Lolita and It's Cultural Impact

     When one asks me what I think of the story Lolita, the first emotional and physical remark that I can give is pure disgust. As a lover for the literature art, the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov has left an unpleasant mark on me in the sense of the plot and the main character. In a nutshell, the story is about a 35 year old man with a disturbing infatuation with a 12 year old girl, all while the story is viewed from the perverted man's point of view. 

     For some, this may be considered a work of art, what with the character's "amazing" play of words and manipulative ways to trick the readers into viewing the world as he does and how his sexual desire for the child is far from criminal. However, the further I read into the book, the more disgusted I was, and could not even fathom the idea of this book being classified as a work of art. His manipulative and perverted demeanor makes him a very undesirable character (no matter how much he claims he is loved by all) and the idea that he plays with the words to make him sound above the rest of society makes him frightening and downright loath able to me. It does not help by the slightest that his infatuation with the young child, who has a twenty year difference with the main character is disturbing as it is frightening. It does not make him an interesting character and it does not help the idea of romance, this guy, at his core, is a pure pedophile and for that it is unbelievably hard to have ANY form of sympathy or even look at him as an interesting character. 

     The plot is just as disturbing as the main character.  The story of a perverted old man "in love" with someone who could be as old as his daughter is a nauseating story. The main character's action to force her in love with him is horrifying. He chloroforms the girl in order to have sex with her and as such, it is as if the book is saying that "Rape = Love", which again, returns to the idea that this book is down right awful. 

     As someone who loves literature and is very open to different styles of writing, Lolita is easily the worst book I have read in terms of characters and writing style. It sickened me to the core that the main character is a pedophile who manipulates people with his words just so he can get people to view his sick mind without thinking how disgusting of an individual he actually is. I personally have a hard time looking at the book as a work of art and finding any positive benefits as a cultural impact aside from being disgusting and manipulative as it's main character.