Lolita

Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1955. The novel is both famous for its innovative style and infamous for its controversial subject. The novel's narrator and main character, Humbert Humbert, becomes sexually obsessed with a prepubescent girl.

References in popular culture

In her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, political theorist Hannah Arendt used the novel to help illustrate her theory of the "banality of evil". She noted that while in prison, Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann was offered Lolita as reading material and refused to read it, calling it "unwholesome". Shortly thereafter, Thomas Pynchon's novel The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) provided an early example of the modern "nymphet" usage entering the literary canon. Serge, a teenage rock singer, loses his girlfriend to a middle-aged lawyer whom he compares to Humbert Humbert. (Pynchon was a student at Cornell University, where he may have audited Nabokov's Literature 312 class.) As many characters do in Pynchon's novels, Serge breaks into song to express his angst. Another early usage occurs in Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965), where "nymphet" describes Tawny Wainwright, a fourteen-year-old girl impregnated by her abusive stepfather.

Related Topics:
Eichmann in Jerusalem - Hannah Arendt - Holocaust - Adolf Eichmann - Thomas Pynchon - The Crying of Lot 49 - 1966 - Literary canon - Cornell University - Angst - Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - 1965

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In the Woody Allen film Manhattan (1979), when Mary discovers Isaac is dating a 17-year-old, she says, "Somewhere Nabokov is smiling".

Related Topics:
Woody Allen - Manhattan - 1979

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Lolita is the book referred to as "that book by Nabokov" in The Police's 1980 song "Don't Stand So Close to Me".

Related Topics:
The Police - 1980 - Don't Stand So Close to Me

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The case of Amy Fisher, whom in 1992 the press dubbed the "Long Island Lolita", helped popularize the term among a new generation. Screenwriter Alan Ball considered writing a play based on the Fisher case, but the story soon got away from him and mutated into the screenplay which became American Beauty (1999). The narrator, played by Kevin Spacey, falls for a teenage girl who is a "Lolita" in the mainstream or pornographic sense but is too old to be a Nabokovian nymphet. His name, Lester Burnham, is an anagram of "Humbert learns"; the girl's name, Angela Hayes, is also a play on Dolores Haze.

Related Topics:
Amy Fisher - 1992 - Alan Ball - American Beauty - 1999 - Kevin Spacey - Anagram

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In the climax of Peter Jackson's film Braindead, one of the party guests is discussing Nabokov. When zombies starts to attack, he believes them to be angry pedophiles coming for him. He defends himself using lines like, "I never said Nabokov was a pedophile" and "Some of my best friends are pedophiles!"

Related Topics:
Peter Jackson - Braindead

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The Crush, a 1993 film starring Alicia Silverstone and Cary Elwes, is similar to the Lolita story with the roles reversed. In this film, a 14-year-old femme fatale becomes obesessed with a 28-year-old man. After he turns down her sexual advances, she decides to destroy his life.

Related Topics:
The Crush - 1993 - Femme fatale

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The "Media Lolita" term was coined by Infoplease after "teen (pop) queens sell sex" to teenagers.

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In the summer of 2000, the French music industry released a song with the title "Moi Lolita", written and produced by Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat. It tells the story of a young teenage girl, and is sung as a nymphet's autobiography. Alizée Jacotey, from Corsica and then 15 years old, was chosen from thousands of girls between 12 and 18 to sing the song and has become the France's most popular media "Lolita". While placed in the modern days of disco clubs and not directy connected to Nabokov's story, Alizée in the clip shows a much greater resemblance to Humbert's definion of nymphet than does either Sue Lyon or Dominique Swain (stars of the two films).

Related Topics:
2000 - Mylène Farmer - Laurent Boutonnat - Alizée Jacotey - Corsica

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The teen-comedy film Mean Girls (2004) was released in France as Lolita Malgré Moi ("Lolita Despite Me").

Related Topics:
Mean Girls - 2004

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In the 2005 film Broken Flowers starring Bill Murray and directed by Jim Jarmusch, Alexis Dziena has a brief appearance as an overtly sexual teenage girl named Lolita. Murray's character, Don, remarks about the ironic choice of name to Lolita and her mother, an old flame of his.

Related Topics:
2005 - Broken Flowers - Bill Murray - Jim Jarmusch - Alexis Dziena

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