Lolita

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Everyone says the writing is really good in Lolita, but I don't want to seem like a goddamn pervert if I get a library card in my new town and check out that ONE book. Is -- are people gonna be cool with this? If I check the book out? I don't particularly want to purchase it either.

It also amazes me that a non-native speaker of English can write a book in English that is almost universally praised as being well, well-written. Maybe this is because I am more exposed to the kind of broken English that Ben and I normally encounter over at the DEFCON forum and so forth.

Please tell me if you have read this book and enjoyed it!! Tell me I am a moron for even trying to write as a hobby without having read Lolita.

[gsdgsd]

I think in this day and age, where you can find video of people fucking each other dressed as squirrels or prose tales of Batman banging Robin, people will assume you're getting "Lolita" for its literary value. It's pretty tame stuff, here in 2008.

I've never got through it, though it's brilliantly written - but that is probably just me. People I know love it. And all the other books by Nabokov that I've read -- "Pale Fire," "Pnin," "Speak Memory" -- are astonishing. He's a stylist, all right.

Go for it -- maybe it'll spur me to finally get through it.

[bruce]

It's great. But Pale Fire is even better. Pale Fire is astonishingly brilliant. I mean, it's right up there near Gravity's Rainbow.

Bruce

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I own Gravity's Rainbow. I am having difficulties starting it.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I think in this day and age, where you can find video of people fucking each other dressed as squirrels or prose tales of Batman banging Robin, people will assume you're getting "Lolita" for its literary value. It's pretty tame stuff, here in 2008.

Okay. Good. Goooood. This.. that will help.

And I hear you (and One of the Bruces) on this Pale Fire thing.

I suspect I'll have some time to kill when I fly to New York for a week, so having a book to read in one of the days would be okay.

I am currently re-reading When Gravity Fails, and it is without question the greatest novel I have ever read in my entire life. That is what I am reading right now, something I have already read. It's even a billion times better than its own sequel, and its own sequel is pretty good.

I tend to do that, though - I read the same five or six books over and over again. I guess they are:

- When Gravity Fails
- First Dirk Gently
- Second Dirk Gently
- A Fire in the Sun (WGF #2)
- Neuromancer
- Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Third Red Dwarf book
- The Kenmore operating manual to building your own gallows deck and its companion piece, Nooses for Dummies

Christ, I am an uncivilized idiot.

(Sorry, "uncivilized idiot" is taken from WGF. See, even when I am mad at myself for 'doing it', I do it.)

[hygraed]

Lolita is an excellent book. There's actually very little in the way of descriptions of sexual acts, and most of it is subversively witty introspection on Humbert's part. A random dude on the street might think you were weird for reading it, but a library clerk certainly won't.

[gsdgsd]

I own Gravity's Rainbow. I am having difficulties starting it.

You might try a Pynchon gateway drug - start with V. or The Crying of Lot 49, both of which are a lot more accessible. THEN revel in Gravity's Rainbow. (all this is for after Lolita, of course.)

[Tdarcos]

I am currently re-reading When Gravity Fails, and it is without question the greatest novel I have ever read in my entire life. That is what I am reading right now, something I have already read. It's even a billion times better than its own sequel, and its own sequel is pretty good.

I'm not sure if I was amazed, but by total accident about ten years ago I happened to be reading The Washington Post, a newspaper I normally don't read because I don't subscribe and don't really care much about, and just happened to be reading the obituaries when I discovered they had one for G. A. Effinger.

Which kind of surprised me because I remembered him from that book. I don't remember what he died from, but I was just surprised that I happened to notice his obituary.

Paul Robinson http://paul-robinson.us - My Blog

[Tdarcos]

Everyone says the writing is really good in Lolita, but I don't want to seem like a goddamn pervert if I get a library card in my new town and check out that ONE book.

Its no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov
- The Police, Don't Stand So Close to Me

Librarians are very aware of this, and make an effort to keep borrower's records private. It's too bad that it wasn't Judge Bork's library book borrowing history wasn't exposed in the newspapers rather than his video rental history when he went for his confirmation for the Supreme Court. As a result of that, there is a federal law that prohibits one's video rental history from being disclosed absent permission from the subscriber or a court order or the equivalent. Your rental history at Blockbuster is protected against disclosure except under very limited circumstances, but your library history is not as protected. But librarians keep your records private because they understand the sensitivity.

Is -- are people gonna be cool with this? If I check the book out? I don't particularly want to purchase it either.

I haven't read it, but I've heard there's sometimes problems with these Russian writers, in which their novels tend to be depressing. I've wanted to do Dostoyevski but I've never gotten around to him, although I understand he's supposed to be very interesting. Robert A. Heinlein reported how his wife learned Russian in order to be able to read those classic authors, like Fyodor and Vladimir in the original Russian. Apparently they're even more depressing in the original Russian!

It also amazes me that a non-native speaker of English can write a book in English that is almost universally praised as being well, well-written. Maybe this is because I am more exposed to the kind of broken English that Ben and I normally encounter over at the DEFCON forum and so forth.

One of the greatest books I've ever read was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which changed my life. She came here from Russia and didn't understand English at all, and by the time she wrote this book it is extremely literate and well written. I'd probably have killed myself by now if I had not read it. So here I am as a result. To quote Socrates, "Which of those would have have been better, God only knows."

Please tell me if you have read this book and enjoyed it!! Tell me I am a moron for even trying to write as a hobby without having read Lolita.

I have written two complete books, am working on a third while finishing the second, and have 1/2 of a fourth in the works. I've never read Lolita either (although part of one of my stories involves a 15-year-old girl having sex with a bunch of guys who are all older men. Or is she really 15? Depends on whether you take how long she's been conscious (over 200 years) or how long she's been alive (15).)

It could be worse, you could have rented The Tin Drum and be accused of watching kiddie porn! (Some dimwitted Sheriff in some backwater town tried to make a name for himself by confiscating copies of the movie [even though it's been out for like, twenty years] because he claimed the film's depiction of a minor in it meant it represented someone underage having sex, which means it was child pornography. Apparently he came to his senses and the material was returned a few weeks later.)

[JC Libertarian alert]

One of the greatest books I've ever read was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which changed my life.

Libertarian alert! Libertarian alert!

[hygraed]

One of the greatest books I've ever read was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which changed my life.

ugh that book is just a bunch of maggots talking about objectivism

[pinback]

Tdarcos, how would you define the magic of Atlas Shrugged?

[LG]

I tend to do that, though - I read the same five or six books over and over again. I guess they are:

- When Gravity Fails
- First Dirk Gently
- Second Dirk Gently
- A Fire in the Sun (WGF #2)
- Neuromancer
- Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Third Red Dwarf book
- The Kenmore operating manual to building your own gallows deck and its companion piece, Nooses for Dummies

Christ, I am an uncivilized idiot.

(Sorry, "uncivilized idiot" is taken from WGF. See, even when I am mad at myself for 'doing it', I do it.)

I've only read 'The Long Dark Tea Time of The Soul' I love Dirk's navagational method, I've used it once or twice. =)

I still have to get the last 'Hitchhiker's Guide' book. Mostly Harmless left a bitter taste in my mouth.

If it makes you feel any better my books of addiction are 'The Dark Tower' series.

[Tdarcos]

Tdarcos, how would you define the magic of Atlas Shrugged?

To misquote a line from the book: It told me I had a right to exist.

At least one other guy I knew back from the BBS days - unlike you, Ben, I never met him, he lived down in Texas - that I recommended it to, read it, and it so affected him and improved his ability to think that he decided to start his own business.

I cannot recommend it highly enough, I suspect I would be a horribly miserable person if I had not read it.

[Flack]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 451AAJFQaG

No embarrassment involved.