Don’t call me Lolita

When I was in college, our English professor gave us a surprise essay exam. We were given 30 minutes to finish a one-page article about our opinion on any topic. I decided to write about Lolita, a novel controversial for its erotic scenes and explicit description of sexual desires.

When it was first published in the 1950′s, people thought the subject was obscene and pornographic. However, it was later acknowledged as one of the best novels ever written and was even translated into different languages. The story is narrated by Humbert Humbert who is sexually obsessed with a 12-year old girl.

In truth, I never had the chance to read Lolita. At the time, I had no access to classic novels and great works of literature and poetry. But I received a nice grade for that essay even if  I just wrote it based on what I’ve heard from people who’ve actually read it. Anyway, I now have a copy of the book and here is what I found on the second chapter:

I was born in 1910, in Paris. My father was a gentle, easy-going person, a salad of racial genes: a Swiss citizen, of mixed French and Austrian descent, with a dash of the Danube in his veins.

The narrator is from Paris! Now I believe I am meant to read this book I already know the entire story and I’ve read plenty of reviews but I am excited to finish all my tasks so I can start reading it. Here’s our little secret. I wrote in my essay that Anna Kournikova, the Russian tennis star, refused to be called Lolita because of this novel. It’s a lie. I was just trying to make my essay longer because we were required to fill a long yellow paper with words and sentences.

This is an interesting thing Vladimir Nabokov, the author, said:

I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don’t seem to name their daughters Lolita any more.

Really? Well, I think Lolita is a cute name. Same as Lilian, Marie, and Kelly