PatLolita
January 23rd 2008 08:28
Lolita. I can feel the internet whipping itself into a frenzy with me just mentioning that word. Hopefully this speeds up the process of turning this blog into a den of sex offenders and law enforcement officers chasing sex offenders (it was always going to end that way; for some reason I get the feeling that sex offenders who search for the term 'lolita' using google are the same kind of idiots [I mean, lovely people whose traffic I value] who would click on ads a lot and that's why I want them reading this blog!)
I didn't really want to write a review about this book, nor did I really want to read it. Before I did read it, I heard a number of people raving about how fantastic a novel it was. Someone said it was the best book they had ever read. This is exactly the kind of comment which makes me determined to never read a certain book (see The Da Vinci Code by way of reference) and generally speaking, I'm pretty good at keeping up these sorts of pointless boycotts.
I don't know why I cracked and read this book. Maybe it's because it was written by a Russian and I thought I would get myself up to speed with Russian culture so I wasn't behind the times when the Russian New World Order took over.
Anyway, this is a very good book. There are a lot of things about it which I liked. It is extremely well written, the story is superb and the characters exquisitely described. But, I didn't really enjoy it all that much. The major reason for this is that I simply didn't like Humbert Humbert, the book's narrator. Sure, he's an intelligent and extremely well educated European gentleman, which is normally more than enough to have me pretending to like someone just so I can make myself seem smarter, but something was missing for me.
A large part of the significance of the book is the way in which the controversial subject matter is dealt with, and the fact that Vladimir Nabokov's hero in the form of Humbert is painted as a generally decent man with a tragic flaw. I accept that this is a fairly unique viewpoint to take when dealing with this sort of topic (particularly in light of modern day society's ridiculously over-the-top reaction to those convicted of child sex offences) and the fact that the book draws the reader into feeling sympathy for a figure whom they would otherwise regard as being an abomination is a fantastic concept. The book is described as being more about a cunning child taking advantage of a helpless adult, rather than the other way around, and this reversal of roles is played out superbly.
However, I think the problem was that I just wasn't scandalised enough by Humbert's overwhelming attraction to 'nymphets', such as the book's title character, Dolores Haze, to be so shocked that I disliked the man due to his sexual preferences. As a result there really wasn't much to do to win me back over to sympathising with him as a result of his honest confessions about his lustful crimes.
I did find the book funny though. I enjoyed it as a comedy much more than I enjoyed it as a drama, and the quality of the clever prose employed by Nabokov is striking, especially considering that English was his second language (note to editor: please check the accuracy of this fact because i can't be bothered and i would hate for some sub-human internet nerd to catch me out, thx pal).
Beyond what I've discussed above, there isn't really any need for me to talk about the plot. Anyone who would read a blog about books (which is a very loose description of this blog) would at least be able to take a stab in the dark and come up with something resembling the story of Lolita, so I will skip all of that. Search wikipedia if you're really that interested. I was just going to cut-and-paste that anyway and maybe paraphrase it a little, so I'll save everybody's time and just leave it out.
For some reason, I get the feeling that the above light-weight analysis is embarrassingly childish in context of the seriousness of the works written about this novel. Probably a bit too late to worry about that now though, because I‘m not the kind of amateur internet writer who let‘s quality get in the way of quantity.
In any event, I'd like to conclude by giving a quick hello to all internet surfers of the information superhighway who found this review by searching for child pornography.
I didn't really want to write a review about this book, nor did I really want to read it. Before I did read it, I heard a number of people raving about how fantastic a novel it was. Someone said it was the best book they had ever read. This is exactly the kind of comment which makes me determined to never read a certain book (see The Da Vinci Code by way of reference) and generally speaking, I'm pretty good at keeping up these sorts of pointless boycotts.
I don't know why I cracked and read this book. Maybe it's because it was written by a Russian and I thought I would get myself up to speed with Russian culture so I wasn't behind the times when the Russian New World Order took over.
Anyway, this is a very good book. There are a lot of things about it which I liked. It is extremely well written, the story is superb and the characters exquisitely described. But, I didn't really enjoy it all that much. The major reason for this is that I simply didn't like Humbert Humbert, the book's narrator. Sure, he's an intelligent and extremely well educated European gentleman, which is normally more than enough to have me pretending to like someone just so I can make myself seem smarter, but something was missing for me.
A large part of the significance of the book is the way in which the controversial subject matter is dealt with, and the fact that Vladimir Nabokov's hero in the form of Humbert is painted as a generally decent man with a tragic flaw. I accept that this is a fairly unique viewpoint to take when dealing with this sort of topic (particularly in light of modern day society's ridiculously over-the-top reaction to those convicted of child sex offences) and the fact that the book draws the reader into feeling sympathy for a figure whom they would otherwise regard as being an abomination is a fantastic concept. The book is described as being more about a cunning child taking advantage of a helpless adult, rather than the other way around, and this reversal of roles is played out superbly.
However, I think the problem was that I just wasn't scandalised enough by Humbert's overwhelming attraction to 'nymphets', such as the book's title character, Dolores Haze, to be so shocked that I disliked the man due to his sexual preferences. As a result there really wasn't much to do to win me back over to sympathising with him as a result of his honest confessions about his lustful crimes.
I did find the book funny though. I enjoyed it as a comedy much more than I enjoyed it as a drama, and the quality of the clever prose employed by Nabokov is striking, especially considering that English was his second language (note to editor: please check the accuracy of this fact because i can't be bothered and i would hate for some sub-human internet nerd to catch me out, thx pal).
Beyond what I've discussed above, there isn't really any need for me to talk about the plot. Anyone who would read a blog about books (which is a very loose description of this blog) would at least be able to take a stab in the dark and come up with something resembling the story of Lolita, so I will skip all of that. Search wikipedia if you're really that interested. I was just going to cut-and-paste that anyway and maybe paraphrase it a little, so I'll save everybody's time and just leave it out.
For some reason, I get the feeling that the above light-weight analysis is embarrassingly childish in context of the seriousness of the works written about this novel. Probably a bit too late to worry about that now though, because I‘m not the kind of amateur internet writer who let‘s quality get in the way of quantity.
In any event, I'd like to conclude by giving a quick hello to all internet surfers of the information superhighway who found this review by searching for child pornography.
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Comment by Anonymous
I wasn't scandalised by his penchant either, I think I remember my main reaction being pity. Men are so pathetic.
aimee
Comment by Pat
Books Are For Losers
No man-hating in my comments section please. I only allow woman-hating around these parts; men are noble and intelligent creatures - one of nature's truly magnificent creations.