The Surprising Opening Move of J.R. Jr.

          The tongue in cheek beginning of Nabokov's Lolita is a surprising opening move. It is laid out as a foreword from the fictional John Ray and attempts to prep, intrigue, and manipulate the reader into playing Nabokov's, and only Nabokov's, game--the game of words and ideas. But apart from the pretentious language, the overly poetic tone, giving away the ending (a tricky game to play in the books opening pages), and a variety of other novel game beginning devices, the most interesting parts of this foreword are the places that we see Nabokov's mask slip from his many personed visage and his true poetry slips out. A prime example of this is when John Ray says, "But how magically his singing violin can conjure up a tendresse, a compassion for Lolita that makes us entranced with the book while abhorring its author!" (83, Nabokov) it is very clear that Nabokov's authorship is poking through John Jay's artificial mask. For in another of Nabokov's forewords, this time being Invitation To A Bedhedding, he calls his novel "a violin in a void." This clear self-allusion is a fun game in itself between the skilled reader, Nabokov, and himself--each other trying to out due and out think the other two in a melting triad that bends and twists throughout the memory of the story.