LOLITA
Attended a lecture called 'Children At Risk' yesterday. The chap delivering the lecture kept referring to Lolita (Nabokov) as an example of how paedophiles home into the family circle, winning the trust of parents/guardians in order to gain access to minors. He kept referring to the main character and narrator as "Humpert Humpert" when his name is "Humbert Humbert". If he will cite such a great novel he should try to get such details right, I think. (If I didn't like the book so much I wouldn't care, admittedly.) Perhaps 'Hump'-ert rather than 'Humb'-ert was some kind of slip ??
Anyway, after the lecture had finished I wasn't thinking about children at risk anymore, I was considering the relationship between Humbert Humbert and Lolita. From memory, I recall finishing the book in the belief that - okay, he was a deeply reprehensible pervy paedophile - but that he also loved her. I picked up the book to find out why I should think this way. Here's a telling paragraph:
"One last word", I said in my horrible careful English, "are you quite, quite sure that - well, not tomorrow of course, and not after tomorrow, but - well - some day, any day, you will not come to live with me? I will create a brand new God and thank him with piercing cries, if you give me that microscopic hope" (to that effect).
"No", she said smiling, "No".
"It would have made all the difference"...
Then, as I drove away, I heard her shout in a vibrant voice to her boy; and the dog started to lope alongside my car like a fat dolphin, but he was too heavy and old, and very soon gave up.
And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears.
So, imho, it's not merely about sex although this is what people tend to remember.
And if Lolita seems bad, it's not nearly as extreme as The Enchantress (lesser known but the precurser to Lolita). Here, the narrator describes the pubescent object of his lust in vividly physical detail, wittering on about her gamine limbs, bony clavicles, etc, etc.
Attended a lecture called 'Children At Risk' yesterday. The chap delivering the lecture kept referring to Lolita (Nabokov) as an example of how paedophiles home into the family circle, winning the trust of parents/guardians in order to gain access to minors. He kept referring to the main character and narrator as "Humpert Humpert" when his name is "Humbert Humbert". If he will cite such a great novel he should try to get such details right, I think. (If I didn't like the book so much I wouldn't care, admittedly.) Perhaps 'Hump'-ert rather than 'Humb'-ert was some kind of slip ??
Anyway, after the lecture had finished I wasn't thinking about children at risk anymore, I was considering the relationship between Humbert Humbert and Lolita. From memory, I recall finishing the book in the belief that - okay, he was a deeply reprehensible pervy paedophile - but that he also loved her. I picked up the book to find out why I should think this way. Here's a telling paragraph:
"One last word", I said in my horrible careful English, "are you quite, quite sure that - well, not tomorrow of course, and not after tomorrow, but - well - some day, any day, you will not come to live with me? I will create a brand new God and thank him with piercing cries, if you give me that microscopic hope" (to that effect).
"No", she said smiling, "No".
"It would have made all the difference"...
Then, as I drove away, I heard her shout in a vibrant voice to her boy; and the dog started to lope alongside my car like a fat dolphin, but he was too heavy and old, and very soon gave up.
And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears.
So, imho, it's not merely about sex although this is what people tend to remember.
And if Lolita seems bad, it's not nearly as extreme as The Enchantress (lesser known but the precurser to Lolita). Here, the narrator describes the pubescent object of his lust in vividly physical detail, wittering on about her gamine limbs, bony clavicles, etc, etc.
