Posted on 02/22/2017 7:16:01 AM PST by Borges
And what do you mean by ‘limits’? All aspects of human experience should be examined. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.
If state yours openly like I did, then I (or someone else) can pick yours apart. And if you take the BS libertarian road that you don't have any, than I can play reductio ad absurdum. I put mine out there, put yours. What turns your stomach? I am sure I can find someone out there that can point out the artistic value in it...
Is this prompted by poor Milo’s lynching
We didn’t have this and wringing when I grew up
Edmund Wilson was a jerk.
Alex Beam is a massive jerk.
Truly a horrible person.
Mortimer Adler was kind of a jerk, too, but the way Beam ridiculed him was unforgivable.
Great summary. I read it so long ago I don’t remember, but I identified with Dolores. So, yeah, I agree. It’s not an allegory.
It’s a book slyly written from the POV of Humbert Humbert. If you can’t figure out by the end that Humbert has been manipulating your perception of events then you might be an easy mark for a clever liar.
As far as overt sexual content I think that you could point to several portions of the Old Testament that have it beat hands down. Judges 19 outdoes anything I can think of in Lolita.
“What is your limit for morality in art (or more like immorality). What turns your stomach???”
There’s always this venerable old tale, way more graphic than anything Nabokov dreamt up:
‘While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.”
‘The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing. Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”
‘But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.
‘When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.
‘When he reached home, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts ....
Art could and should deal with any subject but it has to earn the right to deal with it with taste, insight and...artistry?
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