💗💗Why did you write Lolita ?

 💗Why did you write Lolita ?

« It was an interesting thing to do. Why did I write any of my books, after all ? For the sake of the pleasure, for the sake of the difficulty. I have no social purpose, no moral message ; I've no general ideas to exploit, I just like composing riddles with elegant solutions. » What was the genesis of Lolita ? « She was born a long time ago, it must have been in 1939, in Paris ; the first little throb of Lolita went through me in Paris in '39, or perhaps early in '40, at a time when I was laid up with a fierce attack of intercostal neuralgia which is a very painful complaint—rather like the fabulous stitch in Adam's side. As far as I can recall the first shiver of inspiration was somehow prompted in a rather mysterious way by a newspaper story, I think it was in Paris Soir, about an ape in the Paris Zoo, who after months of coaxing by scientists produced finally the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal, and this sketch, reproduced in the paper, showed the bars of the poor creature's cage. » Did Humbert Humbert, the middle-aged seducer, have any original ? « No. He's a man I devised, a man with an obsession, and I think many of my characters have sudden obsessions, different kinds of obsessions ; but he never existed. He did exist after I had written the book. While I was writing the book, here and there in a newspaper I would read all sorts of accounts about elderly gentlemen who pursued little girls : a kind of interesting coincidence but that's about all. » Did Lolita herself have an original ? « No, Lolita didn't have any original. She was born in my own mind. She never existed. As a matter of fact, I don't know little girls very well. When I consider this subject, I don't think I know a single little girl. I've met them socially now and then, but Lolita is a figment of my imagination. » —

Sonnet #13

 Sonnet #13

Posted:

XIII.

O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination: then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.

Deuteronomy 32:1–52

 Deuteronomy 32:1–52

English Standard Version

“Give ear, kO heavens, and I will speak,

and let lthe earth hear the words of my mouth.

 2  May mmy teaching drop as the rain,

my speech distill as the dew,

like gentle rain upon the tender grass,

and nlike showers upon the herb.

 3  For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;

ascribe ogreatness to our God!

 4  p“The Rock, qhis work is perfect,

for rall his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and swithout iniquity,

just and upright is he.

 5  They have dealt corruptly with him;

they are no longer his children tbecause they are blemished;

they are ua crooked and twisted generation.

 6  Do you thus repay the Lord,

you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he vyour father, who wcreated you,

who xmade you and established you?

 7  yRemember the days of old;

consider the years of many generations;

zask your father, and he will show you,

your elders, and they will tell you.

 8  When the Most High agave to the nations their inheritance,

when he bdivided mankind,

he fixed the borders1 of the peoples

according to the number of the sons of God.2

 9  But the Lord’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted heritage.

 10  “He found him cin a desert land,

and in the howling waste of the wilderness;

he dencircled him, he cared for him,

he ekept him as the apple of his eye.

 11  fLike an eagle that stirs up its nest,

that flutters over its young,

spreading out its wings, catching them,

bearing them on its pinions,

 12  gthe Lord alone guided him,

hno foreign god was with him.

 13  iHe made him ride on the high places of the land,

and he ate the produce of the field,

and he suckled him with jhoney out of the rock,

and koil out of lthe flinty rock.

 14  Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,

with fat3 of lambs,

rams of Bashan and goats,

with the very finest4 of the wheat—

and you drank foaming wine made from mthe blood of the grape.

 15  “But nJeshurun grew fat, and okicked;

pyou grew fat, stout, and sleek;

qthen he forsook God rwho made him

and scoffed at sthe Rock of his salvation.

 16  tThey stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;

with abominations they provoked him to anger.

 17  uThey sacrificed to demons that were no gods,

to gods they had never known,

to vnew gods that had come recently,

whom your fathers had never dreaded.

 18  You were unmindful of wthe Rock that bore5 you,

and you xforgot the God who gave you birth.

 19  y“The Lord saw it and spurned them,

because of the provocation of zhis sons and his daughters.

 20  And he said, a‘I will hide my face from them;

I will see what their end will be,

for they are a perverse generation,

children in whom is no faithfulness.

 21  bThey have made me jealous with what is no god;

they have provoked me to anger cwith their idols.

So dI will make them jealous with those who are no people;

I will provoke them to anger with ea foolish nation.

 22  For fa fire is kindled by my anger,

and it burns to gthe depths of Sheol,

devours the earth and its increase,

and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

 23  “ ‘And I will heap disasters upon them;

hI will spend my arrows on them;

 24  they shall be wasted with hunger,

and devoured by plague

and poisonous pestilence;

I will send ithe teeth of beasts against them,

with the venom of jthings that crawl in the dust.

 25  kOutdoors the sword shall bereave,

and indoors terror,

for young man and woman alike,

the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.

 26  lI would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;

mI will wipe them from human memory,”

 27  had I not feared provocation by the enemy,

lest their adversaries should misunderstand,

lest they should say, n“Our hand is triumphant,

it was not the Lord who did all this.” ’

 28  “For they are a nation void of counsel,

and there is ono understanding in them.

 29  pIf they were wise, they would understand this;

they would qdiscern their latter end!

 30  How could rone have chased a thousand,

and two have put ten thousand to flight,

unless their Rock shad sold them,

and the Lord had given them up?

 31  For ttheir rock is not as our Rock;

uour enemies are by themselves.

 32  For their vine vcomes from the vine of Sodom

and from the fields of Gomorrah;

their grapes are grapes of wpoison;

their clusters are bitter;

 33  their wine is the poison of xserpents

and the cruel venom of asps.

 34  “ ‘Is not this laid up in store with me,

ysealed up in my treasuries?

 35  zVengeance is mine, and recompense,6

afor the time when their foot shall slip;

for bthe day of their calamity is at hand,

and their doom comes swiftly.’

 36  For cthe Lord will vindicate7 his people

dand have compassion on his servants,

when he sees that their power is gone

and there is none remaining, ebond or free.

 37  Then he will say, f‘Where are their gods,

gthe rock in which they took refuge,

 38  who ate the fat of their sacrifices

and drank the wine of their drink offering?

Let them rise up and help you;

let them be your protection!

 39  “ ‘See now that hI, even I, am he,

and there is no god beside me;

iI kill and I make alive;

jI wound and I heal;

and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

 40  For kI lift up my hand to heaven

and swear, As I live forever,

 41  if I lsharpen my flashing sword8

and my hand takes hold on judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries

and will repay those who hate me.

 42  I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and mmy sword shall devour flesh—

with the blood of the slain and the captives,

from the nlong-haired heads of the enemy.’

 43  o“Rejoice with him, O heavens;9

bow down to him, all gods,10

for he pavenges the blood of his children11

and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him12

and cleanses13 his people’s land.”14

44 Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and qJoshua15 the son of Nun. 45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, r“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, sthat you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, tbut your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’ Death Foretold

48 That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up uthis mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as vAaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 wbecause you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52 For xyou shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”

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