Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Banned  book: Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov

Why this a dangerous book.
This book explores the mind of the story's narrator 'Humbert Humbert' a self loathing pedophile.
It contains depictions of the molestation of Dolores Haze by the narrator. The writing style of these sex scenes is quite erotic; which perhaps explains why people objected to it. Also I think, Nabokov is such a brilliant writer that at one point you actually find yourself cheering for Humbert Humbert and his pursuit of Dolores.

This book has been considered both one of the greatest works of 20th Century Literature and 'pornographic trash.'
It has been banned at some point in England and France; but surprisingly not in America.  Pedophilia is a very difficult topic in modern western society. I am reminded of the controversy surrounding the Australian Photographer Bill Henson's work. He photographs young teens, and did a haunting series of nudes. I personally thought they were brilliant pieces of work, but there was a lot of people very upset saying that it was pedophilic. Which was incorrect to begin with, they should have described it as ephebophilic which is about the attraction to adolescents; whereas pedophilia describes the attraction to children. But I digress.


Review 
Idiots should not read this book. Nor should anybody that watches breakfast televsion shows like Sunrise or the one on Channel 9. They won't understand it and will probably just call in to Mel and Kochie and say how this book is going to encourage pedophiles to commit acts like those depicted in the book.
That being said, it is an amazing book. The author has taken a difficult subject matter and I think managed to say something greater about the banality of American life.  There are many reviews and essays done on this book and they are worth reading. I am not going to give any plot detail or talk about how Nabokov creates the surreal in the mundane. Others have done it and done it better, read them.
What I did find fascinating was that; as I read it, I kept recalling things like child beauty paegents where young girls, much younger than the Lolita in the book, are dressed up, made up and dance around for adults, pretending to be little adults for a prize. I find that more disturbing, because in many places this is a socially acceptable activity for mothers and their daughters


So was I corrupted by this book? Are the reasons for the controversy surrounding it justified?
I think more than anything this book has made me see what is possible with writing and will make me be a better writer.
Interestingly if you search for the phrase "Lolita" in Google you get pages and pages of images of japanese women dressed up as little victorian era girls. Is this a kind of reverse pedophilia? I wonder if these women feel more sexy when they are dressed as little girls, and what does that say about those attracted to them, but that would a topic for another essay.

Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure

Banned  book: Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
by John Cleland

First published in England in 1748. It probably still is one of the most controversial books ever written, which makes it the perfect place to start my odyssey through the controversial!

Why was it banned or considered objectionable?
It has been banned in England in 1749, and then in the early 1800's when it made its way to America. It contains scenes of sex between men, flagellation and other sexual acts.

The bans were lifted in the 1960's and 1970's but it still remains controversial and on banned lists of religious organisations.
Interestingly, I found my copy in the Aalborg Universitet library.

How am I going to be corrupted by this book?

The fear was that it was obscenity and would unduly influence people to commit depraved sex acts.

Cover:

extract the 'smuttiest' bit I could find:

Review 
I will fill this in completely when I have finished reading the book.  I am halfway through this book and already there has been two lesbian sex scenes, acts of voyeurism, attempted rape and rather graphic heterosexual sex. I expected all the sex scenes to be couched in very flowery language, to the point it would be almost unintelligble to a modern reader. But no, "juices run down creamy thighs" in vivid graphic detail.  There has been about four different euhpemism for a man's penis and twice as many for the vulva. I was going to count them but I lost count already! So far my favourite has been "his flesh machine"! giggle!

The story so far is Fanny Hill travels to London after the death of her parents and is taken in by a kindly lady in what turns out to be a well-to-do brothel. Before her virginity can be sold (but not before she learns the delights of lesbian sex) she meets a wealthy young man whom she runs away with for twenty pages of sex so graphic it reads like the script of a porn film. He disappears and then she is taken in by an older, wealthier man. Later on she finds herself part of the select merchandise at a secret upmarket brothel, before being reunited with her lover from the beginning of the book.

So was I corrupted by this book? Are the reasons for its controversial? Do I feel different?
Will I be a depraved sex maniac after reading this book? We'll find out!
Actually the sex if depicted on television today, would not be seen as taboo. I get the feeling that what was so awful for King George II's time, though the Age of Elightenment was twinkling on the horizon.
I think this would pass as a reasonable erotic novel in a bookshop today. It is probably just as well written as some of the pulp produced by Mills and Boon et al. 
  
What I found outrageous was after 200 odd pages of sex, there is a male homosexual sex scene. And Miss Fanny Hill is outraged. She finds a spy hole high up in the wall of the room in the inn she is staying at and she climbs up on a chair to see into the other room. She is offended by this exclusion of the female and she sees it as monstrous and disgusting, and goes to report them but falls from her vantage point and is knocked unconscious and the young men slip away. I guess Fanny would have been quoting popular sentiment at the time to sex between men. If she was so disgusted why did she describe it as sensually as she did all other the other sex acts.
Also the last page of the book is Fanny stating that she regrets her life of vice and that now she is much happier living a virtuous life. Yeah, right. Even Fanny herself doesn't sound convinced, she enjoyed her life and never suffered any serious consequences from it.
Overall I was quite surprised how explicit it was, I doubt any author today would get away with such a weak plot to connect a series of sex scenes, but then, I haven't seen a lot of porn nor do I read Mills & Boon. I think this book is more of an odd curiousity rather than a work of serious literature.

What is Dangerous books?

In an attempt to force myself to expand my world I am trying to read more books. But which books to read?
Freedom of expression and censorship are important to me; so I have oftened followed with interest news about governments, schools and religion banning certain novels or literature.
This is for several reasons; it is either too explicit, it criticises the organisation that banned it, or it promotes extreme or different ideas. They claim that these books will corrupt young minds, encourage them to do dangerous and unsocial acts.
My contention is that books expand your mind, even fiction and that it is narrow minded to ban a book because you don't like the content.

So I am going challenge authority by quietly curling up with what will hopefully be an interesting book.
Let us see if I should become corrupted, subversive or in some other way depraved by the written word!

Let the subversive corruption of my impressionable mind begin!