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"A super-cute Lolita look"

189 replies

IWouldNotCouldNotWithAGoat · 27/05/2011 08:26

here

Am I being prudish? Wear sandals with socks for a super-cute Lolita look? This is aimed at teenage girls!! Am I over-reacting or is this just wrong?

It's a New Zealand shop, BTW.

OP posts:
swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 18:56

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madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 18:54

yes, that's the yukky bit. the 'concept'.

swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 18:53

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madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 18:52

oh god, x-posts everywhere!

madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 18:52

you're right though. i wasn't very clear - when i said 'everyone goes' i meant everyone who had considered whether lolita as a text was a good or bad thing (but hadn't bothered to read it).

i really wasn't very clear. clearly 'everyone' hasn't read the book. but lots of people make judgements about it.

swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 18:51

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swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 18:50

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madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 18:49

i don't think the general population have read lolita at all. Grin

including the fashion designers.

it's been co-opted. Grin

swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 18:44

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madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 18:23

not really what i meant, saf. indicative more of a reader who doesn't read against the grain.

i agree with you it's super-sad because it could 'pass' as a sort of reflection of life, but i find it all the more horrifying for that reason.

that doesn't make the text bad. it makes reality bad. and the text highlights it very cleverly.

unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have done much to highlight the awfulness of the issue - probably because everyone goes 'lolita, awful paedo patriarchal propaganda' and then ignores it.

i think it demonstrates very skilfully how this stuff can be embedded in life and get ignored - serves as a warning, really, at how easily it can be done. v clever.

swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 17:59

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swallowedAfly · 27/05/2011 17:58

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madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 17:10

but yurk at lolita fashion in any sense. bleeeeeeuch.

madwomanintheattic · 27/05/2011 17:09

god yes, agree nabokov is a genius. to be able to write a tale like that and make it seem so normal, with such a horrific sub-text, v v clever chap. really plays with the reader's mind. v twisted.

the character hh was brilliantly written.

Ormirian · 27/05/2011 15:47

Hey! Paedophile chic! Always a good look Hmm

Hullygully · 27/05/2011 15:46

Also, when I said he was a towering etc, I was referring to all his books, not just that one.

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 27/05/2011 15:45

Exactly, wolfhound

wolfhound · 27/05/2011 15:24

I think it was Humbert Humbert (the predator and narrator) who gave her the nickname Lolita, so as Grimma says, he was creating a fantasy name, as he did with everything about her.

I agree with Hully, a terribly sad book.

Sakura, I think for me the originality (apart from the sheer virtuosity of the way he writes) is in the way the book is entirely and convincingly told from Humbert's point of view, but the reader keeps seeing flashes of the awful reality beyond his fantasies. You see the overriding strength of his self-delusion (which I think is not uncommon amongst abusers) but you also see how wrong this is. Not many writers could pull that off without just being titillating and crude (which Nabokov never is).

I think the sheer awfulness of all the films made of the book show how remarkable the book is - the films seem unable to grasp the intent, let alone emulate it.

Hullygully · 27/05/2011 15:04

It was a jolly sad book. Sad sad sad.

When I was last in India I went into a tailor's shop where they were making engagement gowns for six month olds. And they will be married at 12.

GrimmaTheNome · 27/05/2011 15:02

Hully - quite so. 'Lolita' sounds kittenish and sexy. A commonplace dull name wouldn't have provided such a convenient tag for perverts to hang their fantasies on.

DioneTheDiabolist · 27/05/2011 14:41

Nabokov called her Dolores. Lolita was her nickname (as far as I can remember).

Hullygully · 27/05/2011 14:38

Grimma, if she had been Jane, you wouldn't have had the three syllables that trip.

Hullygully · 27/05/2011 14:37

Yes. That's it Sakura.

sakura · 27/05/2011 14:35

How? What originality did he contribute to the world? That men like to fuck underage girls? Confused

Hullygully · 27/05/2011 14:30

I thought Lolita was brilliant. Nabokov is a towering genius of magnificence. Fact.