The Akatsuki, Lolita and Canada Day
Sasori has upset the careful balance of the Akatsuki! Doesn't he know the rules- ONE PRETTY BOY AND ONE WEIRD LOOKING FREAK PER TEAM. Get back inside your scorpion puppet before the fangirls attack you! T___T
Point of information, I thought he was cool BEFORE he was pretty. I mean- HE MAKES DEAD PEOPLE INTO PUPPETS.
Anyways, I'm a bit more coherent today, so here goes the Lolita rant: (and a big thanks to
devils_devotion for sending me the accursed thing lovely novel ^__^)
This book did some weird, WEIRD things to my emotions. I was excited to read it, of course, but never in a million years did I think that I would like it as much as I did. From the moment I took it out of the mailbox until the moment I finished it, I could NOT put it down. I was out to DINNER at a restaraunt and still reading it. True- it's not the first book to have me in such a tizzy. The first time I read the Last Herald Mage Trilogy I nearly got mowed down by a car because I was walking home from elementary school with my eyes on the page instead of on the road; the week I read Orson Scott Card's 'Ender' series I got maybe an hour of sleep a night; and I read the last two books of 'The Alien Chronicles' (300-400 pages each) in one sitting.
That being said, I can't even remember the last time I went on such a wide-eyed, crazed reading binge on something that wasn't a graphic novel or a fanfic.
SO ENOUGH OF HOW I COULDN'T STOP READING IT. HOW WAS THE BOOK?
I'm beginning to wonder if Nabokov wrote the novel with the intention of his reader having the same sort of relationship with the text as Humbert had with Dolores- as horrible as it treats you, as horrible as you treat it, you still end up loving it senselessly.
This was one of those particular novels where despite the fact that it's difficult to conjure up any sort of realistic sympathy for the characters, you end up so emotionally intertwined with their fates that by the end of the book you're HURTING so bad and wondering what the hell all that pain is worth. What I mean is this:
Humbert Humbert is a pedophile. Unapologetically so, in fact. He is consumed by his obsession with "nymphlets" and it seems that his entire life, whether he wants it to or not, revolves around his maddening lust for pre-pubescent girls. However, despite all of this Humpert is a sensitive, poetic, intelligent, polite, mild-mannered and incredibly tragic soul. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards him at times, he speaks so passionately and humbly of his life. The book plays these tricks on you- you just start to feel comfortable with this character and then he goes and thinks about how he's going to watch the children play in the park through binoculars. Or he makes elaborate plans to drug small girls and have his way with them while they're unconcious. And you're absolutely repulsed, because in the end this man is absolutely delusional.
Perhaps what makes him an endearing character is that subtle stab of self loathing that winds itself throughout the novel. It was stated at the beginning of the book that Humbert is a handsome man. However, he always chooses to describe himself in clumsy, ugly terms. He's very self mocking- Humbert the Humble, Humbert the Lumbering, Humbert the Hummer. He speaks often of his "largness" and his "ape hands", and comments that he slept with his back to Lolita in the motel lest she wake and see his ugliness. Even when he is most gleefully consumed by his disgusting lusts and passions, that sense of shame with himself is always present.
Dolores Haze herself is also an interesting character. She's hardly what I was expecting when I first opened the book. She's not a little coquette- no adorably feminine, high class, delicate girl. Dolores is coarse and vulgar and bratty and wily and so very aware of what exactly is happening to her. In some ways she is very grown up, in others she is painfully childish. I still haven't formed my final opinions on Lo's motivations- I made certain assumptions about her that were more or less thrown on their head during the last chapters of the book. I'm still hesitating to agree with her that Humpert raped her at the 'Enchanted Hunters' hotel, although it's hardly a debate that he took advantage of her.
The progression of their relationship was also fascinating. Sick, but fascinating. Nabokov mentioned in the afterword that many of his early readers were disappionted with the lack of pornography in the novel (wtf? o__O). Apparently they felt that the sensual encounters near the beginning of the book signified... sensual encounters later on and felt cheated when the big, catalystic sex scene was glossed over. Not to mention that the second half of the book lacks the sensual, lust-heavy daze of the first half.
What's fascinating about Humbert and Dolly's relationship is how easily it turned into a father-daughter dynamic. The lacked this dynamic on their first, wild roadtrip- however, the moment they settled down and Lo' started attending school again they began acting like biological family.Which, in all honesty, just adds another more disturbing layer to their torrid sexual affair. I tend to think that when you need to buy parenting books to deal with your lover, you definitely should NOT be having a sexual relationship with them. o__O So here is Humbert Humbert dealing with not only a fridgid lover, but a difficult daughter. And not only does Lo' have a posessive, jealous boyfriend, but also an over protective father.
What I'm still trying to figure out is when Dolores decided that she was being raped. Or if she ALWAYS felt that she was being raped. For the better part of the book I just assumed that she had grown tired of the affair- in the beginning it was sort of a novelty. Here she was, lover to mommy's lover (and, well, considering her relationship with her mother -__-;;). Mommy's husband loved her more than he ever loved her mother (oh, SO much more). However, she wasn't exactly prepared for all the ramifications of having a sexual relationship with an adult (she was, after all, only twelve years old.
By the end of the novel I began to wonder if she only did it because she felt she HAD to in order to survive. The first impression the reader is given about Lo's "seduction" of Humbert is that she had just learned how to have sex and was curious and prideful towards sexual relationships. By the end of the novel, we're left with the distinct impression that she may have simply believed this was what was expected of her. Humbert even begins to regret a little bit. (He broke my heart. You merely broke my life.)
It's perhaps the ultimate testament to how fucked up this novel is that in the end, despite all the abuse and sexual depravity, Humbert's love proved itself true. When he looks at her, seventeen years old and pregnant with someone else's child, pale and worn due to proverty and realizes that he STILL loves her- and that he will always love her more than anything, even when she's old and worn and wrinkled and sunken.
Um, there was a lot more stuff I wanted to get in here, but as usually my fangirling rants suck. So I'll stop before I ruin MORE of the novel for those who wanted to read it.
CONCLUSION: Beautiful, beautiful book. Not so beautiful a story, but certainly a passionate and moving one. Highly recommended... if you, uh, like that sort of thing. o__O
TO MY RL FRIENDS: In case I can't reach you by phone... if you want, I'll have a sort of "Canada day bad dubbing night" today. Bring food and games and stuff if you want- if the fireworks are on tonight, we'll go downtown and watch them. If not, we'll figure out something else to do. All the usual people (who, disturbingly enough, ALL HAVE LJ'S) are welcome! ^____^ Give me a call if you have questions, otherwise people should generally shown up between 2:30 and 4:00. Sorry it's so vague. -__-;;
Anyways, I'm a bit more coherent today, so here goes the Lolita rant: (and a big thanks to
devils_devotion for sending me the This book did some weird, WEIRD things to my emotions. I was excited to read it, of course, but never in a million years did I think that I would like it as much as I did. From the moment I took it out of the mailbox until the moment I finished it, I could NOT put it down. I was out to DINNER at a restaraunt and still reading it. True- it's not the first book to have me in such a tizzy. The first time I read the Last Herald Mage Trilogy I nearly got mowed down by a car because I was walking home from elementary school with my eyes on the page instead of on the road; the week I read Orson Scott Card's 'Ender' series I got maybe an hour of sleep a night; and I read the last two books of 'The Alien Chronicles' (300-400 pages each) in one sitting.
That being said, I can't even remember the last time I went on such a wide-eyed, crazed reading binge on something that wasn't a graphic novel or a fanfic.
SO ENOUGH OF HOW I COULDN'T STOP READING IT. HOW WAS THE BOOK?
I'm beginning to wonder if Nabokov wrote the novel with the intention of his reader having the same sort of relationship with the text as Humbert had with Dolores- as horrible as it treats you, as horrible as you treat it, you still end up loving it senselessly.
This was one of those particular novels where despite the fact that it's difficult to conjure up any sort of realistic sympathy for the characters, you end up so emotionally intertwined with their fates that by the end of the book you're HURTING so bad and wondering what the hell all that pain is worth. What I mean is this:
Humbert Humbert is a pedophile. Unapologetically so, in fact. He is consumed by his obsession with "nymphlets" and it seems that his entire life, whether he wants it to or not, revolves around his maddening lust for pre-pubescent girls. However, despite all of this Humpert is a sensitive, poetic, intelligent, polite, mild-mannered and incredibly tragic soul. You can't help but feel sympathetic towards him at times, he speaks so passionately and humbly of his life. The book plays these tricks on you- you just start to feel comfortable with this character and then he goes and thinks about how he's going to watch the children play in the park through binoculars. Or he makes elaborate plans to drug small girls and have his way with them while they're unconcious. And you're absolutely repulsed, because in the end this man is absolutely delusional.
Perhaps what makes him an endearing character is that subtle stab of self loathing that winds itself throughout the novel. It was stated at the beginning of the book that Humbert is a handsome man. However, he always chooses to describe himself in clumsy, ugly terms. He's very self mocking- Humbert the Humble, Humbert the Lumbering, Humbert the Hummer. He speaks often of his "largness" and his "ape hands", and comments that he slept with his back to Lolita in the motel lest she wake and see his ugliness. Even when he is most gleefully consumed by his disgusting lusts and passions, that sense of shame with himself is always present.
Dolores Haze herself is also an interesting character. She's hardly what I was expecting when I first opened the book. She's not a little coquette- no adorably feminine, high class, delicate girl. Dolores is coarse and vulgar and bratty and wily and so very aware of what exactly is happening to her. In some ways she is very grown up, in others she is painfully childish. I still haven't formed my final opinions on Lo's motivations- I made certain assumptions about her that were more or less thrown on their head during the last chapters of the book. I'm still hesitating to agree with her that Humpert raped her at the 'Enchanted Hunters' hotel, although it's hardly a debate that he took advantage of her.
The progression of their relationship was also fascinating. Sick, but fascinating. Nabokov mentioned in the afterword that many of his early readers were disappionted with the lack of pornography in the novel (wtf? o__O). Apparently they felt that the sensual encounters near the beginning of the book signified... sensual encounters later on and felt cheated when the big, catalystic sex scene was glossed over. Not to mention that the second half of the book lacks the sensual, lust-heavy daze of the first half.
What's fascinating about Humbert and Dolly's relationship is how easily it turned into a father-daughter dynamic. The lacked this dynamic on their first, wild roadtrip- however, the moment they settled down and Lo' started attending school again they began acting like biological family.
What I'm still trying to figure out is when Dolores decided that she was being raped. Or if she ALWAYS felt that she was being raped. For the better part of the book I just assumed that she had grown tired of the affair- in the beginning it was sort of a novelty. Here she was, lover to mommy's lover (and, well, considering her relationship with her mother -__-;;). Mommy's husband loved her more than he ever loved her mother (oh, SO much more). However, she wasn't exactly prepared for all the ramifications of having a sexual relationship with an adult (she was, after all, only twelve years old.
By the end of the novel I began to wonder if she only did it because she felt she HAD to in order to survive. The first impression the reader is given about Lo's "seduction" of Humbert is that she had just learned how to have sex and was curious and prideful towards sexual relationships. By the end of the novel, we're left with the distinct impression that she may have simply believed this was what was expected of her. Humbert even begins to regret a little bit. (He broke my heart. You merely broke my life.)
It's perhaps the ultimate testament to how fucked up this novel is that in the end, despite all the abuse and sexual depravity, Humbert's love proved itself true. When he looks at her, seventeen years old and pregnant with someone else's child, pale and worn due to proverty and realizes that he STILL loves her- and that he will always love her more than anything, even when she's old and worn and wrinkled and sunken.
Um, there was a lot more stuff I wanted to get in here, but as usually my fangirling rants suck. So I'll stop before I ruin MORE of the novel for those who wanted to read it.
CONCLUSION: Beautiful, beautiful book. Not so beautiful a story, but certainly a passionate and moving one. Highly recommended... if you, uh, like that sort of thing. o__O
TO MY RL FRIENDS: In case I can't reach you by phone... if you want, I'll have a sort of "Canada day bad dubbing night" today. Bring food and games and stuff if you want- if the fireworks are on tonight, we'll go downtown and watch them. If not, we'll figure out something else to do. All the usual people (who, disturbingly enough, ALL HAVE LJ'S) are welcome! ^____^ Give me a call if you have questions, otherwise people should generally shown up between 2:30 and 4:00. Sorry it's so vague. -__-;;