# Don't Stand So Close To Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 18, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867 "2000-01-18T20:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/1 "2000-01-18T20:52:00Z")
You guys are so smart- what does this line mean exactly? > [@](#): > > He starts to shake and cough > Just like the old man in > That book by Nabakov Zette * * * Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high. Not enough and you’re gonna die… [Click here for some GOOD news for a change](http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Sanews5.html)[Zettecity](http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![missdavis102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/2 "2000-01-18T20:55:00Z")
Book in question is Lolita. The parallel is the old man in the book (the stepfather?) and Lolita to the teacher and student. ---
**Author:** ![Boris\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@Boris\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boris_B)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/3 "2000-01-18T20:57:00Z")
Sting is talking about _Lolita_, a very controversial and famous book about an affair between and older guy and a younger girl. Younger as in, like, 14. (Can’t remember her age exactly.) Anyway, the point is, the young teacher gets really nervous being around his teenage girl students since it makes him recollect all these passionate-but-reprehensible events in Nabokov’s book. The question I have about Sting’s meaning is, is he nervous cause he’s really got the hots for the girl, and afraid he’ll violate professional ethics, or is he just afraid somebody’s gonna think that? Never really figured it out from the song. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/4 "2000-01-18T21:03:00Z")
A reference to Lolita by Vladamir Nabakov. Young girl and old(er) man. Haven’t read it, so I assume the guy nervously shakes and coughs when he sees Lolita. * * * I looked in the mirror today/My eyes just didn’t seem so bright I’ve lost a few more hairs/I think I’m going bald - Rush ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/5 "2000-01-18T21:58:00Z")
:::clicks stopwatch::: 3 minutes! Damn you guys are good! Thanks for the info 🙂 🙂 Zette * * * Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high. Not enough and you’re gonna die… [Click here for some GOOD news for a change](http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Sanews5.html)[Zettecity](http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/6 "2000-01-18T22:02:00Z")
For more info: [Yahoo!'s Lolita category](http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Genres/Literary_Fiction/Authors/Nabokov __Vladimir__ 1899_1977_/Lolita/) ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2000, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/7 "2000-01-18T22:20:00Z")
The man in question is Humbert Humbert in the novel Lolita. He is obsessed with her and has some very outward nevrous expressions of his secrets when confronted by strangers and somewhat revealing situations. Very good book, and the most recent treatment of it starring Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain is quite good as well. * * * If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors. ---
**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/8 "2000-01-19T03:15:00Z")
Lolita was 12, as I recall. And also, I believe I read somewhere that the song was in reference to a specific event that occured while Sting was employed as a schoolteacher. * * * An infinite number of rednecks in an infinite number of pickup trucks shooting an infinite number of shotguns at an infinite number of road signs will eventually produce all the world’s great works of literature in Braille. ---
**Author:** ![psycat90](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/9 "2000-01-19T03:18:00Z")
Odd little coinkydink. Just finished watching the Mary Kay Letournea story. * * * If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun. -Benjamin Franklin ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/10 "2000-01-19T03:33:00Z")
Lolita was a movie 2 times. I don’t know if you become a pedophile if you rent it. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/11 "2000-01-19T04:13:00Z")
That Sting! He used to teach English and is just so goldurned literate! ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/12 "2000-01-19T17:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by sunbear: > **Lolita was a movie 2 times. I don’t know if you become a pedophile if you rent it.** Yes it was sun, which is why i specified which version i preferred by nameing the stars if the most recent version. * * * If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully–as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2000, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-stand-so-close-to-me/12867/13 "2000-01-19T17:08:00Z")
yeah, Sting kicks ass, the best song writer of our times . . . I can only get away with this post cause its MPSIMS