destructorb99d

When I read this book, I had a very different response than most respondents: I wondered where the sex was. I was reading this as a 16-year-old - a virgin, a bit socially isolated, literate but not well-read. And I found myself thinking how much less explicit this was than the Penthouse Forum faux love-letters that I had read secretly in my bedroom. It's a small point, but it is to say that this book is less like the masturbation of a creep and more like the bedsheets into which he spread shattered innocence. I did not read the story carefully, tracing back allusion to action. Nor did I appropriately investigate the annotations. The result was a reading experience that gave me some actual insight into adults: They are kids with lots of experience and misconception and cultivation, strains and realizations layered into the folds of their brains and of their skins. To me, what makes this story work to this end is the odd way that the young Lolita herself is involved with Humbert, the tricky balance of cynical distance and understanding compliance she shows. Consenting adults frequently have similarly unbalanced and often far less healthy relationships (abuse, extreme dependence, lack of love). But since this one defies statutes and morals, it is reviled. The truth is that what is repugnant about the story is that it compellingly draws us towards the idea that love defies all boundaries including the law, safety, even mutuality. I'm sure if I were to read it again, I would be disgusted by the gratuitous sex. But I haven't read Penthouse Forum recently.

2022-10-29 03:34