Quarantine reading PROJECT:
#ulastories #londonstories #books Nabokov. Lolita. I think I read it first in the high school. Then, according to my teacher, it was about taboo and a passionate madness, dubious yet beautifully written. My teacher read Lolita’s excerpts in Russian though it was originally written in English in 1953, published - after few years of struggle to secure the publisher- in Paris in 1955 by Olympia Press. I don’t know if my teacher didn’t know it, or simply preferred it in Russian, after all Nabokov translated it himself. In Britain, Lolita was originally banned, then published for the first time in 1959, the photos from the book are the photos from the first publishing in the UK. I spotted it immediately at the shelf of my quarantine apartment, in James’, my friend’s library. Wicked, how rich, and full of surprises is his library! Lolita? What does Millennials think about it now? The article in the Guardian few years back argues that now – with our alertness of criminality of paedophile, sexual awareness, and education, #metoo etc – young people understand this book better than any earlier generations, and that by no means it should not be banned and avoided. Hmmm… Lolita, a powerful story with an encaptivating language about the very middle-aged men in love with 12-year-old Dolores. Lolita, a symbol of sensual, delicate young woman’s (child’s) body, and of adult’s passion. Of a taboo? No, of crimes! Crimes and lies, abuses in so levels, all entangling the sexual and the moral dimensions. For me, it is a sickly misalliance of the poetic talent and skills with a subject matter. Nabokov’s book shows that the nicely written story, nicely told plot is forgiven for its crimes of venerating what is in fact the violence against vulnerable? (too many V in this sentence, I know!) If Lolita is a hit, the joke is on us. Just think: Lolita is now a name of a lipstick, name of some perfumes, women’s tops, some dubious websites, and the illegal sections in a porn industry. And… it is also, indeed, a title of esteemed book. Here we are, where we are. This is my first summer book I revisited. I am on 5 days quarantine in London. In the 5- day -quarantine, I give you five randomly “re-looked at” and re-read books from James’ library, from the most inspiring flat at the centre of London. Flat that breathes with books. Flat overlooking a rather big square with a lovely Church in the middle that rings the bells in the morning, which reminds me about Polish landscapes. There is nothing more characteristic of Polish landscape that this sound of lethargic, ostentatious, methodical, bloodcurdling yet majestic sound of church-bells. This is James’s place where books are everywhere. The library here is a man’s library, a man of literature, the literature of men. And this is not a feminist statement and in no way a disparaging description. I love this library as I love its owner, but my library couldn’t be more different, and it is not even about the collection of books, but the difference lies in their readings, shelving, in its remembering and interpreting. And this is beautiful: you are fortunate when you find a friend who questions your opinions not to confute but to negotiate. Negotiation is probably the only way to get close to the truth. Our conversation is an intriguing battle of two readers, various generations, different desires and ideas of what stories are for. For James, it is mainly a way of naming and describing - by the stunning language - the beauty of a human reality and the genuineness of human’s experience. For me… well for me literature is mainly about naming the constant fight between the personal and public, big politics and every day’s mundane, between the dream of the future and tussle of today. We both demand from literature a capacity to liberate: James - to liberate a soul, I want to liberate the whole world. #ulachowaniec June 28, 2021. |
Photos of the books and shelves are taken by Ula Chowaniec (2021) and published with a permission of James Jensen.
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