Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Briefly...

I find the commercials for "Toddlers and Tiaras" so completely disturbing... I'm not sure I have words. I just cannot get my mind around the mentality that says "I have a toddler... you know what a brilliant idea is? To hyper-sexualize my child, dress her up in leather and chains, and have her act seductive for an audience!"

I'm reading Lolita for the first time right now. How "Lolita" has come to be understood as a seductive young girl, I do not understand, either. It's pretty clear to me, at over halfway through the novel, that Humbert Humbert is a horrible monster and that Lolita is very clearly the victim of a sick, sick man who lies, manipulates, abuses, and molests her at every turn. It seems to me that it'd be like reading, say, "Johnny Got His Gun" and coming away thinking "Yeah! War is awesome! Everyone should join the military and blow stuff up!" Missing the point for $1,000, Alex?

5 comments:

snobographer said...

I haven't gotten around to Lolita yet. I'm curious about how Nabakov portrayed a rapist as an unreliable narrator, but I'm afraid the book might give me nightmares. Is it in the firsst person from Humbert's point of view?
I wonder if people got the impression Lolita was a consenting partner because of the movie. Neither version was very clear about the real nature of that relationship. But I'd think it would be obvious to anybody with the capacity for decency and rational thought. Or to anybody who didn't have an interest in defending child sexual abuse. The scariest thing about that book is how it's been interpreted.
You haven't been blogging much lately. I hope you're doing well.

twg said...

Yeah, it's a pretty disturbing show. My Soc teacher showed us some of the show in class and everyone there was just appalled.

Mephitis said...

Yes, some people's reactions to 'Lolita' are very odd, (like describing it as a love story or viewing Delores as a manipulative minx) - I often wonder if they've read the same book that I did.

I think it's possibly because HH is this unreliable narrator and the beauty of the prose sweeps them away, while we only see brief glimpses of Delores herself.

Scuba Nurse said...

I have avoided lolita for the reason that I couldnt see the appeal of a glamourised "relationship" with a child.
Made me feel sick to think of it. Thanks for raising this, its good to know I wasnt off the mark there.

Random nobody said...

I TOTALLY get your point. It's also disturbing for me. Some of the mother s have serious issues. It's like they are trying to live their unfullfilled fantasies using their kids . Absolutely disgusting.