The name is memorable, short (perfect for attention-grabbing headlines and Internet searching) and pops up everywhere, from Amy Fisher, the "Long Island Lolita," to tennis player Anna Kournikova, who was still being referred to as a Lolita even after she was an adult, Vickers notes. With that single image, Lolita went from gawky to sexy. But four years after the novel came the 1962 movie version starring Sue Lyon, with its famous poster in which she sucks a lollipop and looks like Marilyn Monroe's jailbait sister. Her appeal is purely in Humbert's fevered mind. In Nabokov's story, which appears on almost every list of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Delores Haze, nicknamed Lolita, is a girl of 12 who is neither attractive nor seductive. ![]() "The Lolita Effect," likely to be the more popular, is a work of feminist pop sociology that shows how toxic our culture is in dealing with girls' sexuality, and how parents and teachers can turn it around.īoth books start from the same point - "the miss behind the myth," as Graham Vickers writes. "Chasing Lolita" is a slim but interesting overview of the historical context in which Nabokov wrote, and how the culture has missed his point almost entirely. ![]() Two new books use the 50th anniversary of the publication of "Lolita" to explore the complex issues that have arisen around the name that has become an archetype. Instantly controversial, instantly a best-seller and part of the pop culture, "Lolita" became a cultural signifier, a shorthand to be used and misused in many ways by those who did not understand Vladimir Nabokov's sly, disturbing novel.Įxploited once, and in perpetuity.
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