On Jul 30, 2008, at 3:25 PM, jansymello wrote:
Concerning VN's references to Arcadian faunlets & nymphets, catamites and his Lolita "brood" was how Diaghilev's very real ones caused, apparently, less scandal than VN's "nymphets" in novel and movies. The critical articles about "Nijinski" which I found were different in tone from those concerning Kubrick's and Adrian Lynne's "Lolita". In both cases we find pedophilia but the destinies of young boys and girls seem to arouse different reactions from spectators.
Dear Jansy,
No pedohilia in L'apres midi d'une faune* - - but Nijinsky's suggestive miming of the faun masturbating himself against the ground certainly was scandalous and did create a riot in the theater upon its first performance. Debussy himself was outraged, but Dangleleaf, undaunted, had the ballet immediately repeated. The papers were also in an uproar over the scandalous "filthy, bestial and indecent eroticism."
Carolyn
*Nijinsky is himself the faun, teased by nymphs who escape his advances, leaving behind a scarf ...