Reading Lolita in Tehran first

Many people have not been too happy that we had to read Reading Lolita in Tehran before Lolita because it seems that the mysteries of the book has been given away. I was not too happy either, but for a slightly different reason. I was a bit upset because I seemed I was being told what to think about Lolita before I even read it. Nafisi talks about how some critics did not like Lolita because they believed that "Nabokov had turned the rape of a twelve year old girl into an aesthetic experience." I am not saying that I would have agreed with Lolita's critics, or even Humbert(her kidnapper), but how would I know, I no longer have that choice. I feel sorry for what the girls in Nafisi's class have gone through, so as they are the protagonists, I am on their side, so whatever they believe is right, I too must believe. Yes, I could still try to formulate my own opinions of Lolita, but wouldn't that be just as ignorant as trying to guess what an object is by feeling it after already being told what it is?
From what I now know of Lolita, I agree(obviously) with the opinions of Nafisi and her girls, but I wonder if I would have missed the point of the book if I had not been told before hand.