[ SECRET POST #5622 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5622 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 51 secrets from Secret Submission Post #805.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: What are you reading?

[(Anonymous)]

"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov

I'm glad I didn't read this book when I was young and without context about the unreliable narrator. I don't know how I would have received this book when I was young, but reading it now, it really makes me wonder how anyone can like Humbert Humbert at all? His descriptions of watching children at the beginning of the book is so fucking creepy. How can anyone want to follow him and think his love for Delores/Lolita was anything but a disgusting monster wanting to do whatever he wanted to a child?

Re: What are you reading?

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, I hated him so much! I don't know why any of the other characters put up with him, even not knowing that he's a child abuser, he's still an arsehole!

Re: What are you reading?

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Right?? Humbert just sounds so full of himself and so overly defensive when talking about things he did or thoughts he had. "I know it's wrong but..." as if whatever he says afterwards is a good reason to absolve him of anything else that comes afterwards.

Re: What are you reading?

[(Anonymous)]

Lolita is one of my favourite books of all time because its unreliable narrator is sooo good. This book does what it intended to do perfectly. It makes you sick in the stomach. I read this book when I was 13-15 years old (I don't remember exactly) and I got the author's intention even then, when I had almost no context whatsoever. The story and the protagonist himself is so revolting and so well written.

People romanticizing this books as a "love story" don't have any reading and comprehension skill. Or they're just seeing what they want to/what they are in Humbert.
Nabokov is a genius and it's a shame that some people diss this book without even reading it.

Re: What are you reading?

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I watched the Adrian Lyne version when I was young because of the intense interest around its release from entertainment news, MTV and VH1 spots. I was addicted to TV and movies and my parents didn't pay attention to ANYTHING I consumed; they were immigrants from Asia so they had no interest in pop culture nor could I engage with them about interests I had. I was under the impression that the story was "racy and controversial" so I was very curious as to WHY it was deemed to be that. 11-12YO me was so confused. I knew it was wrong the relationship between Humbert and Lolita, but at the same time I was VERY aware that the movie was setup to make Humbert seem blameless and Lolita as the one pushing for "more" in the relationship and I didn't know how to feel. I wasn't sure if I liked the relationship or if I should even find it hot because I certainly knew grown men around me scared me and I didn't want any sort of focused attention from them. But the way the movie setup the relationship and the depiction of Lolita in this version made me feel like I should want to like it, so young me likely internalized that ("the young, inexperienced girl who is playful with an older, intelligent man is a sexy risque thing worth exploring; older men and younger women relationships are complex" when in reality it's way more complicated as well as the situation between Humbert and Dolores was very much NOT that).

Reading it after a couple decades of sort of existing with the legacy and iconography of "Lolita", it is really sad to know how the culture shaped around this "love story" narrative. It's...something that people can fall into relating to Humbert or finding his reasoning and excuses as rational. But I suppose that was Nabokov's point. People are so fixated with the abuser they don't allow room to see the horror of their actions.

I mean, decades of jokes about "Harvey Weinstein is a creepy assaulter" ran around Hollywood. Woody Allen still has a career. Roman Polanski still has a career. Louise CK still has a career. James Franco still has a career (and his friends will publicly claim not to be associated with him anymore but still silently work with him BTS).

We as a society are fucked up. Nabokov called it out decades ago and we're still not doing anything about it.