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.
Lee's comments :
ReplyDeleteI finished reading Lolita a week ago and really have had to have
sometime to think about it. Great choice for the book club, very
provocative and topical even though it was written almost 60 years
ago. I was so grateful for the 'afterword' by Nabokov explaining
part of his intentions in writing the book. He justified so much of
the story as a satire on American society. Do we compare this with
Jonathan Swift, but the subject matter is hugely different in it's
modern implications. As I read the book I found the character of HH
so corrupt in character and contemptuous of all the people he came in
contact with and the society they represented. I could understand his
charactisations and smirk with him at their foibles but I also found
his sarcasm, cynicism and snobbishness very disturbing and that is not
even mentioning the salaciousness of his descriptions of 'nymphets'
and Lolita. It is a novel that would probably be completely
unacceptable even without censorship today but it was possibly written
to shock in a less obscene manner in the 50's. He compares his
writing to that of the Marquis de Sade and I wonder if he sees HH as
more of a libertarian than a predator. Although he lusts after other
nymphets, he describes his seduction of Lolita as being initiated by
her rather than by him thus absolving his responsibility. He also
justifies her actions as being due to the fact that she has already
slept with a boy at her summer camp. Is this the excuse of so many
pedophiles? Now that pedophilia is being exposed for the insidious
horror it is and the ramifications for the child victims, Lolita is
not as acceptable as it once was. Even as a dark comedy it is hard to
accept and I feel very prudish in my old age and can't forgive or
condone such actions and cannot accept any attempt at justification by
any person. The ramifications are just too great and trying to
assuage the consequences by saying to the victims "get over it" is no
excuse in today's world. I wonder to what extent some of these more
well known recently exposed pedophiles might have used Lolita as
excuse for their actions. It has been hailed as one of the best one
hundred works of modern literature, how do we separate content from
literary form with such a controversial subject. And of those who
are making this judgement I would guess that the overall percentage is
male and the work is fulfilling some kind of male fantasy.
Nabokov's literature is overwhelming and I remember regarding him as a
favourite writer in my university days. I am about to embark on his
novel 'Ada' as I remember enjoying it so much. But I now wonder why.
To what extent was I influenced by my male university teachers and
perhaps looked on such seduction as something rather romantic. I read
the Wikipedia entry for Lolita and felt rather chastised by my
prudishness. It is certainly a novel that you have to consider from
so many angles and it also questions, possibly unintentionally, our
attitudes in our 21st century society. I don't think it addresses any
universal questions except for self indulgent male fantasies. There
are many wonderful descriptive a passages and clever turns of phrases,
literary allusions etc but overall as I finished reading and put it
down, I was left with a rather nasty taste in my mouth.
I read Lolita on my Kindle and couldn't refer backwards easily to look
up vocabulary. With at least two words on every other page that I
wasn't familiar with although most could be understood by context it
was frustrating and distracting. Perhaps an example over overwriting
in order to win academic applause. Or perhaps a device to further
show HH's erudition in comparison with his American fellows.
Nevertheless I began to find it a bit annoying being to made to feel
so ill educated in my lack of vocabulary.
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