Subject
Nabokov and Pedophilia (fwd)
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From: Ori Redler <ori@aristo.co.il>
Is it possible to write about something without identyfing with it, at
least to some extent?
>From: Susan Sweeney <sweeney@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
>
>I'm glad that my admittedly provocative question has provoked so much
>thought! I want to assure those of you who may not know me that I am
>neither a naive reader nor a prurient one. Obviously, Nabokov was not a
>madman or a pedophile--or, for that matter, a twelve-year-old girl--simply
>because he wrote about such beings. Obviously, he was able to
>imagine and sympathize with characters who were different than
>himself. But isn't it equally obvious that Nabokov, like other writers,
>chose to exercise his brilliance on certain recurring themes because he
>found them personally meaningful? One such theme--which interested
>him for various reasons, of course--is the agonizing vulnerability of
>children and of childhood.
>
>Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
>Associate Professor of English
>Holy Cross College
>Worcester, MA 01610
>
>Telephone (508) 793-2690
Is it possible to write about something without identyfing with it, at
least to some extent?
>From: Susan Sweeney <sweeney@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
>
>I'm glad that my admittedly provocative question has provoked so much
>thought! I want to assure those of you who may not know me that I am
>neither a naive reader nor a prurient one. Obviously, Nabokov was not a
>madman or a pedophile--or, for that matter, a twelve-year-old girl--simply
>because he wrote about such beings. Obviously, he was able to
>imagine and sympathize with characters who were different than
>himself. But isn't it equally obvious that Nabokov, like other writers,
>chose to exercise his brilliance on certain recurring themes because he
>found them personally meaningful? One such theme--which interested
>him for various reasons, of course--is the agonizing vulnerability of
>children and of childhood.
>
>Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
>Associate Professor of English
>Holy Cross College
>Worcester, MA 01610
>
>Telephone (508) 793-2690