Chasing Lolita (1 Viewer)

Well, I did not manage to work in a Bukowski quote like I did at the end of the Sam Fuller piece but my new Deconstruction Zone column for Pop Matters is on a subject many here may be interested in, namely the 50th anniversary of the publication of Nabokov's "Lolita" in the United States:

The postwar social, cultural, psychological, and moral landscape that Lolita was laid down upon was soiled by muddy boot prints from the get-go. Oh, yes, American readers in 1958 were all too familiar with the sexual charms of children and the hidden terrors of molestation by family members, Vickers says, but it was not a topic for discussion in any way, shape, or form, as Nabokov discovered himself in 1954. When Lolita threatened to pull back the mask of their shame - it was too late to ignore the book because it was already a scandalous international sensation - the collective American reaction was to accept and absorb the book culturally but turn it into a cruel joke, instead: Little girls who behave in a sexually provocative manner deserve whatever fate they may have coming to them. That's how the culture ate it up and spit it back, with the name Lolita becoming a synonym for, to use the dialect of the times, "a fast little article". Never mind the fact that the fictionalized life of Lolita in Nabokov's novel purports otherwise.​
The Panting Maniac: Chasing Lolita
 
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Great article, CarversDog! It's interesting how Nabokov's Lolita ended up being a concept in popular culture...
 
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A pawn of pop culture is more like it. Glad you appreciated the piece. I received a kind e-mail from the author of "Chasing Lolita" this morning.
 
I received a kind e-mail from the author of "Chasing Lolita" this morning.

Well, you did write a very good and very thorough review of his book. Still, it's nice that he took the time writing you. I don't think writers do that very often, so that's quite a compliment! :)
 
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That's a fairly long quote, so they must've liked it!
 
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