Vapid Dogs

(via libraryland)

I don’t think Nabokov intended Lolita to be viewed as porn. The author never allows you to forget that Lolita is a little girl. Every sexual scene that I can remember was prefaced or concluded by descriptions of the girl’s toys, gum, inky fingers from magic markers.

I think more than sexual excitement, the author intended the character of Lolita to be pitied. There is room to pity Humbert Humbert, too. In my opinion, it has been a very misunderstood book.

If Nabokov has held a mirror before us in the form of Lolita, perhaps we should worry most about what it has shown us about ourselves.