Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011815, Fri, 9 Sep 2005 20:42:59 -0700

Subject
Fwd: Re: Jo Morgan response to Holland-Batt review of_Solving
LOLITA's Riddle_: Part
Date
Body
EDNOTE. Dr. Stadlen is a well-known British psychiatrist and scholar.

----- Forwarded message from STADLEN@aol.com -----
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 05:29:45 EDT
From: STADLEN@aol.com
Reply-To: STADLEN@aol.com
Subject: Re: Jo Morgan response to Holland-Batt review of_Solving LOLITA's
Riddle_: Part
To:

In a message dated 09/09/2005 03:51:11 GMT Standard Time,
chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu writes:

> My book also includes an appendix where an adult survivor of incest
> recounted at length how Lolita was used by her step-father as a "how to"
> guide for his sexual abuse of her. This is precisely what some defenders of
> Lolita have point-blank denied could ever happen.

It is, of course, stupid of the defenders of "Lolita" to deny that this could
ever happen. But if we were to ban every text whose selective quoation could
be put to evil use, or to promote a view other than, or even diametrically
opposed to, that which it embodies or explicitly states, there would be nothing
left to read. Ms Morgan's argument is strictly analogous to that of a
practising Jew or Christian who finds the Bible worrying because it contains the
message "There is no God" in the verse "The fool hath said in his heart, there
is no
God."

Anthony Stadlen

----- End forwarded message -----
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