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March 28, 2024, 12:09:13 PM

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Lolita

Started by Keebleman, January 18, 2021, 05:13:59 PM

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Chedney Honks

Thanks, it's, err, all true.

Keebleman

Quote from: Keebleman on February 11, 2021, 04:00:04 AM
Just found this quote from James B Harris, the film's producer.

Lolita's age is never mentioned in the film, but she is clearly older than the 12 she was in the book (Sue Lyon turned 15 during the shoot). 

Amendment: Sue Lyon was 14 throughout filming.

chveik

I know fuck all about the circumstances surrounding the film but knowing Kubrick, without the hollywood censorship, I bet he would've made Humbert look more like the creep he is in the book. I could be completely wrong mind you

Keebleman

Quote from: Keebleman on January 18, 2021, 05:13:59 PM
I've just completed my third reading of Nabokov's novel because I want to be a paedophile there's a new podcast series dedicated to the book.  It's pretty woke-y but nevertheless based on the first couple of episodes it is well-structured, thoroughly researched and very well produced and presented.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lolita-podcast/id1536839859


Well, I've listened to all the episodes of this now and my original assessment of it being 'pretty woke-y' was way off: it could stand as an archetype. The woman who presents it is so judgmental you can imagine her recording it wearing a full-bottomed wig and holding a gavel.  The term "White male" is used throughout to dismiss any viewpoint she doesn't want to engage with; if there is a quotation or opinion she doesn't like she just has one of her friends read it out in a silly voice.  In one episode (7 part II) she says "I really do try to keep my opinions out of this show as much as I can," which is a lie of Trumpian proportions. 

But for all that the series is a worthwhile listen.  There is lots of great information about Lolita adaptations for stage and screen; about the book's initial and lasting success, its reception, its presentation; about the online communities of teenage girls obsessed with the book; and throughout there is a sense of bewilderment and outrage that a 'Lolita' has come to be seen as a seductress rather than a victim.

Quote from: Keebleman on April 09, 2021, 01:11:34 AM
throughout there is a sense of bewilderment and outrage that a 'Lolita' has come to be seen as a seductress rather than a victim.

One view of the novel is that the reader is supposed to be somewhat taken in by Humbert, to see the situation from his point of view, to be sort of entertained into seeing the girl as his Lolita, and then to realise toward the end that she was Delores, a real human victim. On this take, (put forward by Richard Rorty among others), Nabokov intended the book as a kind of lesson on the way we might be misled into participating in cruelty by charm, novelty, humour etc. The point you mentioned above, though, would appear to suggest that if it this was the message of the book, Nabokov fails to get it across, and that too many people read the book without understanding it.

Keebleman

Quote from: Astronaut Omens on April 09, 2021, 06:19:01 PM
One view of the novel is that the reader is supposed to be somewhat taken in by Humbert, to see the situation from his point of view, to be sort of entertained into seeing the girl as his Lolita, and then to realise toward the end that she was Delores, a real human victim. On this take, (put forward by Richard Rorty among others), Nabokov intended the book as a kind of lesson on the way we might be misled into participating in cruelty by charm, novelty, humour etc. The point you mentioned above, though, would appear to suggest that if it this was the message of the book, Nabokov fails to get it across, and that too many people read the book without understanding it.

She's generally OK with the actual novel, it's the adaptations and spin-offs and the way the novel has been absorbed into and distorted by the culture that is her concern.