[Update 7/16/18: Conservative Shelby Steele has extended the “innocence” meme to apply to “White Guilt” over slavery and similar crimes against black people: he argues that “innocence” is recaptured for white people through such stratagems as reparations (i.e., “multiculturalism ” and “diversity.”)]
The Harvey Weinstein scandal and LOLITA are connected in my mind for both cast reflections on the confusing rearing of the middle class female who supposed to be innocent and knowing at the very same time.
We are supposed to please men by not growing up. Hence Humbert Humbert’s obsession with “nymphets.”
Nabokov ostensibly wrote a parody and a novel about the act of writing (that makes him a postmodernist linking Kafka-esque nihilism and trendy modernism). But I noticed that Humbert Humbert viewed young actresses with disdain (as whorish), which made me think that Harvey Weinstein’s proclivity for undeveloped actresses had literary precedents.
Perfectly nice girls are supposed to be both prim and slutty enough to attract a superior male, but who can discern the boundaries between classes?
Or what constitutes pornography (as contrasted with serious literature that can masquerade as porn, as LOLITA does)?
It helps to know that females (especially “middle class” women) experience a lifetime of mixed messages. We are urged to attain independence and professional achievement, but not to lose sight of the overwhelming importance of family life. We crave “love,” whatever that may be. As mothers, we are lectured about the importance of early attachments, but then urged to let our children grow up and find their own path.
movie lobby card, abaa.org
Similarly, we are supposed to be patriotic, but not too patriotic. In a polarized society, how can we find “the golden mean” (a relic of classical antiquity)? And yet we are bombarded by images of “moderation,” of reconciling opposites!
No wonder Vladimir Nabokov put “reality” in quotes.
rainagain blog
The Clare Spark Blog 
Reblogged this on YDS: The Clare Spark Blog and commented:
Consistently clicked. Its mixed-message to women is resonating.
Comment by clarelspark — May 29, 2018 @ 4:14 pm |
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