Asteroid 7232 Nabokov was discovered on October 20, 1985, by Czech astronomer Antonin Mrkos at the Klet Observatory in Ceske Budejovice, Jihocesky, Czech Republic. It has a period of 3 years, 223 days. It was named for Russian-born writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), a novelist and poet whose most famous work is the novel Lolita (1957), which is about a middle-aged college professor, Jean-Jacques Humbert--Humbert Humbert--who abducts a 12-year-old girl, Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with whom he has a sexual relationship of approximately two years while traveling around America. This novel was highly controversial and had difficulty finding an American publisher. "Lolita" has entered the English language as a synonym for "underage sexpot" and is frequently used in connection with child pornography and statutory-rape cases(such as that of Amy Fisher, the 16-year-old "Long Island Lolita" convicted and sent to prison in 1991 for shooting her adult lover's wife).
Vladimir Nabokov
Asteroid Nabokov, in astrology, signifies guilty pleasures, forbidden fruit, ill-gotten gains, not necessarily of a sexual nature. Vladimir Nabokov was not a pornographer and wrote many other works that had nothing to do with the theme he dilated upon in Lolita. The Eye is about a man who commits suicide, then in the afterlife sets out to find proof of his own existence. Despair is another novel about suicide. Glory is about a man desperately trying to impress a girl who won't marry him. Pnin is about a put-upon language professor in over his head intellectually who stages a faculty party to end all faculty parties forever. In Invitation To A Beheading, the hero is condemned to die for "gnostical turpitude", a crime that cannot be described. The Defense is about a chess grandmaster who took up the game as an escape from his problems; he suffers a breakdown during a championship match. Bend Sinister is about life in a police state. And then there are--yes--works about forbidden sexuality such as The Enchanter, about a pedophile; Ada, or Ardor, a love story tainted by incest; King, Queen, Knave and Mary, which are about adultery.
In other words, Vladimir Nabokov wrote frequently about people who have gotten things--sex, power, accomplishments--that are not rightfully theirs to enjoy, by breaking laws, by lying, and by cheating. And this describes the influence of the asteroid named for him.
Danny Almonte, a Dominican-born Little League pitching ace expelled from Little League after the 2001 Little League World Series after it was discovered that his parents forged his birth certificate to get him onto an American Little League team, has Nabokov trine his Sun and Saturn, parallel his Mars, sextile his Chiron, square his Vesta, and opposite his Juno.
Woody Allen, whose affair with his girlfriend Mia Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn scandalized the world, has Nabokov conjunct his Cancer Pluto, opposite his Capricorn Mars, and square his Juno-Nessus conjunction in Aries and Venus in Libra--a Cardinal Grand Cross. Nabokov also sextiles Arthur(to have the backing of the government) and Asbolus(awful things, to follow instinct) and trines Apollo(crises) and Mnemosyne(memorable things). Mars and Pluto co-rule his 4th house and Mars is sole ruler of his 9th house. He and Soon-Yi, now his wife, have left the US.
Karen Carpenter, probably the world's most notorious anorexia case, has Nabokov in Taurus conjunct her Damocles(crises) and BAM, and all three trine her Descamisada(to be badly cheated or suffer severe ill fortune) in Virgo and Pholus(ceremony, to experience corruption or infection) in Capricorn; square her Toro(confrontation) and Utopia in Aquarius and Sappho(sex appeal) and Sisyphus(frustration) in Leo; trine her Psyche(emotional impact); and oppose her Siva(destruction of preconceived ideas). There was also a squile(75-degree aspect)from Nabokov to Pandora. Many who heard the news of the pretty, successful Karen Carpenter's death did not even know she had a problem. Soon, though, society realized to its horror that many, many other young women had the exact same problem.
How does Nabokov fit into this? Something Mark Twain once said comes to mind: something about a man who tried to train his horse to live without food and water and had almost succeeded when the horse died. The human body simply cannot operate without adequate nourishment. This is a cold hard fact that laughs at society's sometimes skewed notions of female attractiveness and makes not much allowance for personal hang-ups. If you starve yourself, for whatever reason, you will eventually die; that's all there is to it.
There is a Nabokov in everyone, and he is always trying to get you to someplace where you shouldn't be, by a road you shouldn't be taking; your destination, however, is often Hell on earth. So you need to watch him closely.
The glyph for Nabokov at the top of the page was co-invented by myself and Timothy Joko-Veltman, who created many of the asteroid glyphs on this site(thank you, Tim).