Universe of Desire
My choice to reimagine scenes from The Scarlet Letter, Lolita, and Middlesex in the context of 21st century technology, specifically the internet, came from three factors. One is the “Universe of Desire” exhibit at the Museum of Sex, which showcased the collision of sex and internet and blurring of publicity and anonymous “privacy.” The exhibit showcased Google searches, uploaded images and/ or videos, social networking, new forms of narratives like blogs, and etc. engaging with the topic of sex and sexuality. My second influence is the BBC television show, Sherlock, which is a 21st century adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s turn of the 20th century stories and novels. In the original Holmes stories, the set-up fictional narrator is Dr. John Watson, Holmes’ companion, publishing his adventures with Holmes in magazines and what not. One of my favorite aspects of the 21st century adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is that the stories about Holmes that spur his popularity are presumed to be published through Watson’s blog. The last factor is the similar fictional set-up for the narration of The Scarlet Letter, Lolita, and Middlesex. In The Scarlet Letter, the narrator/ author is presumed to have found a cache of documents and the antiquated scarlet letter while working in the custom-house and formulated the novel the reader is reading despite the characters being long dead. In Lolita, it is set up that the main character, Humbert Humbert, has written a scrambled memoir under a pseudonym while he was in jail awaiting his trial for the murder of Cue Quilty. The novel the reader is reading was presumed to be published after the deaths of Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze/ Schiller. In Middlesex, the narrator/ author is set up to be character, Calliope/Cal, writing a memoir that spans three generations of her/ his family. The fate of Cal is unknown, but it can be presumed from the novel’s recent relative publishing year that he is still alive in the alternate reality.
For The Scarlet Letter, I chose to reimagine the first private conversation Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmiesdale have together in years in the forest in the form of a Facebook chat. Prior to the conversation, in the chapter, “A Forest Walk,” Hester is surprised at her own decision to meet with Arthur after so many years to finally reveal the secret that Roger Chillingworth was her husband and that she “never thought of meeting him in any narrower privacy than beneath the open sky” (Hawthorne 171). The tug between their private conversation and an incredibly public space greatly reminded me of social media like Facebook, which gives the illusion of privacy, but also can expose you to the whole world.
For Lolita, I chose to reimagine Humbert Humbert’s diary entries he wrote upon first meeting Dolores Haze as blog posts on his personal diary-blog (hence a possible increase in entries of his blog?). A diary-blog is probably well suited for Humbert as there is a level of narcissism needed to create a blog about one’s lives and that a blog presents a filtered and edited reality of a person’s life, which resonates with the solipsism in Lolita. As the narration goes that Humbert allowed the publication of this memoir after his and Dolores’ deaths, an online blog can also reach the same widespread audience with anonymity. Interestingly, in the diary entries, Humbert pays a lot of attention to clothing, including his own, Dolores’, and Charlotte’s, which amusingly reminded me of fashion blogs or “What I Wore Today” type of blog posts.
Obviously a conversation about sex and the internet leads to…porn.
For Middlesex,Cal’s experiences at the Sixty-niners obviously reminded me of porn sites. Cal, Zora, and Carmen are presented as attractions to anonymous gazes in a quite literal pay-per-view fashion, probably similar to websites where pornographic clips or downloads are offered for a price to be viewed in private and anonymous homes. I chose to imagine Sixty-niners as a pornographic website (and the homepage for a gentlemen’s club and sex shop franchise given how Bob Presto is such an entrepreneur).
As final words, I think these three novels would translate well in 21st century adaptations centered around the internet. Both the narratives set up by the authors and the nature of the internet have this similar tug between privacy and publicity. Also the novels are timeless in an immortal sense and as Professor Quinby said to me, you never die on the internet.
*It’s been a great class, you guys. I felt that I learned a lot and was challenged by the course and by you all. Thank you and hope to you soon.
Tags: Internet, Lolita, Middlesex, Private, Public, The Scarlet Letter
