Current Events > what would the average person think if i told them my favorite book is lolita?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i never read it, but i know what it's about. And I know that the point of it was to take the reader into the mind of an individual so foreign to our own

The average person that knows the book would laugh and call you a creep

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/0/AAJBROAADWVW.jpg

I mean if you told someone you favorite book was Lolita and followed that up with explaining that you havent actually read it, you just know what its about, Im guessing they would probably have an understandably negative reaction to that.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

The average person that knows the book would laugh and call you a creep

do you think it's out of ignorance?

What do you think it's about?

WalkingLobsters posted...

do you think it's out of ignorance?

Narrator: yes

I think there are many otherwise well educated people who feel the need to reject any media they think could even give anyone the slightest thought that they would be into that type of thing.

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I've met men and women who've stated it was their favorite book. I never thought of them as hiding a sinister side of themselves. It's like if people say "There Will be Blood" is their favorite movie. I view it as an appreciation creator's ability to present a psychologically distant character to audiences. I don't assume they enjoy the film because they resonate with Daniel Plainview.

Just read the first 2 sentences. It's beautiful:
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

WalkingLobsters posted...

I've met men and women who've stated it was their favorite book.

Really.

You've met people who not only read it, but it's their favourite book. Not one person. Multiple people.

And each one you somehow steered the conversation into them saying it's their favourite.

You are full of shit.

WalkingLobsters posted...

I've met men and women who've stated it was their favorite book.

What circles are you in. I don't even think I interacted with anyone that even knew the book existed.

cry

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I think that would be reading lightyears too far into something. But the book portrays the main character as a delusional narcissistic sociopath, which is kind of the whole draw, as a character study.

It's almost like accusing people of liking the Diary of Anne Frank because they liked the outcome. That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it?

I think you will get different reactions from people who have actually read it vs. people who have just know what it is about but haven't actually read it.

You seem like someone who has a nuanced opinion on the age of consent.

WalkingLobsters posted...

I've met men and women who've stated it was their favorite book. I never thought of them as hiding a sinister side of themselves. It's like if people say "There Will be Blood" is their favorite movie. I view it as an appreciation creator's ability to present a psychologically distant character to audiences. I don't assume they enjoy the film because they resonate with Daniel Plainview.

Just read the first 2 sentences. It's beautiful:
"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins . My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

That. That one right there. Kinda squicky.

The book has a pretty much "Hays Code" ending, so whatever.

You know, I have never heard if the book is good or not.

But, why though?

Turbam posted...

You know, I have never heard if the book is good or not.

It's basically "word candy".
Nabokov didn't want a grand moral lesson or anything, and just wanted to tell a story for the sake of telling a story. Still has a "divine punishment" sort of end, tho.

-BrokenSpiral- posted...

Really.

You've met people who not only read it, but it's their favourite book. Not one person. Multiple people.

And each one you somehow steered the conversation into them saying it's their favourite.

You are full of shit.

I never had a conversation saying it was their favorite. It was stated on their yelp page as their favorite book. And I was never close with them. Just people I've met in passing.

Unknown5uspect posted...

What circles are you in. I don't even think I interacted with anyone that even knew the book existed.

Have you never taken a college level English class or ever interacted with English majors? This book was brought up several times.

I haven't read it, but isn't he supposed to be a fucked up dude?

I wouldn't assume someone was a sociopath if Silence of the Lambs was their favorite book.

Idk and idc

A girl I was talking to on Tinder said that Lolita was her favorite book, and she was born to serve an older man. Sadly, she chose another guy over me.

"what would the average person think if i told them my favorite book is lolita?"

I think your yelp friends did exactly that. You might want to ask them instead of gamefaqs?!

Tbh this is confusing. Someone asked what circle you were in and you mentioned English class/major. So how come this book was brought up several times in your class yet you somehow managed to never read it but still knew what it was all about? This is weird as hell. Maybe you merely used wikipedia instead of the book itself? I know your English teacher would hate you for that.

So was it really your class? Your friends' English class maybe and you just knew from them? But you also mentioned in the same exact post that you were never close to anyone who read this book, much less having a conversation about it. Why would they told you about their class if you only met them in passing?

Forgive my rudeness but I get the feeling you're not being completely honest here TC.

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Name a single book in which you can't make weird insinuations like this, and i'lll tell you what you get: some boring ass book.

Like, do we need to be careful around people who like Misery because maybe they are obsessive maniacs who would kidnap their coveted? Or perhaps because they are narcotic addicts?

I think if we take pretty much any other book it's probably obvious that this is a ridiculous train of thought. But if pedophilia is involved, peoples' brains break.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Notice how i used a book of his, specifically, that wouldn't break your brain though.

Should we keep fans of Misery on a checklist?

if u read the book u like the thing

*awkwardly scoots away*

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like how people love fight club and infinite jest

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There's no special logic that gets applied to one book, but not others.

Like, if you are saying that people's literary choices reflect directly their personality traits, you are saying it for all books, not just ones you deem potentially icky.

This is what i mean, your brain breaks.

I think, fundamentally, this type of argument is like a small (but easily traversed) gateway to fascism and anti-intellectualism. The type that leads to book burnings.

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If they said: this is my favorite book because it was illuminating in understanding Hitler's state of mind, i wouldn't question it. Unless that person also happened to have an SS tattooed on there's neck and regularly attended white nationalist events.

If someone said: it's my favorite because I agree with Hitler, that's a different story.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

There's a difference between a fictional story and a political manifesto.

I'm not entirely ignorant of what Bitter is saying though.

There is a sense that there is cross contamination across concepts. Like if you are acknowledging the beauty of a kind of prose, you also acknowledge the beauty of the events that the prose is depicting. That is to say, the aesthetic properties of the action lends itself to influence the aesthetics of the prose. You have to visualize something being beautiful (not attractive, just aesthetically charged) in order to convey it in a beautiful way. The problem is when you acknowledge problematic behavior as being a natural property of the realm of aesthetics for higher pleasures, it basically amounts to saying "there is filth in heaven."

What's Lolita?

"Literally who?"

Buu_88 posted...

What's Lolita?

A book about a man obsessed with his twelve-year old stepdaughter. Because it's told from his point of view, Lolita seems like a seductress who's tempting him to have his way with her, but he's really just a piece of shit raping a child.