Oh, bugger.

I changed something. It makes me laugh. His name is Draco Malfoy, and now he adorns my page. See him on the left? He's looking at you.

PRESENTLY:

pages read this week: 144

this semester: 707 + 144 is 851

In the midst of: Lolita

The Road (literally read the first page only- but it's a start)

SENTENCES OF THE WEEK:

She said it did not matter a bit; but that, if she ever found out I did not believe in Our Christian God, she would commit suicide. She said it so solemnly that it gave me the creeps.

Oh, she was very genteel: she said "excuse me" whenever a slight burp interrupted her flowing speech, called an envelope an ahnvelope, and when talking to her lady friends, referred to me as Mr. Humbert.


So there was Charlotte swimming on with dutiful awkwardness (she was a very mediocre mermaid), but not without a certain solemn pleasure (for was not her merman by her side?) . . .


Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child, are innocuous, inadequate, passive timid strangers who merely ask the community to allow them to pursue their practically harmless, so-called aberrant behavior, their little hot wet private acts of sexual deviation without the police and society cracking down a\upon them. We are not sex fiends! We do not rape as good soldiers do.We are unhappy, mild, dog-eyed gentlemen, sufficiently well integrated to control our urge in the presence of adults, but ready to give years and years of life for one chance to touch a nymphet.

The last passage especially strikes me as awkwardly truthful, and suspiciously so. It makes me ask the question-- uhhhh, Nabakov, how do you so intimately know the mind of a pedophile? And how would you know that they do not have a single vengeful, violent, thought in their heads, or that they are not intent on hurting their victims? Of course, Nabakov probably put loads of research into his book before he wrote it, but if he did, then this passage must be somewhat true. Huh. I've always thought of pedophiles as evil, sadistic, hedonistic people, who couldn't control their perversive urges, but Nabakov makes me think otherwise. I bet the families of pedophile victims will not agree with me and would probably would throw Lolita in the trash (and burn it too). Just a thought. Just an observation. Au revoir.