don’t try this at home or paging dr. bowldler…
For those for whom the subject matter of Lolita is just too unsettling, look no further than Lolita, Scrubbed by Gerard Kibbey. In the scrubber’s own words:
“Welcome. Perhaps you’re here because you and I share a love for the wit and poetry found in Nabokov’s classic, Lolita. For a book fan, Lolita is a trove of voice, alliteration, character, plot, assonance, and mood. It’s chock-full of references and culture. But—and for the morally discriminating reader, there’s always that but—it’s the account of a child rapist, told with fluctuating, insufficient remorse. The narrator’s moral depravity left this reader unsatisfied and I doubt I am alone.
My solution: put on my editor hat go to work, creating an alternate edition of Nabokov’s masterwork, Lolita, Scrubbed. In this new (and I hope, improved) version, I seek to retain the lovable poetry of the book’s original text while excising the book’s amoral core. And while I make no claims to be a writer of Nabokov’s caliber, I plan to “re-see” troubling scenes as the author would, were he convinced of the novel’s problematic nature. I also plan, in an effort to make the book more “of our times,” to apply light cuts here and there in areas where I feel the language goes a little overboard.”
I think it’s quite clear that Kibbey’s misguided effort belies a laughably profound misunderstanding of the novel, but I won’t get into that just yet. For now, I leave this for your amusement:
http://lolitascrubbed.blogspot.com/2009/06/foreward_08.html
October 20th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
A comment on this site a propos of the current Bible scrubbing project indicates that Lolita Scrubbed is not the sincere effort of a misguided prude:
Reminds me, a friend of mine has been writing a blog in the character of an editor who is attempting to rewrite Nabakov’s Lolita in a way that will “retain the lovable poetry of the book’s original text while excising the book’s amoral core.”