Response to "class discovery" by Jon Orsi

Alright Jon, I've been working on this for a while because this sentence also "strangely disturbed" me the first time I read it, and have been trying to solve this since you put it up. I think I've come to the point of an undeniably clear answer for you.

I agree with you on everything you have said. Ruby with lipstick, lipstick on maps, maps that Quilty used to "knight" the little princess away. Little L. You're correct! Absolutely. But how can we prove this. How can we show that Quilty is the "knight" that will save the Queen Lolita (at least until we find out he is only another evil king)? What we need to do is, as Kyle says, "fall down the rabbit hole".

The first thing that, for some reason, popped into my mind when I read this passage was the last place I remember seeing the actual word "rubies" in the book. It's on pg. 111 in Ch. 27 of Part 1. It says, "She was all rose and honey, dressed in her brightest gingham, with a pattern of little red apples, and her arms and legs were of a deep golden brown, with scratches like tiny dotted lines of coagulated rubies...." While this may only have a connection to the passage you listed in the fact that it has the related ruby color, which seems to play a huge part in this novel (and happens to be my favorite color), I don't think it has to much to do with the "knight's move". Let's dig deeper.

I'm very glad that Sexson decided to read the passage about the "little pigs" or I may have skipped right over this part, but only a few more pages into Ch. 27, pg. 117, we come across a word that could very easily be passed....if not paying attention to detail. In that sentence with the cars like pigs, it says, "but then, by magic, a formidable convertible, resplendent, rubious in the lighted rain, came into motion---was energetically backed out by a broad-shouldered driver---and we gratefully slipped into the gap it had left." Wow!!

Sirens were going off everywhere when I looked over this passage again. First, rubious... meaning "of the color of a ruby; red" (dictionary.com) pops out because this is obviously Quilty here with his broad-shoulders! Then I imagined the cars moving like described here.... One backed out, one slipped in...... One moving one direction in an L shape, one moving another direction in an L shape!! Right on!

Skip forward to HH seeing the ruby glass and VOILA!... he see it and it subconsciously can not remember why it bothers him, but it does. And the "knight's move" may or may not have anything to do with the way the cars move, but I definitely think the square window could definitely be seen as a chess board.

Alas, this is not the only way to interpret this line. Something about Mona in the few sentences before this line (how she looked at HH with a cool gaze, Lolita playing the pimp for Mona) continued to bug me after I did all the CQ thought, and this is what I pulled from that.

This other theory I have on the "knight's move" veers in quite a different direction than you took it, however, in the way that I said to myself, "If there is some type of intricate Chess game woven throughout the pages of Lolita, could it be possible that HH is one king, CQ is the other king, and Lolita is the all powerful queen up for grabs here? If so, who would the knight be?" My only guess is Mona, and here's why.

In chess, it is possible for the knights to jump over the pawns at the very beginning of the game and get into a very protective position for the queen, and you may not realize this until you are right there trying to take the queen and you can not because of those intitial knights that got in the way.

The unassuming HH could have had this happen to him here by Mona. She moved herself into a position to protect the queen (Lo) and, thus, manipulated HH in ways he could not see. My example for this comes in Part 2, Ch. 14, where HH calls Mona to confirm the reasons behind Lolita missing piano lessons, and Mona says, "....and presently Mona was saying in her humblest, sexiest contralto, "yes, sir," "surely, sir," "I am alone to blame, sir, in this unfortunate business," (what elocution! what poise!) "honest, I feel very bad about it" ---and so on and so forth as those little harlots say."

And there you have it, it is not Lo pimping out Mona, as HH first assumes, but Mona playing pimp to Lolita.

This last connection does work in some ways, and may or may not be the meaning behind this sentence, but I for one think that HH is quite scared of those around him who are capable of moving like the knight..... thoughtfully, trickily, and patiently. If this is true, then it doesn't matter if the line pertains to CQ or Mona, right? Maybe, maybe not. Was this answer undeniably clear? Maybe, maybe not. But we're studying Nabokov, and he and only he can see "the web" and only he knows "the ways in which it bends". We are mere pawns in his master game.

All we can do is dig ourselves deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole that has no end...

P.S. I like the CQ connection better myself, but what can you do? ;)