Lolita Games

One often recalls the defined games of their childhood. Hopscotch. Tag. Hide-and-Go-Seek. One can remember the more cryptic games of adolescence. Finding a date. Sneaking out of the house. Avoiding teachers or parents. One is familiar with the evolved games of adulthood. Negotiating a raise. Convincing your child to eat vegetables. Compromising with your significant other. Not often thought of as games because many assume games to be made for children, almost every action performed in a day can be culminated to some sort of game. Games never really cease to exist in one’s life; they just merely change form and players. In actuality, games are likely the only manner in which humans know how to interact with each other. Is there not always a winner and loser in most every situation?

What Nabokov has mastered in Lolita is one of the most extensive game productions in contemporary literature. From the first words, in the Forward itself, the game has begun. Nabokov begins his production by impersonating John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. as he introduces himself as the editor of Humbert Humbert’s manuscript. With this, the reader is made to believe in the reality of the story they are about to participate in (I say participate in, as opposed to bear witness to because the reader, by opening this novel, has signed up as the sole player of game orchestrated to defeat), and are roped into this charade. This aspect of the game is the largest and most apparent, as we soon learn the novel is fictitious and thus ends this game. But, the novel itself is rampant with diversions, plots, and ploys that will be discussed further.

Once one has began to read Lolita, the player soon learns of its premise- a jailed pedophile whose only aim is to convince the juro...

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...e prevalent maneuvers of the writers. By keeping this anxious mood on the reader, the author has captured the undivided attention of the reader. Each word is analyzed and recorded and allows the author the freedom be sly and secretive about the story because he may rest on the fact that his astute readers will find the breadth of his writing and his meanings.

In the end, Lolita is a game. It is a game within a game, and has games within it completing the cycle. The game motif allows the readers the freedom to think and the author the freedom to publish a fragile puzzle. The frequent usage of games displays Humbert’s cunning behavior and shrewd intelligence and flaunts the innocence of the child in the novel. Once the novel has reached its culmination, the reader has learned they have just completed a large-scale game and, now, must decide if they have won or lost.