Lolita Turns 50!

[Marley23]

My good friend Garrison Keillor’s Writers Almanac say that today is the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita in New York. Nabokov finished the book in 1955, but couldn’t get it widely published until 1958, when Putnam took it up. Publishers avoided the book for obvious reasons - the same reasons that make Lolita more widely known by reputation, like in the titles of other bestsellers or as nicknames for young girls, than it is widely read.

But I wanted to pay tribute to the book because I think it’s just an astounding piece of work - the level of craft is flat-out intimidating. It’s a marvel. I’d love to write something like this, but I don’t know how.

While I understand how difficult the topic of child abuse is for people, even at 50 Lolita is a widely misunderstood book that I wish more people would read.

[pulykamell]

My favorite book and the most beautifully written book in the English language. clinks glass Happy 50th!

[Zebra]

So Lo is now what? 62?

[Marley23]

@Zebra

So Lo is now what? 62?

Your post reminded me that Steve Martin wrote a story years ago called “Lolita at 50.” It’s in his Pure Drivel collection.

[Humble_Servant]

A few quotations from Lolita:

It is not the artistic aptitudes that are sedondary sexual characters as some shams and shamans have said; it is the other way around: sex is but the ancilla of art. [alliteration city]

There was in the fiery phantasm a perfection which made my wild delight also perfect, just because the vision was out of reach, with no possibility of attainment to spoil it by the awareness of an appended taboo; indeed, it may well be that the very attraction immaturity has for me lies not so much in the limpidity of pure young forbidden fairy child beauty as in the security of a situation where infinite perfections fill the gap between the little given and the great promised–the great rosegray never-to-be had.[rosegray!]

It was a silent, soft, formless tussle on the part of two literati, one of whom was utterly disorganized by a drug while the other was handipcapped by a heart[!] condition and too much gin. [Well duh! they’re literati. Lolita is really funny.]

Liberte, freedom, for imagination/art everywhere and in all ages.

[FriarTed]

There was a discussion of Lolita here years ago (I think the movie remake had just come out) and one lady just was going ballistic about how the book championed pedophilia and anyone who liked the book was to some degree sympathetic to pedophiles.

Then someone suggested that her reaction was a bit “hysterical”.

Woo boy!

She left the SDMB soon thereafter.

Alas, putting Lolita & hysterical in the Search does not raise the thread. It may have perished in one of the purges.

[sqweels]

@FriarTed

Then someone suggested that her reaction was a bit “hysterical”.

I think there’s a pun in there.

[pulykamell]

@FriarTed

There was a discussion of Lolita here years ago (I think the movie remake had just come out) and one lady just was going ballistic about how the book championed pedophilia and anyone who liked the book was to some degree sympathetic to pedophiles.

That’s just one of the many amazing things about this book: just how such an eloquent, passionate, and beautiful book can be written about such a a dark, disturbing subject. Only the greatest of masters can pull off such a delicate balancing act. And Nabakov was writing in, what, his third language when he wrote Lolita?

[Marley23]

@pulykamell

And Nabakov was writing in, what, his third language when he wrote Lolita?

Right. I knew I left out one of the reasons I was awed by this book.

[Humble_Servant]

He came from a wealthy Russian family with English and French governesses–he says he learned to read English before he could read Russian.

But, yeah.

[Yllaria]

OK, the word ‘rosegray’ in Humble Servant’s quote, is it being used as a color? Or does it mean something else?

I tried to google it and got a lot of websites for alpaca wool and sweaters.

[WordMan]

“Lolita - light of my life; fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lolita - the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap at the teeth. Lo. Li. Tah.”

I am sure I botched that quote (darn posting from a BlackBerry!) But damn he can write. I like to say that there is a genre of writer who impose their voice on the story so much that you are required to acknowledge it as a character - I am looking at you, Toms Robbins and Wolfe - but only Nabokov pulls it off.

I have a first US edition of Lolita - the true first was published in 2 volumes in Paris and goes for much more $. I got the US so I could have it in my collection - I love that book…

Thanks for this thread, Marley23…

[Humble_Servant]

@Yllaria

OK, the word ‘rosegray’ in Humble Servant’s quote, is it being used as a color? Or does it mean something else?

I tried to google it and got a lot of websites for alpaca wool and sweaters.

Not sure there’s any official meaning–the reason I like it is it sounds like 3 different things:

–Shades of gray–everything is imperfect in this world in some way

–Imperceptible shadings between reality and imagination (gritty world v. what we desire in our hearts)

–What you get if you cross Snow-White and Rose-Red in the fairy tale about the two rose bushes by the front door (which is not so far-fetched–Nabokov was interested in fairy tales, Cinderella in particular)

One more quotation for the road:

My car is limping, Dolores Haze,
And the last long lap is the hardest,
And I shall be dumped where the weed decays,
And the rest is rust and stardust.

[Invisible_Chimp]

I remember picking up this book with trepidation, but it defied all my expectations. Now, I consider it my favorite book. I think its a testament to the power of Nabakov that a lolita is a sexually precocious girl and not a victim of sexual abuse. Dolores Haze was an innocent victim and Humbert Humbert was a bad man, but damn that book is great.

[Sage_Rat]

While I was impressed by his prose, I’d still say that the book is perhaps most impressive for how much he is able to write about nothing happening.

[Kalhoun]

@Sage Rat

While I was impressed by his prose, I’d still say that the book is perhaps most impressive for how much he is able to write about nothing happening.

He’s the Seinfeld of literature.

[Zebra]

Jermery Irons made a perfect Humbert. I’d love to get the book on CD with him reading it. It’s available but very expensive last I checked.

[Kalhoun]

@Zebra

Jermery Irons made a perfect Humbert. I’d love to get the book on CD with him reading it. It’s available but very expensive last I checked.

Actually, Lolita is one of the few movies that was excellent as a remake of the original (strictly from a movie aspect). I love both versions of the movie. And you’re right. Jeremy Irons was superb. I think it might be the best thing he’s ever done.