Bootle, I think this is a matter of middle-brow puritanical hypocrisy and hysteria about the sexuality of children, which I have gone on and on about on the list. The reason they delete it is twofold: one, bringing it up runs the risk of repeating Humbert's motivation for going into all that stuff with with Charlie Holmes in the first place, that it was somehow all right for him to take advantage of the girl since she had already been "corrupted" at the summer camp--in our day that's like saying a woman deserves to get raped cause she was wearing a short skirt; the whole issue, because of Lolita's age, is officially considered moot. The other reason is that the idea of children being sexual, as we all know in fact they are, cause we were all children once and fully remember our curiosity about "dirty things", is considered sick, an attack on that
most icky of celebrated states "innocence". The sad thing in all this is that people miss the marvelous irony in Humbert's way of relating Lolita's pre-adolescent play: namely taking the pose of being all shocked about the promiscuous sleaziness of crude modern American children, as if he had somehow forgotten that at the age of thirteen he received a hand job from Annabel Leigh, and if he hadn't been caught just before interlocking with the girl so to speak, he would have been no different from Prurient Charlie Holmes! So much for the gauze and chintz of Humbert's delicate lyrical childhood memories of his kingdom by the sea.
--- On Mon, 10/6/08, Stan Kelly-Bootle <skb@BOOTLE.BIZ> wrote:
From: Stan Kelly-Bootle <skb@BOOTLE.BIZ>
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Celebrating 50 Years of Nabokov¹s Legendary Nymphette ...
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Date: Monday, October 6, 2008, 9:39 PM
Sarah Rapp repeats the common assertion that H-H “deflowered” Lo. This takes the dubious decision to reject H-H’s statement that he was “not her first lover.” Is there a hidden reason why some people are willing to accept H-H’s confession as generally honest & self-damning but assume he was lying about Lo’s earlier sexual activities?
I’m away from my library. Does VN offer specific clues as to Lo’s first loss of virginity, as opposed to vague tales of “fooling around with the boys?”
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 06/10/2008 15:17, "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
<http://www.columbiaspectator.com/pdfs/Columbia_Daily_Spectator_10-06-2008.pdf>
<http://www.columbiaspectator.com/>
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/56075
Books <http://www.columbiaspectator.com/taxonomy/term/187>
Celebrating 50 Years of Nabokov’s Legendary
Nymphette <http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/56075>
By Sarah Rapp <http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/47968>
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 6, 2008
In 1955, depicting sexuality between two consenting adults was so taboo that the Hays Code mandated that in any filmed bedroom scene including a man and a woman, at least one foot had to be on the floor at all times. At the same time of double beds and chaste marriages, Lolita was published.
Lolita—the novel about the deflowering of a 12-year-old girl by a 37-year-old man. Lolita—immerses readers in the inner workings of the mind
of a pedophile, and depicts sexual encounters, obsession, lust, and salacious urges, all for a girl who hadn’t yet reached puberty.
//snip
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