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Fergus, Weaver of Autistic Webs's Reviews > Lolita
Lolita
by
by
This was a novel I have for long loved to hate and hated to love. I'll give my reasons in a moment.
Nabokov intended it as High Camp, a mawkishly sentimental and highly inappropriate love affair. An emigre from Communist Russia, via Nazi Berlin, he had seen the absolute pit of human depravity.
Now, safely arrived in America's 24/7 Wonderland - knowing human nature as he did - he wanted to pull a Shakespearean joke (like Hamlet, holding a mirror up to nature) on his adoptive country.
Nabokov, you see, was a bit of a snob, like Stravinsky.
And as Stravinsky adopted atonal music as his satirical weapon of choice against the modern US dystopia, so Nabokov chose High Literary Camp.
Both artists loved their own wit.
***
But I despised the book. As some people thenceforth treat me askance after I tell them I'm bipolar.
I have been tarred with a High Camp brush. For them, I am a joke.
***
The bipolar are as mawkish as is Humbert Humbert's puppy love.
Humbert is a jaded, over-the-top Aspie. Like Nabokov. But his behaviour to middle America is unacceptable. Nabokov played the game.
Humbert doesn't.
Playing the game is the rule for me.
As it is likewise for those who make fun of mental illness, and, quite foolishly, the Humberts of this world.
Neither of us is a joke, or mainstream.
We are real.
So go figure, our reality being ugly...
Three stars.
Nabokov intended it as High Camp, a mawkishly sentimental and highly inappropriate love affair. An emigre from Communist Russia, via Nazi Berlin, he had seen the absolute pit of human depravity.
Now, safely arrived in America's 24/7 Wonderland - knowing human nature as he did - he wanted to pull a Shakespearean joke (like Hamlet, holding a mirror up to nature) on his adoptive country.
Nabokov, you see, was a bit of a snob, like Stravinsky.
And as Stravinsky adopted atonal music as his satirical weapon of choice against the modern US dystopia, so Nabokov chose High Literary Camp.
Both artists loved their own wit.
***
But I despised the book. As some people thenceforth treat me askance after I tell them I'm bipolar.
I have been tarred with a High Camp brush. For them, I am a joke.
***
The bipolar are as mawkish as is Humbert Humbert's puppy love.
Humbert is a jaded, over-the-top Aspie. Like Nabokov. But his behaviour to middle America is unacceptable. Nabokov played the game.
Humbert doesn't.
Playing the game is the rule for me.
As it is likewise for those who make fun of mental illness, and, quite foolishly, the Humberts of this world.
Neither of us is a joke, or mainstream.
We are real.
So go figure, our reality being ugly...
Three stars.
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Lolita.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
November 10, 2023
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Such an astute reply, Saige. And we often overlook that psychological aftermath to pedophilia: Your comment should be framed. And, do you know, my own bipolar nosedive was the result of an intention, drily implied, of illicit sexuality as well!
Thank you Fergus. We meet on that bridge. Your review spurred me to write my own. Respect.
I think the most astonishing thing about the book is the language. It’s beautiful and used as a part of the plot. What makes it more special is the fact that it is not his native language
Yes, indeed - what a quick study polymath he was - for sure.
I'm going to keep it simple: Great review
Well thanks so much, Vicki! I couldn’t write it deadpan - for Lolita disgusted me! Then I remembered my mania and how everyone just laughed - or got angry - as with Humbert.
Personally, from experience in working with and for victims of sexual abuse I see this child's behaviour as already symptomatic of a child who has been sexually abused and objectified and who has internalised the patriarchial possessive abuser's view of herself, as victims do, without therapy, before they find their anger and rise out and above and realise that abuse visited them but it is not them. That they have the right to live freely and autonomously without having to subjugate themselves to the likes of Humbert who is a conceited, blind, self justifying abuser. Of course in order to live this way children need genuine child protectors and readers of fiction about child sexual abuse need to be able to distinguish the difference between a self justifying abuser and a child who has been damaged and who deserves real care.