318 Lolita (with Jenny Minton Quigley)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2021

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jacke hosts Jenny Minton Quigley, editor of the new collection LOLITA IN THE AFTERLIFE: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century, for a discussion of Vladimir Nabokov's classic (and controversial) 1958 novel. Jenny Minton Quigley is the daughter of Lolita's original publisher in America, Walter J. Minton. Lolita in the Afterlife includes contributions by the following twenty-first century literary luminaries: Robin Givhan • Aleksandar Hemon • Jim Shepard • Emily Mortimer • Laura Lippman • Erika L. Sánchez • Sarah Weinman • Andre Dubus III • Mary Gaitskill • Zainab Salbi • Christina Baker Kline • Ian Frazier • Cheryl Strayed • Sloane Crosley • Victor LaValle • Jill Kargman • Lila Azam Zanganeh • Roxane Gay • Claire Dederer • Jessica Shattuck • Stacy Schiff • Susan Choi • Kate Elizabeth Russell • Tom Bissell • Kira Von Eichel • Bindu Bansinath • Dani Shapiro • Alexander Chee • Lauren Groff • Morgan Jerkins Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and LitHub radio.
0:14.5	We start today with one of the most famous opening passages in all of literature.
0:20.0	Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins, my sin, my soul, Lolita.
0:28.6	The tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the pallet to tap at three on the
0:34.9	teeth.
0:35.9	Lolita.
0:39.5	She was low, plain low in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock.
0:45.0	She was lowla in slacks.
0:47.4	She was dolly at school.
0:49.6	She was Dolores on the dotted line.
0:52.9	But in my arms, she was always Lolita.
0:57.9	Bam, already we are in a world of a disturbed narrative mind.
1:05.5	Maybe we know from the cover or from our cultural awareness what this book is about, a grown
1:11.2	man, lusting for a young girl.
1:14.2	Even if we're coming to it with nothing, the paragraph doesn't hesitate.
1:20.5	We suspect this is an adult.
1:23.5	And from the clues, the textual clues, Lolita in slacks, dolly at school, four feet ten
1:29.2	in one sock, this sounds like a girl.
1:32.8	The narrator sounds like a man, an adult, a grown-up.
1:36.4	He has narrative gifts and reverence toward his subject that seem mature.
1:41.6	The author himself, Vladimir Nabokov, is one of the great pro-stylus of the 20th century,
1:47.6	really all of literature.
	...

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