DN is in a truly tragic position; he has to choose between two very appealing options. He can be the good son and carry out his father's wishes or be Prometheus and bring something necessary into the world. All of this contingent, of course, on him first deciding whether the manuscript as it is is complete (and good) enough to make sense beyond the narrow realm of obsessive vivisectionists (for most of those outside the family he is as alive today as he ever was).

I would love to read another story by VN but as far as I'm cocerned if there is a key to Lolita (or Ada or Pnin...) it is Lolita. There may be some Rosetta Stone out there but wouldn't it be a failure on VN's part if we needed one?

Great works ought to be seen, they are what the world needs, they are why we bother to live. But an imperfect work that just temporarily salve's some curiosity seeker's self-inflicted wound we don't need.

VN is, as it happens, actually dead. Outside of the narrow uses of the law and the feelings of the family he doesn't really have a say in this matter. DN alone must decide if the value to the world of a great work outweighs the damage to himself of disobeying a dead parent. And the keys to that equation lie in the work itself and the character of the particular filial bond.