musings of a cat lady

May 2, 2012

gunstreet:

suicideblonde:

Among the problems Nabokov’s Lolita poses for the book designer, probably the thorniest is the popular misconception of the title character. She’s chronically miscast as a teenage sexpot—just witness the dozens of soft-core covers over the years. “We are talking about a novel which has child rape at its core,” says John Bertram, an architect and blogger who, three years ago, sponsored a Lolita cover competition asking designers to do better.
Now the contest is being turned into a book, due out in June and coedited by Yuri Leving, with essays on historical cover treatments along with new versions by 60 well-known designers, two-thirds of them women: Barbara deWilde, Jessica Helfand, Peter Mendelsund, and Jennifer Daniel, to name a few. They don’t shy away from frank sexuality, but they add layers of darkness and complication. And like Jamie Keenan’s cover—a claustrophobic room that morphs into a girl in her underwear—they provoke without asking readers to abdicate their responsibility.
(via Recovering Lolita — Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers)

I saw the movies before reading the book, and after reading the book I was maddened by the way the films portrayed Humbert as a fairly regular guy with a tragic past who just happened to fall in love with a young teenage girl. In the book he’s quite obviously a pedophile; what makes the book interesting (aside from Nabokov’s poetic way of storytelling) is the same thing that makes A Clockwork Orange interesting: it is told in a way that forces you to feel pity for someone who is clearly a villain.

I felt no pity for Lolita’s kidnapper and rapist. It took me ages to finish the book because I kept getting sick as Nabokov tried to romanticize child rape. It’s beautifully written, but the story is horrific. I hate the way society portrays Lolita as a tart, when she is truly the victim of a terrible man.
But, neat about the book coming out with (hopefully) improved cover ideas. :)

suicideblonde:

Among the problems Nabokov’s Lolita poses for the book designer, probably the thorniest is the popular misconception of the title character. She’s chronically miscast as a teenage sexpot—just witness the dozens of soft-core covers over the years. “We are talking about a novel which has child rape at its core,” says John Bertram, an architect and blogger who, three years ago, sponsored a Lolita cover competition asking designers to do better.

Now the contest is being turned into a book, due out in June and coedited by Yuri Leving, with essays on historical cover treatments along with new versions by 60 well-known designers, two-thirds of them women: Barbara deWilde, Jessica Helfand, Peter Mendelsund, and Jennifer Daniel, to name a few. They don’t shy away from frank sexuality, but they add layers of darkness and complication. And like Jamie Keenan’s cover—a claustrophobic room that morphs into a girl in her underwear—they provoke without asking readers to abdicate their responsibility.

(via Recovering Lolita — Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers)

I saw the movies before reading the book, and after reading the book I was maddened by the way the films portrayed Humbert as a fairly regular guy with a tragic past who just happened to fall in love with a young teenage girl. In the book he’s quite obviously a pedophile; what makes the book interesting (aside from Nabokov’s poetic way of storytelling) is the same thing that makes A Clockwork Orange interesting: it is told in a way that forces you to feel pity for someone who is clearly a villain.

I felt no pity for Lolita’s kidnapper and rapist. It took me ages to finish the book because I kept getting sick as Nabokov tried to romanticize child rape. It’s beautifully written, but the story is horrific. I hate the way society portrays Lolita as a tart, when she is truly the victim of a terrible man.

But, neat about the book coming out with (hopefully) improved cover ideas. :)

(via oldmoleskine)

6:43am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZX7odwKkChOv

(Notes: 4,400)