5 ratings (2.40 avg)
6 reviews

Steven Garland

Add friend

Steven’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (32)

currently-reading‎ (1)

read‎ (14)

did-not-finish‎ (0)

Stats | More…

Steven is Currently Reading

Steven Garland is currently reading

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Steven Garland said: " Lolita deserves nothing more than one star. This book from start to finish tries to break down your morals so that you can sympathize with a pedophile. I respect books that try to break the “norm” and make you think differently, but this story should Lolita deserves nothing more than one star. This book from start to finish tries to break down your morals so that you can sympathize with a pedophile. I respect books that try to break the “norm” and make you think differently, but this story should not be told this way. Lolita is based on the life of Sally Horner, this story erased her own, she never got to tell her own life the way she wanted to, but I’m sure this 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped and raped would never want this story told in such an awful disgraceful way. You can tell that this story was written by a man, a man who has never been sexually assaulted or raped, a man who has been scared to walk alone at night, and this narrow view from the author ruins this book. The way he describes children makes me sick to my stomach because I have been described that way, that amount of realism would be amazing if this book was not on the side of the pedophile. Moving on from my critique of Vladimir Nabokov as a person and on to his writing style. This book was a chore to read. The word choice is boring, and the author doesn’t know who he’s talking to. The writer needs to decide if he’s talking to the reader or a jury, doing both not only confuses the reader but also makes them uninterested. In school, we read Thomas Foster’s book How To Read Literature Like A Professor, this book helps young readers understand literature, and it helped me realize some off-putting things throughout Lolita. The way the narrator, Humbert Humbert, describes the specific type of child he likes makes it clear that he sees them as evil, going as far as calling them succubi, a type of demon. He sees his own story as a good versus evil, and the evil wins. The type of little girls Humbert likes are all marked with childhood innocence and curiosity. Foster says when a character is “marked” it can tell us about them, and help us foreshadow the future. When the reader hears about a little girl in Lolita, they know this little girl will not be saved from Humbert’s infatuation. At the beginning of the book Humbert needs to get his sexual desires out, they can no longer just be desires, they need to be actions, so he finds a prostitute. Humbert goes on to say he knew she was around 16 or so and she still had some childlike features. He goes on to of course have sex with her a few times, and only when he tips her too much, and she starts acting too “grown” for his liking does he stop. When he described her as childlike, the reader knew she was going to be his next victim. In Foster’s book you can read about how most tropes come from old literature, like Shakespeare, this book is no different. The whole “I’m not allowed to have you, but I want you so bad” theme in this book comes from Romeo and Juliet. He knows that he isn’t legally allowed to be with a 12-year-old girl, but yet he continues to make moves on her. This book sucks. No one should read it, the writing style is bad, the phrasing is bad, the word choice is bad, the plot is bad, the point is nothing about this book is good. It is unoriginal and just plain. This book is made for white middle-aged men who have pedophelic thoughts. This book reminds me of The Shinning by Stephen King. The weird, unsettling nature of the main character’s thoughts are very similar. ...more "

progress:

(page 73 of 368)
— Mar 13, 2023 07:49AM

Jan 31, 2023 12:28PM · see review