So these writers are just going to casually act like Dolores didn’t… break down completely in tears after reading the newspaper and realizing Humbert is r*ping her like the man in the paper is doing. That she calls him a brute and literally says the line “that place where you r*ped me”, tries to run away from him, and needs to be forced or coerced into letting him SA her. Oh and he literally says that to her initially it’s “just a game” implying she didn’t understand or take it seriously or think he would r*pe her and that’s partially why she trusted him. She didn’t actually think they would become “lovers” she just wanted to play pretend.

Omg can we have a version of Lolita from Lo's perspective where it shows she is just a NORMAL KID!? I feel like these adaptations are determined to make her 'not like other girls' her age and more like what Humbert sees her as than she should be.

There will never be a good adaptation of Lolita until we as a society can recognize that Dolores Haze is a tomboy

The point you make about Lolita being important not only to white females is interesting. I taught in an all-girl high school here in South America and I mentioned Lolita a lot (in part to shy away the misconception of being a pornographic book). From what I discussed with my class, the explotative nature of Humbert, which he tries to pass as "romantic" resonated a lot among the girls. Many didn't see anything bad about attracting older men, they saw that as a badge of honor somehow, because they saw themselves as "hot enough" to compete with older women. The fact that the book forces you to see things from another perspective, kind of opened their eyes how the real power dynamics worked in this case. I am not saying I pushed them to feel like victims but I tried to make them more aware of what would happen in a relationship like this and how men prey in their need to feel validation in this stage. I also think that Lolita resonates a lot in Latina teens because there's already this idea of the "hot latina" that sometimes disgustingly extents to girls as soon they hit puberty. I feel there is a fetishization and exotism that allows "dirty old men" to "forget" that, while a girl looks like a woman, she should not do whatever a woman does.

Trigger warning: child sexual abuse by adult family member I was abused by my stepfather and read Lolita at 14 trying to make sense of what was happening. I was precocious, straight-A, responsible for my age. The traumas also made me serious, lost playfulness years earlier. I had to be "mature" to handle him, his temper even before the sexual abuse. I was manipulative to survive, but I was never a mastermind. I was always a child. Through my teens I was intentionally moody, lashed out, to aggravate him. To get distance from him, to try to make him become frustrated and let me be. He had been telling me I was a woman from age 10 so if I seemed like a "moody teenager/little bitch" maybe he would realize I wasn't worth the trouble. I thought. I always smoothed things over before he was too angry, for fear of too much retaliation. But that didn't work. He didn't stop. He wanted me to play a part in his fantasy. He forced me to behave a certain way. I was forced to smile, to pretend I was in love with him. When I didn't wear the face he screamed at me. I manipulated him within the parameters of his fantasy to delay the worst invasion of my body. He pretended the abuse was a relationship and said we would have PIV sex when I was "ready" so I kept saying I wasn't ready yet. I said whatever was safe, even if I lied. I needed time so I could be best equipped until I could leave and start my own life. As years passed he became more and more frustrated. He did scary things. He said he was done with me several times only to "relapse." Eventually the older I became the more assertive I was. I stopped submitting act by act. His violence escalated to try to control me. He had all the power always. He was the adult. The stepfather. Bigger, stronger. He had dominated my mother, she was a bystander. Anything I did would also affect my family. He manipulated me into believing we needed him. He did his best to try to change who I was, control what I thought and felt, control my whole life. He was always manipulating me. Dominating me. And he wanted to pretend I had the power over him, calling me goddess, saying I will do whatever you want, give you whatever you want, but every time I told him to stop he didn't. Many times since the beginning when I was no older than 8 I expressed no and stop and I don't want to. He never respected that. He ignored me, threatened me, yelled at me, all kinds of force. Kept doing it. All I had was manipulation. I had to be smart. I had to talk my way out of being impregnated. That was my goal - not getting pregnant by him. That does not make me a mastermind. I was very much a child. My strategy worked, but a lot of it was luck. I just used what he gave me. He allowed that strategy to exist. At any time he could have PIV raped me. Any time. He almost did several times. I hid my true self and I got done what I needed to give myself the best start and made an escape plan. I could not have gotten some of those things if he had ever thought I would actually leave. If I had not played his part, not manipulated him. He would have sabotaged me, controlled me even more. Took a long time because I was also very isolated (his intention, homeschooled from 12 on in a rural area, no extended family for thousands of miles) and depressed and self-hating. But finally I fled his house. I was 21. Legally I was an adult at 18 but I had been dominated by that man since age 3 and sexually abused since at least 8. Nothing magical happened on my 18th birthday to suddenly liberate me. But finally I reclaimed my body and started my own life and was able to be myself. I had to get 2 years of restraining orders against him to banish him from my life. I did not pursue criminal charges for all he had done because he threatened to kill me if I ever did that. I was not strong enough for that. Child victim masterminds do not exist. Even when they have reading levels 3 grades ahead like me. We do the best we can to survive, as child vs monsters, often completely alone for years.

THEY RETURN!!! Also “Sometimes we feel like we’re the only people who understand our favorite media.” I mean, as someone whose favorite film is Fight Club and who goes to a film school…IT DOES FEEL LIKE IT!

I’m a Mexican immigrant. An aspect IMO often under appreciated of Lolita is it’s perspective on America as both an outsider and a connoisseur. Nabokov definitely knew America with as much intimacy as any native, but Humbert frequently mentions how people treat him as a foreigner, and how the US compares to the extremely vague and idealized idea of his homeland. Right off the bat, when Charlotte mentions her ignorant and fetishistic fascination with Mexico, and Humbert’s disgust at her “tackiness” that, to me, makes me feel like these characters exist in exactly the same tension I live in every day. To me this book is as much about the pain of being an immigrant as it is about the pain of being the victim of a predator of children.

My parents are mexican, I grew up in south Texas and then lived in Mexico City for 10 years. I’ve been surrounded by Mexicans as well as the Hispanic community in Texas my whole life. Do you know how many times I’ve heard a Latin person say ‘ay caramba’ unironically? ZERO.

I think a lot of people really cannot capture what it sounds like to be a bright young child. So often they get written more like an adult film bro who makes fun of you for liking “popular garbage” but then recommends a Tarantino film in the next breath than anything resembling a smart child. That is never fun, but it pairs really horribly with trying to write a book from the perspective of Lolita. It just throws the tone off in a completely unsettling way. Loved the video!

I grew up in the '90s, and trust me, if someone was wearing saddle shoes around by choice, I think 19 out of 20 people would be asking, "why are you wearing bowling shoes?"

I think if they wanted Lucky to make lots of pop culture references they should have stuck to things in pop culture that stuck with the general public. Music groups that have lasted through time, incredibly influential movies or television. Mentioning The Beatles or I Love Lucy would have been met with more recognition and helped push (in a somewhat stereotypical way I'll admit) the narrative that she was this very intelligent private boarding school girl. She likes things that are popular, but classic

On the "Lolita as super genius" point, would it be better to have this be Lo's own unreliable narrator trait in a story? Like, she sees herself as this mastermind manipulator, but then in the factual moments we show she's not as clever as she wants to believe. Maybe show one of her plans absolutely backfire, or an attempt to hurt someone and they don't even notice. Would also be a very teenager trait to think they have the whole world figured out.

Hello everyone! All of my videos covering Lolita and adjacent topics will include an indefinite fundraiser for RAINN. All ad revenue from these videos goes to RAINN, and feel free to donate while you watch! Thanks for your generosity ❤️ P.S. sorry about the audio glitches around 15:00! My computer is busted and I'm getting a new one ASAP. P.P.S. subtitles are now live!

One thing that really makes me mad about the “I’m too pale” and “I’m too thin” is that they could have been used to emphasis the fact she is still a kid physically but instead it seems like it was used in an OC “Wow, my conventionally beautiful traits are so ugly”. A lot of 11-13 year olds are thin and spindly and haven’t started to develop curves (at least not as much as they think they should), they want to look like older teens but still look like kids and that can cause a lot of insecurity at that age. Being pale too can be associated with children (as many people, even white people, get darker as they age), but the right words need to surround it to get that impression. Have people compliment her paleness by comparing her skin to that of a baby’s rather than Snow White, have her lumpily stuff her bra, have mother try to force her to wear a sun hat, have her try to follow some of the dumb tricks middle schoolers are told will make them develop curves, have her pick at a sunburn and examine the flakes in class. Make her a kid basically.

There's so much room to write books in the style of kids, honestly. Precocious tweens don't write like adults, they write (and sometimes speak) like they THINK adults do. I don't know that I've ever seen it done well, it's very hard to describe, but basically it should be painfully obvious what media the character is engaging with. A large, old-fashioned vocabulary is entirely fair if your kid is reading pride and prejudice, but it shouldn't read like Jane Austen! Actually, any first person story about children/teenagers should keep this in mind, that young people mirror the styles around them, just like everyone else, but to a greater extent because their writing and speaking styles are already in constant flux.

Somehow I feel like so many of these people who real _Lolita_ , and in particular those who try to imitate Nabokov, don't actually realize that Humbert was an unreliable narrator, and just take everything as perfectly accurate description of the characters.

So if anyone here is looking for a book that gets this right I’d absolutely recommend My Dark Vanessa. It’s not a direct adaptation of Lolita but it is heavily inspired by it and the book is incredibly important to the plot (the title is a reference to a different Nabokov work). It’s written from the point of view of the victim and does an excellent job of exploring the psychology and long term impact of this sort of abuse. As someone with my own history in this matter I can honestly say it’s excellently done.

"She focuses on her intellectualism to escape her body" That really popped out to me in the video and thank you for putting into words something that I have struggled to put together coherently. Always look forward to your videos 💗

What a timing! I just began rereading Lolita and I did notice these little things I don't see anyone really talking about. In the beginning Dolores has a whole bunch of problems with attention and I my interpretation is that she has ADHD. A little tangent but whenever people talk about victims of grooming they NEVER talk about neurodiversity. Anyway. Then there is this small moment that reminds me of when I was a kid and that was when Humbert mentions that she used to bring her pictures to show to him. I remember when one of my parent's friend would come over I would bring them all my art and just my stuff to show off. Probably because grownups are always nice to kids of people they know. Probably because they don't want the parents to get mad at them.

I'd just like to say that when I was 13 in the late 2010's I did in fact talk like that but I also thought I was better than everyone else and was very mentally ill I wasn't a private school kid, just lonely and pretentious

I don’t think a “from Lolita” perspective story is needed. I think it’s important to let victims tell their stories in whatever way they wish to, but that doesn’t seem to be what is happening with these stories.

Brian Boyd teaches at my university--I freaked out a bit when you mentioned him. Very charismatic man to talk to.

I loved when you praised Nabokov and said, "I feel like my brain grows new wrinkles when I read him". He was a master, and trying to riff off his work, regardless of intention, is arrogant and always falls short.

so happy to see this in my notifications! I was a teenager in 1996 who read a lot of books and liked to think she was not like other girls and even I didn't wear saddle shoes and speak like a heroine in a nineteenth century novel. I wore ballet flats and quoted the simpsons and grateful dead lyrics incessantly like a normal person!

If they wanted her to wear saddle shoes they should've established that she's really in to retro fashion

I suspect the reason people have this tendency to turn Dolores into a femme fatale is cause they are trying to reconcile the parts of the book where she tells Humbert that she's had sex already, and where she runs off with Claire Quilty. I think they believe that there must be something evil or calculating about her character in order for her to have done such things. Of course this is dependent on you accepting Humbert's description of these events at face value, and of course Nabokov is saying from beginning to end, we shouldn't. Humbert could be lying about both incidents to make himself look better, there's no evidence to say he isn't. Making Dolores a femme fatale, whether you call her "Lucky" or "Lo", is transposing the sophisticated character from Humbert onto her as you said.

I need to find the support group for black nymphet aesthetic girls immediately. 😭 Judging from these excerpts Emily Prager's writing is ATROCIOUS I'm sorry 💔 bless her heart.

Always refreshing to see some love for plays on KZfaq! How I Learned to Drive is so underappreciated even in the theatre community

I remember seeing "How I Learned to Drive" back in college, a buddy of mine was on the sound board for it and just utterly caught off guard at the differences between what was meant to be read as a joke and what actually got laughs from the audience. It was well written and well performed.

New Lola video! But yeah, when it comes to Lolita and it's adaptations, there is a built-in "yuck." How the yuck is handled and presented is what's going to make the difference, I think. It might be oversimplifying or even inaccurate to say that, in the original, the yuck was an intentional challenge for the reader, while a lot of the adaptations stomp right into the yuck, squishing it between their toes.

I used to listen to that end credit song on repeat endlessly when I was 14, and I had completely forgotten that it even existed.

I was an intellectually precocious girl about Lucky's age in 1996 and no, we didn't sound like that. I was writing novels at that age, and I didn't write like that. Nobody in my school wore saddle shoes unless they dressed up as a poodle-skirt girl for Halloween. (One girl was bullied for wearing cowboy boots, if that helps.) Every description of the cultural and emotional life of preteen/teen girls in the mid-90s in this book sounds like it was written by Martians who are LARPing based on a single issue of Tiger Beat. What a bizarre-sounding book. I wonder if the author had a single conversation with an actual child during the writing process.

I don't think it has been translated into english, but there is a french rewriting of Lolita, with Dolores Haze's (Hayes ?) perspective, by Christophe Tison (Journal de L.). I have only read extracts of it (yet - I do want to read it fully one day), but this novel was made by someone who has been abused as a child like Lo, has written about it before and who seem to channel part of his pain into this new novel. So it might be one Lolita rewritting that does speak with a genuine little girl's voice (though still prone to some outbursts of lyricism, which might be awkward coming from Lo) and which explores the suffering she endured. The reviews are mitigated, but it mostly comes from the fact that Tison is apparently not a Nabokov and his writing is not as breathtaking in itself. But I say it's worth a shot.

Excellent discussion!! It made me think of another novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, that (to me) succeeds where this one fails. It's not based on Lolita, but it's from a young teenager's POV and part of it deals with her abuse and manipulation by an adult man. About style, the narrator in that one is super into similes (there are a lot, A LOT, of similes) but it feels like her voice and not a copy of someone else's. Roger Fishbite, from what you've quoted, comes off as jarring and inconsistent. Like it's not clear where Lucky's consciously imitating older styles and where she's narrating as she would normally talk ("it would be a lark", really?) Also, props for pointing out Humbert's "nymphet theory" is just his justification for abusing kids. I'm sure you've said that before in your other Lolita videos, but...yeah. Yup. Agreed.

This was a really fun watch - I especially enjoyed the time-bound comparisons of the adaptation’s Lolita character as being out of step with the time setting. I’m excited to see the continuation of the adaptations series!

As someone who is currently writing a story with a supporting character heavily based on Dolores this video was very reassuring. If these people can misrepresent Dolores so badly and still get published then I'm definitely fine.

Yes the video was great as always, but BOJACK HORSEMAN VIDEO?? I simultaneously don't know if I'll ever be ready for that and also wait on bated breath (not to rush you though, just excited)

I WAS WAITING FOR THE REFERENCE IN THE CREDITS LMAOOOOO Also that racism was SO CRINGE omg. It's more than a little concerning that Lolita is so prolific these days when as you say, it's a work that requires being able to understand more than just the surface-level words on the page, bc that ability seems to be ever more in short supply.

Lola, your video essays give me such joy to watch. You have this subdued, but honest delivery that really makes me feel like I'm listening to a close friend talk about something she's been intensely researching for the past month.

I know that this is something we will never see happen since it goes against everything about Humbert Humbert’s character, but I would kill to know what happened to Dolores during those years she was away from Humbert Humbert. I’m sure that Humbert Humbert might have even imagined this entire part of the timeline himself in the novel or merely blacked it out of his memory completely because this would have meant he would witness Dolores actually growing up, if not mentally then physically (and goddamn Humbert cannot comprehend anything without self mythologizing it hence “nymphet,” irl girls made fairytale, never witnessing his first love grow to this age, etc.) Yet still, I can’t help myself from coming back to those lost years and how re-interpretations seem to never try to look for them despite how important they must have been to Dolores.

YES. IM SO HAPPY TO HEAR SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE AND LOLITA TOGETHER. I did a production of how i learned to drive in college and it truly is one of those pieces of art that never leaves you just like Lolita

"This does set the tone for Roger Fishbite, which I found very hooky-" Oh, that's good. Yeah, interestingly enough, I actually read a bit of this one BECAUSE of your other video on the other "from Lola's point of view" book you covered. I say a bit because, well, I can't say I finished it. Your issues with it certainly mirror my own, plus I am sure some of it was also on me for not being in the right headspace for it at the time, as I had been going through quite a bit.

Excuse me LUCKY, why is Disney going to hell for Hunchback of Notre Dame? (and why does that stick out to me?) Also, if it were the 90s... would she not be wearing like, platform Mary Janes or Doc Martins?

SHE’S BACK! THANK GOD! And with an Adapting Lolita video as well? Omg what a comeback 💜💜💜

the end credits song startled me and I started crying 😭 A+

my soul left my body a second at "i don't think i could model, i'm too thin"

Okay I get that it’s really hard, but especially holding it up against _How I Learned To Drive_ (which I had never heard of until today) which does this hauntingly, _Robert Fishbite_ doesn’t have the voice of a child. Like yes it’s incredibly difficult to capture and like reconnect with an adult mindset The narrator doesn’t sound REMOTELY like a child that’s like :/ Edit: also thank you for the channel recommendations!

I’m absolutely dying with homework- will watch this later when I can breathe! Welcome back!

You have no idea how I screamed with joy when I got this notification

Lola you're a genius djgrjdeh I feel like half the video is very funny and the other half is deeply insightful, and even the parts of it that aren't make me slip deep in thought about these interesting topiics

For SNL nerds out there Emily Prager is most remembered for not being on the show. She was credited as a cast member in a single episode but didn’t actually appear. It was weird to actually see her in that Letterman clip.

I didn't expect a Modelland reference. Great video, definitely gotta do a rewatch real soon!

So much happened in my life since your last video. It feels surreal

Omg I was just thinking I needed a video essay. So excited.

Happy to have ya back, Lola!

Your videos bring me so much joy! I love when you talk about Lolita especially since its one of my top favorite books (and I also have massive grievances with the adaptations the 1997 Lolita is the bane of my existence). We need more media analysis like yours on KZfaq!

saddle shoes made a brief comeback in the 90s. I had them :)

This videos popped up on my recommended so often and then you mentioned one my favorite playwrights!! Paula Vogel is amazing and you got another subscriber

Yay, it’s weird I was watching your content last night lmao. Your videos are just so good, it’s one of my favorites.

i love listening to you talk about media, you have such an engaging presentation style that makes (relatively) long videos go by quicky :D

You are awesome and I am always so delighted to see you put another video up

Always so happy to see your videos in my sub box!! Hope you're doing well

Always great to get your takes, and good luck with your grad school apps! Looking forward to reading your work in the future. Just noticed that there are several instances of a mic pop sound that happen throughout the video which are pretty high above the levels of the rest of the video, e.g. at 40:54.

I’ve only got a few minutes left on my lunch break but I’m so excited for this. 💔❤️

Your videos are so good I can't wait to watch this one several times.

I think KZfaq misinterpreted my interest in Lolita fashion but hey! Nice video, glad to have come across it

Thank you for the video! I appreciate your work sooo much😊

YOU'RE BACK OMG I LOVE YOU

So excited for this!

JUMPED ON THIS NOTIF i love all your analysis so so much thank u for this!!!

_Drive_ is electric, I have such a love hate relationship with it. Your breakdown is on point🙌🏻My main disagreement with this video is the shoes. I 10,000% wore saddle shoes all through the 90s😂😂

I still say making Delores a "perfect" victim misses the point as much as making her a shameless seductress. She's a precocious girl who's curious about adult relationships but grows increasingly horrified and traumatized as it dawns on her just what she's gotten herself into. She and Humbert both start off having a lot of illusions about what their relationship is. The difference is that she's young and inexperienced while he has no excuse.

Our queen has returned 💞

Ahhh new upload! Can't wait to watch this after work

As a private school kid from the 90's, this dialogue confounds me. Then again, I'm also Black, so perhaps that was the point? Ms. Prager seems to be a bit on the exclusionary side...

Annndddd I've finally joined Nebula

Happy Day! Thank you for the hard work and amazing videos! You are an amazing person, never forget that.

Excellent outro song 👌🏼 also great video ❤️

Allison Pregler cameo, continuing the trend of good taste in YT creators.

awesome to see you post again!

There are a couple audio glitches towards the end there, I thought my earphones were dying lol. Anyway-- I love this

spent the last month or so rewatching your work, waiting and hoping for you to spring up with somethings. so happy to learn from you again👍🏾💘

Do you plan to cover Molly by Nancy J. Jones? It was a book inspired by Lolita that I came across in a library once, but I forgot to go back and check it out to see what it was like.

I'm assuming the reason there was a lot of poc and specifically black people in the nymphete community is bc the feel like they're participating in a specific sect of girlhood and femininity that they were never given the space to explore.

Oh heck yeah! Haven't got anything worthwhile to say but hope the algorithm is good to this video

yes, you’re back!!

So I tried rewriting Lolita’s opening line from Dolores’s perspective. It’s probably not very good as it’s more or less the same just flipped and I tried to show how Dolores was actually feeling but here it is: “Lolita, darkness of my life, hated defilement. His sin, his soul. Lo-lee-ta. Poison hidden on his tongue spilling venom from his teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. I was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four foot ten in one sock. I was Lola in slacks. I was Dolly at school. I was Dolores on the dotted line. But in his chains I was always Lolita.” There you go, my attempt at the opening line from Dolores’s perspective! Yeah it wouldn’t work since it’s Humpert Humpert’s narration but flipped but I hope it at least somewhat conveys the true emotions on Dolores’s end. Edit: Changed the poison line from "my" to "his" since it was make sense for her to say that about being called Lolita and I don't think she would willingly call herself that.

I'm greatly enjoying this so far, but I admit I'm almost having to stop watching because there's this... Crackling? That occasionally comes up on my right earbud, and it's very uncomfortable. I thought my earbuds might be dying and tried another set, rewound the video to make sure, and it seems to be on the video itself. The first part I caught it on was at around 14:02 (at the words "she's incredibly jaded"), and then at a lower volume at about 17:19 (right before "that said").

Hey, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Tampa by Alissa Nutting. It’s a gender bent reimagining of Lolita so like female predator and young boy, and it’s a *mess*

I love your videos, thank you so much

maybe this version of Dolores is suuuuuper into the swing revival.

You're back

New lola video? Hell yeah

I wonder if people would consider it bad if ... I did a story inspired by Lolita flipping the genders and writing or presenting it in my own style (manga-esque comic) . not only would that make it more transformative i think (i could write a thesis on the ways comics and manga are their own unique mediums different in storytelling from prose fiction novels) but also genderfilipping it. A creepy but superficially charming and charismatic woman with a perverse interest in a pre-adolescent boy. The predation of women on boys is often an overlooked issue of modern day because sadly and sickeningly a lot of people (including other men. INCLUDING the same men who come in to say "what about boys" when a woman is talking about being exploited like this) will often dismiss the boy's trauma and say he's lucky (GOD i can't imagine how hurtful and infuriating it must be) for "scoring" because of the toxic view that men always want sex because they're MEN. Using the medium of comics I could visually contrast the view the abuser has of their victim with reality and with the victim's perspective to make it clearer at times what's really going on. The only hesitation i have is coming off like I'm dismissing the still very important issue of men being predators to girls in society which I don't want to because as long as this story is romanticized as forbidden love , we still CLEARLY have a problem there.

I was 14 when I watched Lolita and I loved it!. I bought the DVD but I lent it to someone and now it is lost although I dont have a dnd player anymore. Lolita 1997 is the best version btw

Alright, Lola, since the crap hurts you so much, I think you should cover some of the good adaptations--not just reference them as you do in this video, but give them the air they deserve. Most if not all of us would watch the crap out of that.

wake up babe new lola review just dropped

babe wake up new Lola Sebastian critical analysis dropped

Did you swap your regular microphone with a potato, or am I generally so blown away by your delivery that I didn’t notice it’s always been a potato? Love your videos, the sound quality on this one is just a bit rough 😅

You're so goddamn funny & such a great critic.