Monday, March 30, 2009

Re: Clint

"Humbert was the ultimate asshole, that's all there is to it no matter how he tries to spin it."

I don't know, I don't think this is entirely true.  Humbert is an asshole, yes, of course, but that's NOT all there is to it.  Lolita is a mischievous twelve-year-old girl, and though she seems to have this preternatural sexual know-how, she doesn't really know anything.  She can see that she has this power over Humbert, though, and plays with that power as much as possible. This is a pretty classic move on the part of preteen girls, at least from a child-psychology perspective.  'Normal' examples of this would be Lolita sitting on Humbert's lap, or Lolita vying for his attention, maybe even feeling competitive with her mother for his approval.  Lolita doesn't know what she has on her hands quite yet (i.e., her sexuality) but she can see that it has this overwhelming effect on Humbert (and on other men, we find out, as she grows older.)  So she tries to push those boundaries as far as she can.  Unfortunately, things go way too far, and Humbert is definitely the adult in this situation and thus responsible... but Lolita was a little too deliberately tempting for me to consider her entirely innocent in this situation.

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