Men Explain Ada To Me (was Re: Men Explain Lolita To Me)

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

On 21.12.2015 22:39, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> He definitely created a fictional character who regards women as 
> erotic fantasies and objects of manipulation and who exhibits no sense 
> of the persona of the girl he has abducted. VN put the female 
> character in that role for his own reasons, and neither I nor Solnit 
> are saying VN regards women as less that human. The point being made 
> has to do with the natural likelihood that women readers will identify 
> with Lolita/Dolores and this may have some negative consequences if it 
> does not take place in a broader context where women are fully valued 
> as equal, thoughtful, and having a right to probe at male presumptions.

 > I personally read Lolita and Ada and that was enough for me to know 
that while I appreciated his skill, it wasn’t my cup of tea. <


But in "Ada" the female title character, though not her sister, is 
"fully valued as equal, thoughtful, and having a right to probe at male 
presumption." Actually Ada, commenting on what Van has written, often 
has the last word in this novel. So female (and/or feminist) readers 
should have no reason to feel bad in this regard. No matter what Van 
does, Ada always remains ahead of him.

"One would need another book to describe Ada's adventures in Adaland." 
(Part Five, chapter 1)

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l