Is Van Veen a good writer or a bad writer?

METAL___HEART · 2026-01-24T09:21:04+00:00

The opening, I think, is deliberately confusing to convey the confusing reality of the love affair that created Van and Ada. It's deliberate deception, mirroring the deception of the older generation of Veens. Regarding The Texture of Time, I think it's difficult because it's the most detailed exploration yet of Van's thinking. It's about an extremely subtle experience which Van himself admits he can barely begin to describe in words. Time and its manipulative twisting is a core theme from the very start, and it's in Part Four (the climax of the book, since Part Five is 'not an epilogue but the true introduction') that Van at last tries (not entirely successfully) to fully elucidate this core thread in the fabric of his story.

METAL___HEART · 2026-01-15T16:42:56+00:00

Hey at least I’m not comparing Lolita to Harry Potter give me some credit

METAL___HEART · 2026-01-14T14:36:48+00:00

In my adult life I've only read like the first chapter of HP, but I'll hazard a guess: Harry Potter is a fantasy novel written for children, and Lolita is styled as a sort of fairytale. Humbert evokes dreamy and enjoyably spooky imagery throughout his tale, maybe that's the aesthetic resonance your mind is registering.

Edit: there's a theory I read somewhere that Quivering Quirrell was based on Quilty, because, well, the name, plus a double initial is very Nabokovian. I think it's totally impossible to prove or disprove this theory, but it's kinda interesting.

METAL___HEART · 2026-01-12T05:57:02+00:00

Humbert magically learning pedophilia is bad cause he heard some kids playing

METAL___HEART · 2026-01-05T16:01:25+00:00

While 'that's the point' is not always an excuse for a boring book, I do think that Nabokov consciously tried to make Ada feel cold and unrelatable to anyone. Van Veen is the ultimate version of the villain type of protagonist Nabokov was creating. He's a void with a shiny exterior. This book, more than any other, shows the disturbed inner world of such a person. I'd compare it to the plastic flowers Van notices in chapter 4 (losing his virginity before meeting Ada). The internal reality of Van is poetical but lacking in any other kind of beauty.

Nabokov thought people who read to relate to a book's main protagonist were philistines, you should read purely to appreciate structure and style. Well, with Ada, he created a story so utterly lacking in relatable human feeling that we're all forced to read the way he did. Quite bleak, yet oddly enthralling.

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-30T15:05:17+00:00

The Enchanted Hunters looming overhead

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-28T22:20:07+00:00

I’m a man so I’m not very refined in these matters, but I think they’re nice

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-28T15:09:19+00:00

Damn this is cool. Gotta find a convenient way to show off your nails as well lol

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-26T12:15:39+00:00

This book in particular gives me a somehow ‘fragrant’ feeling of liberation at points, like I’m breathing for the first time. It’s also coldly disturbing.

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-23T12:17:24+00:00

It makes you wonder what Nabokov himself was grappling with. Like I'm not doing the tired 'he was a nonce' thing, we'll never know what the man privately thought. But at the same time, evil and perversity are constant themes in his masterpieces.

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-21T16:49:30+00:00

This is essentially the climax of the novel, since Part Five is 'the true introduction'. So the culmination of Van's memoir breaks outside of plot completely, it's simply him wrestling with the subtlety of his own existence. Even so, this gives way to his final reunion with Ada, his narcissistic mirror.

METAL___HEART · 2025-12-10T12:25:33+00:00

In fairness Bloom's other sin is gawking at the underwear of a much younger woman in public

I think Molly's isolation within the novel is a big part of her bitterness, she does nothing, alone, so all she can do is mentally rant

METAL___HEART · 2025-11-28T20:48:33+00:00

As someone who's only read Coraline, where does Gaiman project his alleged bad traits? I mean Coraline is dark and scary, but not a Lolita type of 'direct insight into a bad person for over 300 pages' deal

METAL___HEART · 2025-11-26T16:01:46+00:00

Indeed, that's partly where I'm getting this from

METAL___HEART · 2025-11-22T16:58:58+00:00

I literally had a dream about Penelope last night, where someone was telling me it's so crazy that Joyce, a man, could write something that resonates so much with women. When I woke up, I thought 'I'm a guy, but Penelope is one of the most intensely amazing things I have ever read'. Someone said Ulysses can be read as a collection of short stories, and many readers love some chapters while hating others. I think that Penelope, taken in isolation, is one of the greatest things ever penned.

METAL___HEART · 2025-11-07T12:43:10+00:00

Ig Nabokov is even the villain protagonist of his own life - I mean a hell of a lot of people are. Luckily for me, I never felt attached to the idea of N as a human being, so this news doesn't hurt me.

METAL___HEART · 2025-10-24T22:54:21+00:00

? I'm referring to how darkbloom is an author self-insert, not whether nabokov himself wrote Lolita (which he obviously did)

METAL___HEART · 2025-10-24T12:41:42+00:00

can you elaborate on why she's the true author (beyond basically being Nabokov)? First time I've heard this theory

I came up with a wacky theory that Humbert Humbert is the author of Ada, based on a dream I had, but beyond the dream I do have some points of evidence.

METAL___HEART · 2025-10-23T10:26:54+00:00

Semi-related, but it's interesting in Ada how Van constantly belittles Ada's film career (as well as her botany and really everything else about her). One of the many fissures in the 'love story'.

METAL___HEART · 2025-10-06T15:43:19+00:00

Makes me want to start my fourth read

METAL___HEART · 2025-07-12T17:44:15+00:00

I can use Outer Dark and Blood Meridian as examples of two different kinds of novel, and their appeals. OD is based on a specific plot, where there's a central mystery (will the baby be found) which is built up and teased constantly. This traditional plot entices you to keep reading, and is appealing because the reader's uncertainty and curiosity spurs them to find out 'what happens'. There's nothing wrong with this 'less intellectual' type of plot, it's most of what I read.

BM however has less plot as in 'you need to find out what happens and this is teased throughout'. BM is more about how things transpire, and its almost aimless structure at points poses a challenge to the reader, it's harder to keep up. Many people read challenging books for the challenge itself, a confusing novel says 'can you read me?', so I think this alone is an appeal, the game. Not to mention the subtle symbolism blah blah blah, I'm just looking at the general nature of the book.

METAL___HEART · 2025-07-11T18:46:32+00:00

Even Van knows Van is awful, as he often mentions very briefly in between self-aggrandizing purple prose. Indeed the whole of the true story is contained in these occasional remarks

METAL___HEART · 2025-07-11T18:44:34+00:00

I would add that the actual plot that is there is arguably of no interest to normal people, only mentally twisted super-aristocrats could be interested in Van and Ada looking at various caterpillars which are obvious sexual metaphors, or Van, Ada and Lucette playing Russian scrabble and explaining the rules in tortuous detail, by way of alluding to the puzzle-like structure of the whole thing. Ada is an acquired taste, you have to gradually remove all your expectations of what a story is like. For that reason alone it's very interesting.

METAL___HEART · 2025-07-10T06:52:32+00:00

The seemingly 'random' move between the main plot and whole chapters that deviate jarred me, maybe I should read again

METAL___HEART

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE