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The Hemi-Week in Review

Kristen wants to return Ozzie, apparently. I don't know when that'll be, as there's a good chance that this evening Summer and I will be wandering to unknown parts of Providence to pick up a free sleeper sofa and tomorrow will likely be heading down to New York to see Summer's cousin Seth in Agamemnon. Luckily my Friday morning class was moved to this morning at 8:30.

Lolita gets ***, mostly for presenting something fantastic to the literary-minded moviegoer. The acting and cinematography are generally superb, and director Adrian Lyne follows the relevant points of the novel much more diligently than Stanley Kubrick once did, achieving a better film in the process. In addition to wandering along Nabokov's basic narrative, Lyne effectively presents cinematically bare but emotionally resonant images to represent some of Nabokov's finest prose:

And so we rolled East, I more devastated than braced with the satisfaction of my passion, and she glowing with health, her bi-iliac garland still as brief as a lad's, although she had added two inches to her stature and eight pounds to her weight. We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing. And I catch myself thinking that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tires, and her sobs in the night — every night, every night — the moment I feigned sleep.

which is a treat to the viewer who has dissected the book and hears echoes of Nabokov's brilliantly poignant language. Some important points are lost, however, in that the film portrays Humbert as protagonist without making entirely clear that the entire story is his creation. A viewer has no way of knowing that Humbert has very carefully crafted each scene, applying generous coats of whitewash to hide his own rottenness, and that the scenes in which we see "Lolita" as an abused preteen--Dolores Haze--are likely the only snippets of reality we get. Lyne plays down Humbert's insistence than the young Ms. Haze, who grew up with a sad, jealous mother and no father, was actually a form of demoness he refers to as a nymphet, whose only purpose on earth is to seduce middle aged men. This unfortunately detracts from the artistry of Nabokov's work, wherein the reader is constantly aware that the narrator is a monster, all the while being seduced by his florid prose into an uncomfortable empathy for Prof. Humbert. The loss of this delicate balance is likely what led American distributors to refuse the film, but it does not render the film unworthy. The acting and cinematography are generally superb, but if you want the full effect you simply have to read the book.

Those in charge slightly miscalculated the RWU Law Ambulance Chase 5k, which ended up being a 5.5k. Thus my initial disappointment at posting a 28 minute time evaporated somewhat when I learned of this and was able to calculate that I'd actually cut back about ten seconds per mile. The morning was lovely, and it was nice to have Summer along, so everything was nice and happy.

The food probably received sufficient comment before, as has TO by now. Just go to any sports website and read any of the hundreds of articles you'll find there--I think I agree with just about everyone, and just about everyone agrees with me.

I haven't read much on Sam Alito yet, so I'll still postpone comment there.

I should, by sometime next week, have back a few more graded thises and thats, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I've met with Dean of Career Services Anthony Bastone, who is a great guy, and Director of the Feinstein Institute for Public Service Laurie Barron, who was also quite helpful. People like them help to affirm my decision to attend RWU.

I'm not sure what else there is to say.