Blog written by Melissa
Of course Lolita caused a bit of discomfort for all, as I believe it was intended to do by the author, Nabokov. With the current Royal Commission into child abuse, the subject matter of the book was particularly topical. There was a variety of responses from club members… Clever, unsettling, brilliantly written, tedious, disturbing, difficult to finish, delight in the literary style and the exuberant dance of words, over-written, frighteningly seductive, challenging/intriguing vocabulary, darkly witty, confronting, offensive, clever, sad… One member felt the need to disguise the book title when reading in public!
Recommend reading Nabokov’s Afterword which is helpful.
The book raised many questions which served as interesting discussion points for the group, including:
• How can we effectively separate the literary style from the subject matter?
• How would this book have been received if it were published today? Would it have been banned in this era?
• Does it reflect a perspective held by a previous generation of male authors and publishers?
• How did both films compare with the book?
• If the author could write this so well, was he also afflicted with some element of the protagonist’s illness or did he simply have a brilliant imagination & literary skill?
• How believable was the story?
• Did the ending become melodramatic?
• What are the reasons this book is listed as one of the top 100 works of modern literature?
• Is the story a reflection on the society/country it is set in?
• Did the protagonist, ‘Humbert’, in his own warped way, actually love Lolita?
• What would the impact truly have been on the character ‘Lolita’?
• How might Lolita have voiced her experience if the book had been written from her perspective instead of it being fully interpreted by ‘Humbert’?
• Did Lolita play any culpable part in the tragedy or as a minor is she fully innocent – even if she ‘initiated’ the early engagements.
• What do girls do with their blossoming sexual curiosity when the boys their own age can be much less mature and interesting to them?
• How might the book be experienced if the protagonist was a female ‘cougar’?
• What should society do with/about/for paedophiles? How should they be treated? Can they be ‘cured’? Is their behaviour primarily to be dealt with as an illness or a crime?
• What causes this kind of distorted lust? Is society in some ways responsible for creating a conducive environment for paedophilia? (E.g. Advertising using sexually explicit nymphettes. The culture of ‘youth’. Emasculation of men…. Etc.)
Here's a bit of extra information to follow up on the book and topic:
I don't usually advocate Wikipedia as a credible source but it does provide some interesting basic data on Lolita here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita
Here's that link to the Louis Theroux's program on ABC about a place in America where pedophiles are 'kept'. Raises the question of 'what to do with them?' It's pretty creepy for various reasons but if interested, you can watch it here. https://archive.org/details/LouisTheroux-APlaceForPaedophiles
For those of us who cared to rate this novel, it averaged a 6.6 out of 10.
Descriptions apart from those already mentioned by Melissa : a book ahead of its time, eloquently written and brilliantly structured.
Our next book is Trafficked by Sophie Hayes and the meeting will take place on Thursday Nov 20th at Robyn's.
