Publishing Lolita. Comment on the Preface of John Ray, Jr., Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper discusses the “act” of publishing in the broad sense as a “process” in stages that considers the education and the linguistic skills of the writer, runs the production, the printing and the distribution of the book, makes use of strategies to avoid censorship and judicial prosecution, and monitors the critics and the publics’ reaction to the book; the main point of this paper, however, is the analysis of the acts of publishing and of writing as they are mentioned or hinted at in the story itself or as they are interwoven in the fictional reality. Then, beginning with a comment on the Preface of Lolita, by John Ray, Jr. ph. D., the fictional authors present argumentative strategies for the non banning of the book and point out relevant aspects of the intricate relationship between, on one hand, John Ray and Humbert Humbert, two writers who are immanent in the narrative web, and, on the other hand, the signatory author, Vladimir Nabokov, bringing out, among other issues, the awareness of the boldness of his literary bet against the readership of the “middle-class nosy era” as well as of its confidence in the promising results of Lolita’s publication.