor … brim[ming] with cheerful, resonant and inept exclamations” ternary rhythm conveys exasperation, also expressed through italics l.7 “When that stopped”, “a toilet immediately north of my cerebellum took over”: animated objects, as though leagued into a conspiracy; “cerebellum” rare and apparently inappropriate term, yet highly appropriate for its drum-like sounds; animated objects, even personified toilet “It was a manly, energetic, deep-throated toilet … Its gurgle and gush …” alliteration and rhythm; l.1 “extravagantly sick” surprising adverb, as though there was an etiquette for being sick;