No Thanks, Mr. Nabokov

[Richard Ryan]

I'm going to second the motion.  I regard Lolita as
the most over-rated novel of all time.  The prose
style is typical of Nabokov's ornate, pseudo-Joycean
slop (or pseudo-Flaubertian glop), the characters are
unattractive and uninteresting, and there's no
engaging/cathartic sex or violence - just a lot of coy
pedophilia masquerading as psychological insight.  It
fails on almost every level. 

Having said that I realize that GR also fails on the
level of interesting characters - but the prose style
and the symbolic drive of the novel are what turn it
around for me.  Plus the mad, dramatic excess of the
thing....

--- Daniel Julius <daniel.julius at gmail.com> wrote:

>  not to mention Vladimir Nabokov's
> 
> > "Lolita" (too racy)
> 
> 
> 
> Not racy enough's more like it.  Boredom bursts from
> broad swaths of this
> barren book.  I'll never understand the praise for
> this novel.   First of
> all, if it's style over substance, the style isn't
> even that great, or at
> least not that engaging.  And the first person has
> to be the laziest way to
> "delve" into a character.  I can't remember where,
> but I once saw someone
> call this the world's greatest novel.  Like, not one
> of my friends, a
> professional writer.  WTF?
> 
> But I really enjoyed this article, thank you, Dave. 
> Perseverance seems to
> be so important.  I love the way Knopf et al were
> firm but kind to those new
> authors, and I love the way it seems that whatever
> you put you're mind to,
> so long as you keep at it, you can accomplish.  This
> is an inspiring message
> to me.
> 
> --
> Dan
>