It’s a comedy about a paedophile and his relentless pursuit of a 12-year-old girl. Once he has secured her, the story becomes about his feverish, ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to prevent her escape.
Did you say a “comedy”?
Yes. If you take nothing else away from this piece of text, let it be that Lolita is not a grisly tale of one man’s sick obsession. It’s a hilarious travel diary of, you know, one man’s sick obsession.
That does not sound like the sort of thing I want to read.
As with all Nabokov books, the story is more or less subordinate to what has been referred to as the “best prose stylist in the English language”. This particular book has been described as Nabokov’s “love affair with the novel”, which Nabokov himself corrected to “love affair with the English language”.
If you could have passionate sex with a language, it would probably look like this.
That’s a strong metaphor.
That’s nothing; you should read the book. Lolita is stuffed with all sorts of allusions, in-jokes, anagrams (Oh Vivian Darkbloom, you so crazy), puns and wordplay. While you’re reading it, remember that English was Nabokov’s third language (after Russian and French).
What should I say to make people think I’ve read it?
“This book helped me understand why people want to be writers.”
What should I avoid saying when trying to convince people I’ve read it?
“I strongly disapprove of child sex abuse.”
Should I actually read it?
If you have any interest in the uppermost potential of the English language novel, then yes.
If you can’t get over the whole “paedophile” thing, then no. But if you’ve read Game Of Thrones and you still think that Lolita has too much inappropriate sexual content, you should you should probably present yourself to the relevant authorities at first light.
In case you didn’t know, our justice system is completely fucked up. From the cops to the DA to the judges. The law does not represent morality. That’s a lie told to us to keep you in check and shame for being immoral when you question authority. Never let anyone make you feel stupid or immoral for questioning the law.
Richland County Sheriff’s Department (SC) said it just wasn’t worth it because no one would believe I was raped. I went up to his apartment with the possibility of having sex with him, you see. It didn’t matter that he drugged my drink and raped me. Why did I care anyway, since I was willing to have sex with him?
It’s been almost 8 years and the anal fissures still periodically re-tear. I have to sit at the bar to watch my drinks being made. My HUSBAND is not allowed to hand me drinks, unless I watched him make them.
Any abuse of children is sick. I knew there was porn on Tumblr. It doesn’t matter who you follow, you’ve come across it. But I haven’t ever experienced the brazen exploitation of children on this service. If I had, I would have reported it and probably puked in my mouth and tried to hold it in until it came out my nose a bit.
But I’m now hearing that people have experienced it, reported it and Tumblr hasn’t acted. Now Apple has done it for them. Kudos to Apple, shame on Tumblr for it having to come to this to act.
Now here’s some internal rationalising at Tumblr time (1am). Tumblr is great and I know a lot of good has come out of it, especially for communities that needed a safe space and a voice.
Just a couple of days ago I got a message saying nice things about my work. Suffering from depression and anxiety, it’s actually harder for me to ignore compliments from strangers than it is from my friends and family. This is a special place to me as I know it is to a lot of you.
Everyone makes mistakes and everyone needs second chances to improve themselves. Except trump. Fuck that guy. I want to give Tumblr a chance to change their procedures and I will. So my blog isn’t going anywhere yet. But in this current fickle and sometimes temperamental social media climate, I have no fucking idea where the legit outrage will lead. I am worried Tumblr will get shut down or die but if that’s the case, considering the root cause of the outrage, I won’t be losing sleep over it.
So, long term, in the interest of self preservation, please follow me on Instagram and let’s take care of some science, art and each other over there
I remember: Everyone at the time knew Britney’s Rolling Stone cover was incredibly inappropriate. (I was only 13 at the time and thought “Damn, that is weird to dress up a teen as a child.”)
“But, she’s getting paid for it! And think about the exposure! She’s young but still sly enough to know what she is doing!”
