Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004727, Fri, 28 Jan 2000 13:36:05 -0800

Subject
Manet's "Olympia" and "Lolita" (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Iann88@aol.com

Last night a cable station had an excellent special on Manet's painting
"Olympia" depicting a naked woman and which caused a scandal at the time. The
program illustrated how salon painting always depicted naked women, and in
actually even in more provocative and, yes, pornographic manners. That was
the genre. But Manet broke the genre's cliche's and painted something very
real and ironic and confrontational in his "Olympia." Thus the scandal.

"Lolita", in a way, was shocking for the similar reason. Taking a
"pornographic" theme but treating it with irony, winks, multiple
interpretations, pathos, and, yes, humor. That's what made it new and fresh.

Any comments on this people?

Phil Iannarelli