“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
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…
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.
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.
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.
It’s a great novel, but not a love story.
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.
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!
Jamie Loftus’ Lolita podcast? She’s AMAZING. I love when she* is a guest on Behind the Bastards too!
Jamie being a unisex name, I dunno if “she’s amazing” is the typo or “he is a guest” is.
Rushed typing, nervous at animal hospital D:
Bahahaha she’s a grill.
I haven’t read the book. I’ve only read about it… but from what I know, I don’t think I’d go with “love story” either. Ick.
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
pesophilia
love of the Mexican currency.
I just think it’s neat.
“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.
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.
For what it’s worth, I think it’s an excellent horror novel told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator.
I would not describe it as a great romance novel.
Funny enough, a friend of mine got into literature recently and he recently read it. He said it was fucking heavy but probably the best thing he’s read so far in his life. I’ve been meaning to get around to reading it myself, but I am also WELL aware that it is not a, uh, ‘great and tragic love story’.
Yeah, this. It’s an amazingly well-written novel… seriously, one of the greats. But I would absolutely never describe it as a love story. That definitely requires some amount of reciprocation and not just grooming and rape.
I’m a huge fan of Nabokov’s and have read Lolita several times… But I’ve never heard it described as horror before and you are so right! I guess before I’d have classified it as tragedy but horror fits so much better.
It’s basically a horror story told from the point of view of the monster.
The only “tragic love story” is maybe Dolores’ mother trying to warn the world about Humbert being a pedophile only to be hit by a car and killed, unable to save her daughter. Or maybe Dolores’ tragic battle to love herself and escape from all the men who want to take advantage of her.
Rowling with another steaming hot garbage pile of an opinion on sexual abuse, no surprise there. What an awful person.
The more you read into the themes of Rowling’s work, the more you realize she just has very poor media literacy in general.
Transphobes be like “think of the children”, then recommend you a book about a pedophile
Wait, all this time we thought “think of the children” because of security.
But they’ve been saying like “we wanna bang them”.
Tbf, they clearly are thinking about children.
Lolita is a masterpiece in the true sense of the word. I just do not understand how J.K. see Lolita as a love story.
Yes, the ending of Lolita is amazing but even in it I could feel the “wrongness” of the narrator. Maybe it’s me but you guys tell me if this doesn’t read more like horror than romance.
The following decision I make with all the legal impact and support of a signed testament: I wish this memoir to be published only when Lolita is no longer alive.
Thus, neither of us is alive when the reader opens this book. But while the blood still throbs through my writing hand, you are still as much part of blessed matter as I am, and I can still talk to you from here to Alaska. Be true to your Dick. Do not let other fellows touch you. Do not talk to strangers. I hope you will love your baby. I hope it will be a boy. That husband of yours, I hope, will always treat you well, because otherwise my specter shall come at him, like black smoke, like a demented giant, and pull him apart nerve by nerve. And do not pity C. Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.
Wow. My skin was crawling the entire time.
I have always taken that to be the author’s intent. J.K., on the other hand, read a love story. I do agree with everything else she said about Nabakov though.
Never ask her anything at all. I mean… who cares? Why do people constantly try to squeeze infotainment from the emotionally ill? It ain’t healthy, all around. For anyone.
I mean I’m somewhat interested in how the Wizarding world manages to keep hidden despite all the kids from the muggleworld supposedly having friends and connections and things before Hogwarts.
I mean, which 11-year old wouldn’t want to tell their friends they’re special? Hmm… perhaps ones which fear some sort of “witch-hunt” if they out themselves as being different?
How about why don’t muggles just address the weird looking wizards who they see on the streets (at least in book 1 chapter 1) and on King’s Cross station. I mean, I can always spot a wizard.
It may be understandable to view the novel as high art using pedophilic themes to craft an intriguing story, with no intention to titillate.
Then you check out the author’s other work…
Oh fuck no…
Y I K E S
J.K. Rowling to give her opinion on
the novel “Lolita”anythingJoanne is incapable of summoning a good take about anything. No surprise I suppose since she also cannot write a good book.
Ok so we can add pedophile sympathiser to transphobe, racist and anti Semite.
I always considered it a great tragedy and a warning about how everything is connected and one person’s lack of self control destroys another person’s life. I never got a tragic love story out of it. She hates him.
Man if I had a billion dollars me an bill Waterston would be living it up.
If I had a billion dollars, no-one would hear from me again.
Lolita is shit Nabokov can’t write for shit the whole thing is terrible and I don’t understand why it’s considered such a good book.
There’s a lot of books out there that I think are famous because they’re exceptionally shitty just in a different way than is typical. Same way I personally feel about Ulysses, It’s not a literary puzzle, it’s just a shitty book where the author tried something stupid and then just kinda kept going. I think Nabokov is a bit more effective, but it’s along the same vein.
My opinion on said novel: youtu.be/skz9odeewpc
