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395 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (A Best of HOL Episode)

The History of Literature

00:00

Is This a Book I'm Going Along With?

We're so conditioned to root for the narrator anyway, and to wt to want what the narrator wants. And it's disorienting to realize we might, almost against our will, be rooting for something that we find morally distasteful. It really kind of opened me up as a human. Of course, if it ended up being just an attempt at a self exoneration, everyone would have found the book repellent. In fact, it moves past that to a really honestan and heart breaking maaculpa at the end. But before that, there's so much that sounds like, ah, now i'm going to really fess up and tell you the truth

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