We should consider HH a criminal in court, and this book a plea to us the Jury. If majority of readers manage to fall for it and consider it a love story or justify HH, then we have failed as a society, we’ve let HH manipulate our thoughts. And looking at how Lolita is viewed in general, I think we got there a long time back. 😞
Leí el libro a finales de mis 20's o inicios de mis 30's; hace una década, aproximadamente. Me has hecho reflexionar críticamente sobre el mismo y sobre mí. Gracias.
Happy belated Independence Day mrs Eva . Iam Arabic lady subscriber to British and American RU-vid channels. I sent comments to you from long times . Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel.
I kinda recently found this Channel and subscribed a while ago after watching your video about Gothic. There are some books and a couple movies I simply wont read/watch, because I already feel very much apalled by the premise alone. Lolita feels wrong in a lot of ways. Back when I watched parts of Cronenberg's The Fly, I constantly felt uneasy for several weeks. The same happened after certain scenes of The Thing. Those are very much body gore, but they touched on a nerve that makes my mind feel like cracking. The same feeling comes up thinking about the story in Lolita. But I always enjoy good analysis, so this video was interesting at the least. May I suggest a book for future videos? Bloodmeridian; I currently read through it, as it was suggested to me as a very unique book. It is very much different from what I am used to read - not because of the display of violence, but because the style is so... pale. It doesnt use any of the "classic" writing templates to describe stuff or let characters interact with each other.
In my view, Pale Fire presents a greater challenge for readers compared to Lolita due to its format as a lengthy poem. While Lolita depicts a disturbing narrative centered around a deceitful man, Nabokov's eloquent writing is beautifully displayed. It's not surprising that some may struggle with the morals of Humbert.
Lol yes and progressives collectively groaned and laughed awkwardly not merely for the disgusting braindead interpretation but also because shes one of these think of the children reactionaries with her transphobia @evasliteraryparlour
After multiple attempts throughout the years, I finally listened to an audiobook of Lolita read by Jeremy Irons who also plays the main character in the movie. It was actually amazing. He brought so much personality to the character that by the end, I was conflicted about my feelings about him (as intended by the author).
Yes! Humbert is grooming us, the reader, as he groomed Lolita. He is a predatory narcissist. And he succeeds. And suddenly, upon finishing the novel, we are unnerved, because to some degree, upon first reading, we are taken in by him. Really, Lolita is an infinite novel, one of the true infinite novels
Yeah ! some scholars have written about how the readers' outrage is a product of Humbert's seduction of them. According to this theory, the readers feel unsettled because Humbert's story appeals to their fantasies. Creepy!
This was a great literary analysis! I’ve never read Lolita myself as I had been apprehensive toward it, though I’ve heard others’ analyses before and found them interesting. Your video has finally convinced me that I need to read the book for myself. I am a psychology student so the psychological nature of the book is very intriguing to me in particular. You’ve brought up some interesting points in this video, I can’t wait to explore them further in my own reading. Your way of speaking is very nice to listen to, I really enjoyed your video!
Thank you for watching and for your comment. I'm 100% sure that as a psychology student, you will find this novel super interesting. I'm very insecure about my way of speaking, so thank you for the compliment 🤗
I found Ada to be very difficult to read. Lolita I found thrilling and enlivening to read. Its set my mind aflame. And that is what makes it the most unnerving novel I have ever read. Martin Amis said something along these lines, that many novels through history were controversial because they challenged the conventions of the time, which needed to be challenged. However, Lolita is a novel about something that can never be redeemed, being about the grooming, kidnapping and rape of a child. It took me more than one reading to notice the moments of suffering of Lolita. Humbert is a pederast and a narcissist. He erases Lolita totally. He writes with the aesthetic beauty of a genius and angel, yet he writes to erase the actions of a devil and a rapist. The morality of Lolita is located here. And yet it is unnerving. It seduces us aesthetically. It involves us in the thrill of Humbert's voice, which is witty, rapturous, infinitely full of life and aesthetic transcendence and brilliant. And yet we are unnervingly seduced into this narcissist erasure of innocence and suffering. The misery of Lolita is erased by the narcissist rapist, who 'loses' to another pederast rapist who Lolita escapes with. And finally, her death in childbirth. It is a tragedy, that is glimpsed only when we see beyond the aesthetic justification of it all by Humbert. In a wider sense, I try and think of what emotional landscape led to this poise. Nabokov witnessed atrocity covered up and justified by apologists for the Bolsheviks who sent his family into exile. This is just speculation. We can never know what hinterland within the subconscious gives birth to genius. But Lolita is unnerving in a way no other novel is.
THIS! I thought the 1997 movie did a great job capturing the aesthetic of Humbert's prose but it never questions his reliability as a narrator. It's crazy how Dolores's story is not only erased by Humbert but also by the adaptations of the novel. The story is already tragic, but society's interpretation makes it even more.
Great analysis, but how does Clare Quilty fit into this? While he‘s also a pedophile, he exploits Lolita for profit, making her perform in porn movies and taking her to orgies, only to throw her out when she refuses to continue. Why does Nabokov include both characters, and which of the two is more disturbing?
I'm so sorry to hear dystopian fiction is a trigger to you. Dystopian fiction is 1 of my favorite sub-genres. It makes me think; do North Korean refugees find 1984 triggering?
I read 1984 and the whole time I had terrible anxiety. That book made me shake, and I had to put it down many times. I have to read it again the next session, and I don’t know how I will manage. However, my brother loves it. That just shows how different our reactions to the same novel can be.
If you're a student, please do not hesitate to reach out to your professors when you feel uncomfortable reading a book. You will be surprised to see how much many of them understand❤🩹
more than a stigmatization for me it's the way people don't leave other people to enjoy something they don't understand, like a music genre, a hobby, or the level of spice in a dish.
before I watched the video, when I was doing my reading assignment in high school for a literature class about this book, I was uncomfortable almost from the beginning, so I was not able to read the book till the end, I just got an essay from Google and changed some works. This book really triggers me.
I'm so sorry you had to read a book that made you feel uncomfortable. It sucks when that happens. I think students should be offered the option to choose the novels they want to write about to avoid situations like this. It's only reasonable. I hope you were okay after that 💞
@@evasliteraryparlour yeah i was ok, talkinh with peole helps a lot, but yeah it was funny have to read something like that for a professor that its to much of a square
Thanks so much for this, it’s my favourite book and I can’t stand people trying to romanticise abuse. I understand that the book is romantic but not in the loving way but in the passionate way.
@evasliteraryparlour . I like this video, I like Gothic Fiction. I had been part of Toronto Goth scene late 1980s, that's when Toronto scene started. I like Horace Walpole, I like Castles, I like Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, many more Gothic Literatures. My fashion is #victoriangoth. Thank you share this with me.
Finishing up a semester where the highlight course was Faulkner and writers of the global south, writing a paper on anachronism in Faulkner's AA and Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn, great video, thanks for bringing my attention to Isak Dinesen!
I currently have to make a project for an AP class based upon this book. I plan on making parallels to how the frame narration, southern sympathies and social structure, and biblical illusion make the story a Bible like narrative. This video helped me with some of that perspective, so thank you!
I would like to thank you for this video, I think you brought a lot of interesting perspectives!! Wuthering Heights is my favourite novel of all time, I discovered it when I was 12 years old and never stopped reading it since then! 😊 Also, I think your channel has a lot of other interesting videos!!
