Subject
LOLITA censorship in Russia/London Times (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Alexander Justice <jahvah@empirenet.com>
Communist city's ban on staging of Lolita raises a laugh
among lusty Russians
Moscow: Russia's Communists claimed their first victory in the battle to
reimpose Soviet-style morality when a southern Russian city's council
banned as "immoral and corrupting" a stage version of Vladimir Nabokov's
novel Lolita (writes Richard Beeston).
In a throwback to the era of prudery most Russians thought had ended with
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist-run local government in
Volgograd voted to close down the play.
Although born in Russia, Nabokov spent most of his life in the West.
Lolita, written in 1955, was his masterpiece. It tells the story of a
middle-aged man's obsession and affair with a girl of 12.
The book was delayed for three years in America because editors were
concerned about its sensitive subject matter, but it has since become a
classic, also adapted for the screen.
News of this latest attack at the hands of the censors provoked more
mirth than concern among Russians who, since the collapse of communism,
have done much to make up for their years in the sexual wilderness.
According to opinion polls, Russians are one of the most sexually active
nations in the world and their promiscuity is legendary. Explicit
pornography is widely available throughout the country, prostitution and
strip clubs are common in every big city, and even the main television
channels show adult films in the evenings.
The Communist Party has repeatedly spoken of the need to reimpose moral
standards and to ban what it considers Western immorality. But how keeping
out the critically acclaimed story of Lolita is expected to stem the
sexual tide in Russia remains a mystery.
Certainly Kommersant Daily, which reported the incident yesterday, is
convinced that the move could backfire by persuading young Russians to
rediscover the talent of one of their greatest writers. "One ... scenario
is that the city's young people, driven by the spirit of contradiction,
will all go and read Lolita and schools will introduce optional courses of
Nabokov," the daily predicted.
Alexander Justice * jahvah@empirenet.com * Redlands, California, USA
"Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessities."
--John Lothrop Motley
Communist city's ban on staging of Lolita raises a laugh
among lusty Russians
Moscow: Russia's Communists claimed their first victory in the battle to
reimpose Soviet-style morality when a southern Russian city's council
banned as "immoral and corrupting" a stage version of Vladimir Nabokov's
novel Lolita (writes Richard Beeston).
In a throwback to the era of prudery most Russians thought had ended with
the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist-run local government in
Volgograd voted to close down the play.
Although born in Russia, Nabokov spent most of his life in the West.
Lolita, written in 1955, was his masterpiece. It tells the story of a
middle-aged man's obsession and affair with a girl of 12.
The book was delayed for three years in America because editors were
concerned about its sensitive subject matter, but it has since become a
classic, also adapted for the screen.
News of this latest attack at the hands of the censors provoked more
mirth than concern among Russians who, since the collapse of communism,
have done much to make up for their years in the sexual wilderness.
According to opinion polls, Russians are one of the most sexually active
nations in the world and their promiscuity is legendary. Explicit
pornography is widely available throughout the country, prostitution and
strip clubs are common in every big city, and even the main television
channels show adult films in the evenings.
The Communist Party has repeatedly spoken of the need to reimpose moral
standards and to ban what it considers Western immorality. But how keeping
out the critically acclaimed story of Lolita is expected to stem the
sexual tide in Russia remains a mystery.
Certainly Kommersant Daily, which reported the incident yesterday, is
convinced that the move could backfire by persuading young Russians to
rediscover the talent of one of their greatest writers. "One ... scenario
is that the city's young people, driven by the spirit of contradiction,
will all go and read Lolita and schools will introduce optional courses of
Nabokov," the daily predicted.
Alexander Justice * jahvah@empirenet.com * Redlands, California, USA
"Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessities."
--John Lothrop Motley