Gomes, what in the bloody hell are you making me read?

[maderr]

For serious. I can see why people went WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, BITCH when the guy wrote it. I am X_X right now. I need a shower. With bleach and sandpaper.

Who the fuck writes a line like This is all very interesting, and I daresay you see me already frothing at the mouth in a fit; but no, I am not; I am just winking happy thoughts into my little tiddle cup.

And then later he talks about how the tiddle cup is full.

Because he's been talking about LITTLE GIRLS.

I mean I get the book is ultimately saying "pedophilia bad" but it's still traumatic to read.

It's also hard to appreciate the famed language of this book when you're squicked. I'm just saying.

Then again, we all know my stance on the literature section of the bookstore.

Oh, the book, for those that haven't already figured it out, is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Comments

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I have to read that for my American Fiction class. Crap, crap, crap, SHIT. Ew and WTF. This I am not looking forward to. *sigh* Nice to have some warning though.

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

American Fiction? Really? o_O

And to think, I had to read him to get my Russian Lit degree. That's the problem with emigres, no one can decide which country's intelligentsia they belong to.

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that weirded me out, too. >_< *sigh* Maybe the class can make a good argument that he's too Russian to be included in American Lit. Hopefully?

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

I would definitely argue it. My Professor said the arguments usually come down to his being too Russian to be English, but too English to be Russian, so no one really has a place for him anyway. Really, I would argue he's too British/European to be American. (All this in terms of his writing, anyway)

Besides that, Lolita's first publication was in Paris in 1955 (he wrote the manuscript in the US, but at the time it was deemed to unfit for US publication); it didn't even hit the US or England until 1958.

[twilight-angel.livejournal.com]

Oo, good things to remember! Thanks for the info! Hopefully, that will be enough to sway the professor. He's usually fair if you make a good case about these things. *crosses fingers* Because not only is there the obvious pedophilia thing that I would be weirded out by, but there's also the fact that that excerpt up there? Is just Bad Writing. >.

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

I could probably read it, as long as it's not totally boring. I am not squicked easily. After all, I managed to read all 80 or so pages of Death in Venice, which consists mostly of the vivid description of this 14 year old boy. And the rest of the story the main character whines about getting old. I was so glad when he died in the end.

I read that book because I thought I might try reading something by a Nobel Prize winner again. Really, I should have known better. There are some I read that are really good (Death and the King's Horseman, the poems by Szymborska and Katharina Blum), but you should never ever try to read Grass and I still don't understand why people think Mann is the best writer of the 20th century.

[rykaine.livejournal.com]

ahaha! Dude, why the hell are you even reading that?

I only had to read excerpts in my Russian Lit classes, and believe that was all I needed. *shudders* Not to mention his boring ass short stories.

[amiko-16.livejournal.com]

o__________o
what
the
fuck

[fierydragonsky.livejournal.com]

Hence the term "loli" and "lolicon," perhaps? I wonder...

[maderr.livejournal.com]

Yep. That would be the origins of the term.

[fierydragonsky.livejournal.com]

::gives self bonus points for discovering etymology for the day!::

[naatz.livejournal.com]

How abot Lollipop? ;_;

|Meduza|

[wobblygoblin.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha, then watch Jeremy Irons in the movie adaptation and see if that doesn't fuck up your perceptions more.

[fierydragonsky.livejournal.com]

GOBLIN! I'm putting together a little care package for you! Better send me your requests nooow!

maderr, sorry for sidetracking the Goblin in your journal. She's just really hard to get 'hold of, y'know?

[wobblygoblin.livejournal.com]

It's too much to request that you box yourself up, isn't it? *tackles*

[fierydragonsky.livejournal.com]

Alas, I shall not be in the box. But I'll make sure that the items I send in my stead shall make you smiiile!

[eurynome-on-ice.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to read that book just out of complete and utter morbid curiosity.

[amasugiru.livejournal.com]

I wanted to share the pain... what can I say?

That and no tagbacks. I don't want to see that book EVER again.

The thing that scares me is how realistically Nabokov portrays the character. "I am not a pedophile.I just write about them... I swear!!!"