Aside from the knee jerk self rightous nincompoopery of the esteemed actress "Sooz" , I am generally just exhausted and disgusted with the ubiquity of the phrase "WTF". Once a conversational jolt, it is now so easily tossed around by nearly every young person I meet , frequently and effectively shutting down any conversation . From my perspective , my disgust with the indiscriminate and pointless vulgarity silences further discussion and I walk away . Not a good tactic for a civilization to prosper.
Yes, why can't it be both? Why can't it be a love story and that he is also a sick man? The good news is that this novel still has people talking, and talking about interesting things!
This child's petulance does not warrant a response. Seen and not heard. I'm sure Ms. Rowling, whose understanding of literature is fairly thorough, doesn't care about this.
Five million TwitterTok whatevers matter even less.
"... the under-40 set—people who, like Kempner, appear utterly confounded not just by the difference between depiction and endorsement but by the expression of any thought that contains two or more moving parts."
Those that practice "recreational hatred" are hunters, looking for a scalp. The elation they hope to manifest is getting a well-known someone cancelled in an extravaganza made as public as possible. They can then twirl, twirl, twirl in the joy of their self-righteousness and begin the hunt for another while never minding the plank in their own eye.
I dont think it's a great love story or a comedy. Because the prose is so good, maybe perfect, Nabokov is able to seduces the reader into the Humbert characters mind. I enjoyed another take on it called "Reading Lolita in Terhan", by Azar Nafisi.
I hope TheFP gives a shout out to the new Reflector Podcast. It's the same team that made the "Witch Trials of JK Rowling", and they just released a new episode that reflects on the year that passed since that collaboration with TheFP was released.
I don't hate Rowling, and I think she's mostly right about the trans stuff. Nor do I want to drag out things she said years ago and start an orgy of condemnation or to burn her in effigy or some such.
That said, calling Lolita a "great and tragic love story" fundamentally misunderstands the book. It's not a love story at all. Humbert doesn't love Dolores (the real name of the character whom he calls Lolita); he's sexually obsessed with her at that age. He marries Dolores's mother in order to gain sexual access to the twelve year old girl. She certainly does not return his affections. It's not a love story at all!
Aside from her vitriolic attack on Rowling, Kempner is actually right about the book. It's not romantic at all!
Lolita is not a 'tragic love story'. It is a sardonic, very stylish comedy, and Nabokov intended it this way. He called it (paraphrasing) ' an author's homage to the English language'.
I think from the POV of the pedophile, it is a love story. He is limited in his vision of romantic love by his obsession and conflation of youth and sex. It is a reflection of society’s adulation of youth that becomes distorted and perverted. Look into the advertising world and I believe it is apparent that Western culture buys into this conflation.
Kempner Is a blinkered idiot only the youth of today can provide. Lolita is a masterpiece.
She reminds me of the two young women a few years back in the hey day of the MeToo movement in their attempts to cancel a museum exhibition of 18th and 19th century nudes - since they were so offended no modern eyes should set their gaze upon the paintings. The horror! The horror!
They were laughed at and ridiculed. The same response should happen here.
I take immense joy in doing everything the mob cancels. Funny how the forbidden stuff often ends up being the most captivating.
Aside from the knee jerk self rightous nincompoopery of the esteemed actress "Sooz" , I am generally just exhausted and disgusted with the ubiquity of the phrase "WTF". Once a conversational jolt, it is now so easily tossed around by nearly every young person I meet , frequently and effectively shutting down any conversation . From my perspective , my disgust with the indiscriminate and pointless vulgarity silences further discussion and I walk away . Not a good tactic for a civilization to prosper.
Where is article audio!?
Yeah, what the FUCK, Oscar! That was hilarious. Well done!
Yes, why can't it be both? Why can't it be a love story and that he is also a sick man? The good news is that this novel still has people talking, and talking about interesting things!
Are sick people devoid of feelings? He's SICK, Sooz, What the FUCK, Sooz.
I've read Lolita and endorse Rowling's comment.
Only someone who hasn't read it (or an idiot) could consider Lolita an endorsement of paedophilia.
This child's petulance does not warrant a response. Seen and not heard. I'm sure Ms. Rowling, whose understanding of literature is fairly thorough, doesn't care about this.
Five million TwitterTok whatevers matter even less.
I'd lean more towards seen and not tolerated.
Fantastic. Thank you. (And, maybe: We're doomed.)
“Recreational Hatred”. Beautiful.
"... the under-40 set—people who, like Kempner, appear utterly confounded not just by the difference between depiction and endorsement but by the expression of any thought that contains two or more moving parts."
Bam.
"....people, in their fervor for recreational hatred, are rendering themselves functionally illiterate"
Amazing writing. What a great article!
I learned a new term today: "recreational hatred". Very good, very clever, very much on the mark!
Those that practice "recreational hatred" are hunters, looking for a scalp. The elation they hope to manifest is getting a well-known someone cancelled in an extravaganza made as public as possible. They can then twirl, twirl, twirl in the joy of their self-righteousness and begin the hunt for another while never minding the plank in their own eye.
I dont think it's a great love story or a comedy. Because the prose is so good, maybe perfect, Nabokov is able to seduces the reader into the Humbert characters mind. I enjoyed another take on it called "Reading Lolita in Terhan", by Azar Nafisi.
I hope TheFP gives a shout out to the new Reflector Podcast. It's the same team that made the "Witch Trials of JK Rowling", and they just released a new episode that reflects on the year that passed since that collaboration with TheFP was released.
Check it out. It's very good.
I don't hate Rowling, and I think she's mostly right about the trans stuff. Nor do I want to drag out things she said years ago and start an orgy of condemnation or to burn her in effigy or some such.
That said, calling Lolita a "great and tragic love story" fundamentally misunderstands the book. It's not a love story at all. Humbert doesn't love Dolores (the real name of the character whom he calls Lolita); he's sexually obsessed with her at that age. He marries Dolores's mother in order to gain sexual access to the twelve year old girl. She certainly does not return his affections. It's not a love story at all!
Aside from her vitriolic attack on Rowling, Kempner is actually right about the book. It's not romantic at all!
Lolita is not a 'tragic love story'. It is a sardonic, very stylish comedy, and Nabokov intended it this way. He called it (paraphrasing) ' an author's homage to the English language'.
I think from the POV of the pedophile, it is a love story. He is limited in his vision of romantic love by his obsession and conflation of youth and sex. It is a reflection of society’s adulation of youth that becomes distorted and perverted. Look into the advertising world and I believe it is apparent that Western culture buys into this conflation.
Kempner Is a blinkered idiot only the youth of today can provide. Lolita is a masterpiece.
She reminds me of the two young women a few years back in the hey day of the MeToo movement in their attempts to cancel a museum exhibition of 18th and 19th century nudes - since they were so offended no modern eyes should set their gaze upon the paintings. The horror! The horror!
They were laughed at and ridiculed. The same response should happen here.