“There are two books whose final lines make me cry without fail, irrespective of how many times I read them,” Rowling told BBC Radio 4. “One is ‘Lolita.’”
(The other one, based on the context of the interview, seems to be “Emma.”)
Like many other admirer’s of Nabokov’s novel of a pedophile who pursues a 12-year-old girl, Rowling loves it for the writing style.
“There just isn’t enough time to discuss how a plot that could have been the most worthless pornography becomes, in Nabakov’s hands, a great and tragic love story, and I could exhaust my reservoir of superlatives trying to describe the quality of the writing,” she said.
She missed the whole point. The great writing is what is supposed to make you realize that you can be manipulative by narrative to condone evils. Stupid.
I feel like George R.R. Martin was doing that with incest. Starts out with shocking incest between twins, and then spend a bunch of books getting you used to the idea until you find yourself reluctantly cheering for a dude hooking up with his aunt.
Only one example immediately springs to mind, but that hasn’t happened yet in the books. And the way it happened in the show, I’m not sure was executed very well, but I don’t think it was really portrayed as a case where we “cheer for a dude”. He barely seemed into it, definitely not as much as she was.
Although I haven’t read Lolita myself I recently came across a great video explaining how many people misunderstand the book as being some sort of tragic romance. LOLITA: The Worst Masterpiece
It’s ironic that one of the most famous and successful writers in the world made this same mistake of trusting and sympathizing with the pedophilic murderer protagonist while claiming that she wants to protect women and children from the evil trans agenda or whatever.
I haven’t read the book either but I heard this Lolita podcast series and it was a great breakdown about how it was misinterpreted. I couldn’t believe everything I knew about it from mainstream media was off.
Thank you, much love. It’s looking promising. About 2k USD more than our highest expectations though before we took him in @c@
Gonna make a GoFundMe for the first time and share it with my workmates and friends. I feel bad doing it because I feel there’s more important causes, but he’s not even four yet and he’s so important to us… not to mention his twin brother.
Depends on the person, but in general no. Enjoying the book is fine, but it shouldn’t make you okay with the morally wrong concepts it presents. I don’t read a murder mystery and come out of it thinking that murder is good, just like you shouldn’t come out of fight club thinking fight clubs are good.
I interpreted your first comment as meaning that you are supposed to hate the book because of its topic as many people seem to think whenever it is brought up.
Rowling has said a lot more questionable things, though. And even written books about her insane opinions. Calling Lolita a love story makes sense, as that is the protagonist’s point of view, even though the story is also many other things.
“There just isn’t enough time to discuss how a plot that could have been the most worthless pornography becomes, in Nabakov’s hands, a great and tragic love story”
But there’s plenty of time to discuss the opposite when it comes to trans people, apparently.
Oh my God she said this on BBC Radio 4, which is basically the main, national Radio station in the UK. To put this in context, this is like if Orson Scott Card said he agreed with the Main Character in Points of Origin.
Points of Origin was a book written by John Leonard Orr, an arson investigator who, between 1984 and 1991, repeatedly set fire to several shops and woodlands. He was later caught because he wrote a novel wherein a fictionalized version of himself described how he did it, including a part where he set fire to a hardware store in which four people, including a two year old died, describing how he died in lurid detail, right down to the fact the child liked Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, saying that “it was their fault they didn’t get out in time, they were too stupid”.
He was suspected of being, almost proven to be the serial arsonist, but he couldn’t be brought in because they needed to catch him in the act. His superiors were informed he was a suspect, and one of said superiors called the police when Orr showed him a publisher’s letter for this book which basically admitted he did it and how he did it.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/jk-rowling-favorite-books-2016-7?op=1#lolitaby-vladimir-nabokov-19
Oh ok, fair enough. Not an especially controversial take.
Oh…oh no…
She missed the whole point. The great writing is what is supposed to make you realize that you can be manipulative by narrative to condone evils. Stupid.
I feel like George R.R. Martin was doing that with incest. Starts out with shocking incest between twins, and then spend a bunch of books getting you used to the idea until you find yourself reluctantly cheering for a dude hooking up with his aunt.
Which dude, exactly?
Only one example immediately springs to mind, but that hasn’t happened yet in the books. And the way it happened in the show, I’m not sure was executed very well, but I don’t think it was really portrayed as a case where we “cheer for a dude”. He barely seemed into it, definitely not as much as she was.
I’ve given up on anything happening in the books ever again.
It’s a great novel, but not a love story.
Although I haven’t read Lolita myself I recently came across a great video explaining how many people misunderstand the book as being some sort of tragic romance. LOLITA: The Worst Masterpiece
It’s ironic that one of the most famous and successful writers in the world made this same mistake of trusting and sympathizing with the pedophilic murderer protagonist while claiming that she wants to protect women and children from the evil trans agenda or whatever.
I haven’t read the book either but I heard this Lolita podcast series and it was a great breakdown about how it was misinterpreted. I couldn’t believe everything I knew about it from mainstream media was off.
Will definitely be checking out your video!
Jamie Loftus’ Lolita podcast? She’s AMAZING. I love when she* is a guest on Behind the Bastards too!
Jamie being a unisex name, I dunno if “she’s amazing” is the typo or “he is a guest” is.
Rushed typing, nervous at animal hospital D:
Hope your critter gets better!
Thank you, much love. It’s looking promising. About 2k USD more than our highest expectations though before we took him in @c@
Gonna make a GoFundMe for the first time and share it with my workmates and friends. I feel bad doing it because I feel there’s more important causes, but he’s not even four yet and he’s so important to us… not to mention his twin brother.
Bahahaha she’s a grill.
I haven’t read the book. I’ve only read about it… but from what I know, I don’t think I’d go with “love story” either. Ick.
JFC if good prose is enough to make you okay with pesophilia maybe you weren’t that far away from it in the first place
love of the Mexican currency.
I just think it’s neat.
Me encanta tambien.
Lmao I’m leaving it in
Crime novels about murders are a very popular type of book. Do you think that people read them because they’d enjoy watching murder in real life?
Also, the writing seriously is that good. I’d have completed the book if it was about watching paint dry.
Depends on the person, but in general no. Enjoying the book is fine, but it shouldn’t make you okay with the morally wrong concepts it presents. I don’t read a murder mystery and come out of it thinking that murder is good, just like you shouldn’t come out of fight club thinking fight clubs are good.
I interpreted your first comment as meaning that you are supposed to hate the book because of its topic as many people seem to think whenever it is brought up.
Rowling has said a lot more questionable things, though. And even written books about her insane opinions. Calling Lolita a love story makes sense, as that is the protagonist’s point of view, even though the story is also many other things.
But there’s plenty of time to discuss the opposite when it comes to trans people, apparently.
Oh my God she said this on BBC Radio 4, which is basically the main, national Radio station in the UK. To put this in context, this is like if Orson Scott Card said he agreed with the Main Character in Points of Origin.
Okay, I think you need to be more specific? I really don’t know what story you’re referring to.
https://youtu.be/lFUTB48dSd8
Points of Origin was a book written by John Leonard Orr, an arson investigator who, between 1984 and 1991, repeatedly set fire to several shops and woodlands. He was later caught because he wrote a novel wherein a fictionalized version of himself described how he did it, including a part where he set fire to a hardware store in which four people, including a two year old died, describing how he died in lurid detail, right down to the fact the child liked Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, saying that “it was their fault they didn’t get out in time, they were too stupid”.
He was suspected of being, almost proven to be the serial arsonist, but he couldn’t be brought in because they needed to catch him in the act. His superiors were informed he was a suspect, and one of said superiors called the police when Orr showed him a publisher’s letter for this book which basically admitted he did it and how he did it.
Well. I did find that book, but not the story about it. Also, TIL Orson Scott Card is rather a bit of a homophobe.
Hence why I chose him as the example.
It’s a shame that Rowling picked up absolutely zero from Nabakov’s writing style.