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Fwd: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." ...
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EDNOTE. And speaking of which....
----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:16:04 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." ...
------------------ Monday, August 15, 2005 Site updated: 4:12 PM
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/08/15/50_years_young/[1]
50 years young
Boston Globe - United States
... straight into the dictionary: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a
seductive adolescent girl." The dictionary isn't the only place
VLADIMIR NABOKOV\'S ''Lolita" has gone ... [2][3] POP!
50 YEARS YOUNG
August 15, 2005
It's the sole novel in the English language whose title in its
entirety went straight into the dictionary: ''Lolita, n.
(lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." The dictionary isn't the
only place Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita" has gone. Stanley Kubrick
made a movie version in 1962 (earning Nabokov an Oscar nomination for
best adapted screenplay). Adrian Lyne directed another, in 1997. Azar
Nafisi's ''Reading 'Lolita' in Tehran" was an international
bestseller in 2003. Even so, sales of Nafisi's memoir are dwarfed by
those of the original: 50 million copies in 20 languages.
''Lolita" was published 50 years ago next month, Sept. 15, 1955. It
has been called many things: a landmark in world literature, a
celebration of pedophilia, a metaphor for the New World seducing the
Old (and vice versa), even the greatest paean to the modern American
motel. What has not been previously noted is that the sensation
surrounding Nabokov's novel presented final, definitive proof that
youth had conquered the culture.
Think of 1955 as the turning point, the year demography become
destiny. Young moviegoers rioted at screenings of ''Blackboard
Jungle." The film's theme song, Bill Haley & His Comets' ''Rock
Around the Clock," spent eight weeks atop the Billboard charts. Teen
hysteria ensued when James Dean died. RCA bought out Elvis Presley's
contract from Sun Records. Disney's ''Mickey Mouse Club" debuted.
The most popular Mouseketeer was a 12-year-old named Annette
Funicello. Yet it was another 12-year-old who sealed the deal for the
dominance of America's youth: jeans-wearing, comic-book-reading,
soul-stirring Dolores Haze. If even so lordly a master of high
culture as Nabokov (and his besotted narrator, Humbert Humbert) could
be held in thrall by the likes of Lolita, then the battle was over.
Farewell Hester Prynne, Isabel Archer, Sister Carrie, Lily Bart --
mature women all. Make way for a new kind of heroine. Even literature
now deferred to the young. There was no turning back.
''She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in
one sock," Nabokov writes. ''She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at
school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was
always Lolita."
Britney, Jessica, Paris, (Mary Kate and Ashley, you, too): Say hello
to your grandmother and wish her an early happy birthday.
MARK FEENEY
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/08/15/50_years_young/
[2] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
[3] http://www.boston.com/ae
----- End forwarded message -----
----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 16:16:04 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." ...
------------------ Monday, August 15, 2005 Site updated: 4:12 PM
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/08/15/50_years_young/[1]
50 years young
Boston Globe - United States
... straight into the dictionary: ''Lolita, n. (lo-LEE-tah), a
seductive adolescent girl." The dictionary isn't the only place
VLADIMIR NABOKOV\'S ''Lolita" has gone ... [2][3] POP!
50 YEARS YOUNG
August 15, 2005
It's the sole novel in the English language whose title in its
entirety went straight into the dictionary: ''Lolita, n.
(lo-LEE-tah), a seductive adolescent girl." The dictionary isn't the
only place Vladimir Nabokov's ''Lolita" has gone. Stanley Kubrick
made a movie version in 1962 (earning Nabokov an Oscar nomination for
best adapted screenplay). Adrian Lyne directed another, in 1997. Azar
Nafisi's ''Reading 'Lolita' in Tehran" was an international
bestseller in 2003. Even so, sales of Nafisi's memoir are dwarfed by
those of the original: 50 million copies in 20 languages.
''Lolita" was published 50 years ago next month, Sept. 15, 1955. It
has been called many things: a landmark in world literature, a
celebration of pedophilia, a metaphor for the New World seducing the
Old (and vice versa), even the greatest paean to the modern American
motel. What has not been previously noted is that the sensation
surrounding Nabokov's novel presented final, definitive proof that
youth had conquered the culture.
Think of 1955 as the turning point, the year demography become
destiny. Young moviegoers rioted at screenings of ''Blackboard
Jungle." The film's theme song, Bill Haley & His Comets' ''Rock
Around the Clock," spent eight weeks atop the Billboard charts. Teen
hysteria ensued when James Dean died. RCA bought out Elvis Presley's
contract from Sun Records. Disney's ''Mickey Mouse Club" debuted.
The most popular Mouseketeer was a 12-year-old named Annette
Funicello. Yet it was another 12-year-old who sealed the deal for the
dominance of America's youth: jeans-wearing, comic-book-reading,
soul-stirring Dolores Haze. If even so lordly a master of high
culture as Nabokov (and his besotted narrator, Humbert Humbert) could
be held in thrall by the likes of Lolita, then the battle was over.
Farewell Hester Prynne, Isabel Archer, Sister Carrie, Lily Bart --
mature women all. Make way for a new kind of heroine. Even literature
now deferred to the young. There was no turning back.
''She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in
one sock," Nabokov writes. ''She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at
school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms, she was
always Lolita."
Britney, Jessica, Paris, (Mary Kate and Ashley, you, too): Say hello
to your grandmother and wish her an early happy birthday.
MARK FEENEY
Links:
------
[1]
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2005/08/15/50_years_young/
[2] http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
[3] http://www.boston.com/ae
----- End forwarded message -----