1. Humbert's arctic expedition seems surprising and off-key. What does it indicate about his character? It is followed by a "bout with insanity." How are we to understand this - what do you suppose really happens?
A man with a secret to hide might find the sparsely inhabited Arctic easier going than the dense populations of Europe or America. As Humbert remarks, "my health improved wonderfully in spite or because of all the fantastic blankness and boredom. Surrounded by such dejected vegetation as willow scrubs and lichens... I felt curiously aloof from my own self" (33). The emptiness, that is, the lack of civilization– its technologies and institutions and society– amplifies a certain mental and spiritual quietude. The natural landscape, free of distracting humdingers, provides space and time for personal reflection; Humbert's task, moreover, is to be a "'recorder of psychic reactions,'" which, in a place such as the remote boreal forests of Canada ,might become, for any individual, gratuitous, if viewed from the orthodox or circumscribed perspectives of civil society (33). Ironically, it is Humbert whom, it might be said of generally, possesses some rather prodigal notions. His subsequent "bout with insanity" then could be indicative of a more general amplifying capacity than above of such meager surroundings to augment pre-existing complexes.
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