• chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    “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.

    Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/jk-rowling-favorite-books-2016-7?op=1#lolitaby-vladimir-nabokov-19

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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      5 months ago

      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.

      Oh ok, fair enough. Not an especially controversial take.

      "There just isn’t enough time to discuss how a plot…becomes…a great and tragic love story

      Oh…oh no…

      • BitchPeas@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

        • TheDoozer@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          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.

          • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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            5 months ago

            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.

      • Ragdoll X@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        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.

        • lobut@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          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!

          • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            Jamie Loftus’ Lolita podcast? She’s AMAZING. I love when she* is a guest on Behind the Bastards too!

            • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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              5 months ago

              Jamie being a unisex name, I dunno if “she’s amazing” is the typo or “he is a guest” is.

                  • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                    5 months ago

                    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.

    • lone_faerie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      “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.

    • Baggie@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      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

    • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      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.