How Did They Ever Make Us Read Lolita?

Without giving too much of the plot away, Lolita is the tale of a libertine in his early thirties lusting after his landlady’s adolescent lass. Disturbing? Yes. But for the sake of great literature, Nabokov’s Lolita is loved by lots, and slowly by the students who are learning it in our school as well.

A little background information: Lolita was published by a pornographic publication in 1955. One critic (John Gordon of London’s Sunday Express) called it “the filthiest book I have ever read” and “sheer unrestrained pornography”. Soon after, British customs office were ordered to ban incoming copies and seize the existing ones. France followed suit, and placed a two year ban on this text. Despite these disapproving reviews, over time Lolita has found its place among the classics and slowly, into classrooms.

It is not just that this book that causes conversation between students. Other materials being taught in school can contain some disturbing material that can cause students and their parents alike to raise some eyebrows. Lord of the Flies, taught in some 10th grade English classes, contains scenes of graphic violence between youngsters. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, taught in IB2 Lang & Lit courses, contains explicit descriptions of the narrator’s sexual encounters. Catcher In The Rye which is taught in some 10th grade classes features scenes with prostitutes and sexual relations between the narrator’s peers.

Nabokov’s Lolita may just be the most disturbing piece yet, with a pedophile narrator detailing his time spent with a 12-year-old “nymphet” (his term for sexually appealing young girls). Some students have voiced their opinion about how discussing the book may be awkward in class, but majority of students expressed enthusiastic interest in Nabokov’s novel, especially praising the beautiful prose.

It seems that students at our school are more or less desensitised, or rather have a mature way of handling such delicate topics. Most students at AISG seem desensitised to the explicit content featured in taught literature (perhaps caused by exposure to media nowadays), but there are instances where desensitisation may go to extreme lengths and students become comfortable seeing the novel as fodder for pedophiliac jokes. This may be more of an issue than the expected where students find it uncomfortable to read about such content.