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kingproteus · 8 months

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Just finished Lolita recently, and the final essay by Nabokov about the publication process of the book was so fucking insane I had to share it

Like please I feel like I’m the only person who’s seen this

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(TEXT ID BEGINS) Some of the reactions were very amusing: one reader suggested that his firm might consider publication if I turned my Lolita into a twelve-year-old lad, and had him seduced by Humbert, a farmer, in a barn, amidst gaunt and arid surroundings, all this set forth in short, strong, “realistic” sentences (“He acts crazy. We all act crazy, I guess. I guess God acts crazy.” Etc). Although everyone should know that— (TEXT ID ENDS)

#Nabokov WHAT???#WHO TOLD YOU THAT #WHAT #Lolita #vladimir nabokov #Lolita 1955 #Call me By Your Name Vladimir’s Version

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txttletale · 2 years

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[pouring myself a drink from a fancy pitcher] so like it’s simplifying to the point of uselessness to say ‘reading comprehension’ is why people say shit like ‘lolita is problematic!’ because clearly the salient points to consider what aren’t they comprehending and why? and i think it probably lies in an unwillingness to approach critically the cultural understanding of ‘the child predator’ as someone that exists wholly outside society, someone who is an obviously deviant Other that enters from the fringes in order to commit terrible crimes--and so when nabokov puts those crimes into the person of a well-spoken, well-read, ‘respectable’ family man, they respond by saying ’well, this must be a favorable portrayal of child abuse, putting its justifications in the mouth of someone so authoritative and respectable is obviously apologetics’--because they’re unable or unwilling to critically confront the actual idea presented here, that ‘the child predator’ exists within society and is in fact often enabled and abetted by society.

humbert anchoring his attraction to children in the mythology and literature of the Western Canon says, ‘this is embedded in our culture, these are not the acts of an Otherized interloper’--but if you cannot put yourself at a critical distance and dispel the myth of that interloper of course you will read that and say ‘well since all these things are self-evidently good and cannot be the sites of violence, tying humbert to them is nabokov inviting this deviant external evil into the fold of what’s good and accepted’. when of course the call has been coming from inside the house! the entire time!

[i take a sip of my drink--fruity, airy, with hints of earth] so yeah ig to talk seriously about the dynamics of abuse we need to divorce ourselves entirely from the discursive fiction of the ‘child abuser’ as a marginal figure so that we can honestly assess how abuse can be reproduced in the key pillars of our culture and society. but that’s hard so let’s all keep arguing about a vague notion of ‘reading comprehension’ until the earth explodes amen brother [i pour you a drikn from my pitcher and it’s just room temperature coca cola]

#child abuse cw #shoput out to tumblr user gothicenjoyer for reminding me that htis book exists and its good #every time osmeone makes a post about reading comprehension even though i usually agree i think they should be imprisoned i na glass box #and asked 'what are they not comprehending and why?'#this would fix all critical discussion of lolita and nabokov on this bad website forever i think #best of

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bemybbmbaby222 · 21 days

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typewriter-worries · 1 year

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when christopher citro said, "i love you. i want us both to eat well" and when vladimir nabokov said, "it's cold today, but in a spring way, and i love you" and when wendy cope said, "i love you. i'm glad i exist" and when mahmoud darwish said, "you wrote me "good morning" and i read it as "i love you" and when anne sexton said, "i love you. i wish we were real" and and and

#love is at the center of it all love is the point!!#call it what it is; love #christopher citro #vladimir nabokov #wendy cope #mahmoud darwish #anne sexton #webweaving #web weaving #dark acamedia #light academia #classic academia #lovecore

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lorigreys-blog · 3 months

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🤭🤍

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uhbasicallyjustmilex · 8 months

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quotes from alex turner's favourite authors that make me want to put my face through a wall:

"although i have never been an actor in the strict sense of the word, i have nevertheless, in real life, always carried about with me a small folding theatre" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"there is a terrible emptiness in me, an indifference that hurts," - albert camus

"there is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself" - raymond chandler

"at eight, he had once told his mother that he wanted to paint air" - vladimir nabokov

"no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge" - joseph conrad

"everything i've ever let go of has claw marks on it" - david foster wallace

"we're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for. how else to explain the curious feeling that goes around feeling like missing somebody we've never even met?" - david foster wallace

"i turn over a new leaf every day, but the blots show through" - keith waterhouse

"the truth will set you free. but not until it's finished with you" - david foster wallace

"curiosity is insubordination in its purest form" - vladimir nabokov

"i'm me and nobody else; and whatever people think i am or say i am, that's what i'm not, because they don't know a bloody thing about me" - alan sillitoe

"we live as we dream; alone” - joseph conrad

"i liked, as i like still, to make words look self-conscious and foolish, to bind them by mock marriage of a pun, to turn them inside out, to come upon them unwares" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"whatever you get paid attention to for is never what you think is most important about yourself" - david foster wallace

"i continued to stir my tea long after it had done all it could with the milk” - vladimir nabokov, despair

"i remained too much inside my head and ended up losing my mind" - edgar allan poe

"all the information i have about myself is from forged documents" - vladimir nabokov, despair

"how odd i can have all this inside me and to you its just words" - david foster wallace

"you will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. you will never live if you're looking for the meaning of life" - albert camus

#all of these are from books/authors alex has explicitly mentioned being a fan of #god i wish he talked more about what he reads because i find the books and authors people are drawn to fascinating #it's such an insight into someone's psyche #then again maybe that's why he doesn't talk about it a lot - the books you love are quite a personal thing #but yeah #having read a few things i just thought i'd compile a little selection of quotes from his favourite books/authors that #idk - stuck out to me as being very alex #and it's safe to safe i have well and truly destroyed my own heart in the process #i also now absolutely have to read despair by vladimir nabokov #it's one of his that i haven't read but i had a little flick through it and oh my god i can totally see why alex is so into it #this list was almost entirely just quotes from that book #there are SO MANY that are just painfully alex #(in my mind anyway)#anyway #enough rambling from me #i might have to do a part two of this at some point #alex turner #arctic monkeys #lulu posts

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fagnumopus · 2 months

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"Omg Lolita is SUCH an awful book bc the narrator is OBVIOUSLY so CHARMING so you'll SYMPATHIZE with him"

Humbert Humbert on the first page: "Your Honour, my defence is that I'm being crucified for my sins which literally makes me Jesus Christ"

#elliot speaks #obviously not his exact words but #this is literally what he means but more eloquently #lolita by vladimir nabokov #i got to the part where he calls himself a “nympholept” and it made me flash dissociate to a world where this man existed to kick his balls

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metamorphesque · 2 years

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In 1958, Nabokov wrote to his new American publisher, Walter J. Minton at Putnam, about the cover for his forthcoming novel, Lolita. “What about the jacket?” he wrote.

After thinking it over, I would rather not involve butterflies. Do you think it could be possible to find today in New York an artist who would not be influenced in his work by the general cartoonesque and primitivist style jacket illustration? Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically opposed to: any kind of representation of a little girl.

#aaand what did they do?#the exact opposite #lolita #vladimir nabokov #literature #classic literature #books

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sparklewhiteswan · 2 months

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Holy trinity ౨ৎ

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urbeautifulandiminsane · 5 days

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for the person who was asking about Nabokov's Lolita and if its difficult to read (or just anyone who is thinking about reading it) -

it IS difficult both because of the subject matter and the way it is written. Nabokov has a very complex, descriptive, flowery/embellished and witty writing style. there are so many references, wordplay, puns etc throughout the book, so many that you could read it multiple times and find new things you didnt notice before. ontop of that the vocabulary is difficult as well. but dont let this discourage you from picking the book up. you can use an ebook reader that has a dictionary built in to make it easier.

the subject matter, while disturbing, is not graphic. there are no outright mentions or descriptions of the abuse. the thing that makes it difficult especially if you are young is the fact that it is written from Humbert's pov, meaning, from the brain of the abuser, thus the language used to describe the abuse is very very manipulative. it makes it very easy to romanticize the way he is taking advantage of Dolores.

if you understand that, and are able to see how Humbert is an unreliable narrator, then you shouldnt have any difficulty reading the book. it is quite a good book and has an interesting perspective that we dont see often.

yes this !!!