tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418420954850727676.post8369609991700195763..comments2023-05-25T16:47:25.504-05:00Comments on Books Are For Squares: Heard: "The Real Lolita" by Sarah WeinmanGerard Saylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00289822422163685990noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418420954850727676.post-62015715847857603272019-07-05T19:58:04.200-05:002019-07-05T19:58:04.200-05:00Well...it happened in part since there's a lot...Well...it happened in part since there's a lot invested academically in Nabokov, who was one of these ridiculously talented slavs who took up English after childhood yet wrote the way they did in the adopted language (see also Conrad and, though some will fight me, Algis Budrys, though the last did learn English while still a child, just not first nor even second). The films notably kept casting rather blatant teens in the role, to soft-pedal the utter rape. <br /><br />Also notable, though perhaps (hard to say) not supportable, the potential influence the 1952 novels SPRING FIRE by Marijane Meaker as Vin Packer and THE PRICE OF SALT (aka CAROL) by Patricia Highsmith as Claire Morgan might've had on Nabokov, as both have "illicit" lovers (lesbian couples in both cases...later in the '50s, Meaker and Highsmith would become a couple) taking auto jaunts, fleeing into the midwest to escape together from those attempting to keep them apart. The Highsmith particularly, it has been suggested, to much subsequent dismissal, might've gotten Nabokov thinking in those terms metaphorically. Both the women's novels are key documents in lesbian literature. <br /><br />Sadly, I doubt New Jersey was a particularly odd hotbed of such activity then, any more than it probably is unusual in the degree of such crime now. As a Camden County resident, I certainly hope not.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418420954850727676.post-85625613325096800322019-06-30T09:59:01.139-05:002019-06-30T09:59:01.139-05:00My husband read and enjoyed it but commented when ...My husband read and enjoyed it but commented when the literary types got a hold of it, they wouldn't like a non-Ph.d writing about Nabokov and I guess that happened to some extent. But since it wasn't supposed to be literary criticism I don't get why that happened. pattinase (abbott)https://www.blogger.com/profile/02916037185235335846noreply@blogger.com