If I had to give a title to the first part of the book Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov, I would call it "Concerning Humbert Humbert and his Sexual Addiction". Over the course of these next 8 weeks, I hope to analyze what defines sexual perversion from the biblical perspective, as well as culturally what's shifted in regards to what is considered Perverse.
Introducing Humbert....Humbert
Yes, his name is Humbert Humbert. Self described as a Humphrey Bogart of Europe, we are introduced to Humbert as he writes his story from prison. He gives us a short back story, mainly focusing on those things in the early part of his life that resulted in his current predicament. Much of his introduction is preoccupied with an early romance he had with what appears to be either a family friend or a distant relative. Their passion for one another is surprisingly intense, and burns hotter due to the fact that their families deny them release. This lovely little story concludes with an erotic struggle of sorts on the beach that ultimately ends in Humbert and his young love being discovered and no release being achieved. This idealized tryst informs the rest of Humbert's sexual life, as he seeks to find again the unbridled passion of that first encounter (keeping in mind he was of a comparable age at that time). As Humbert ages he becomes quite taken with girls between the age of 11-14. Granted not every girl in that age range, a specific subset he labels "nymphettes". Nymphettes are charactarized by their latent sexuality (in addition to their age range) that has nothing to do with actual attractiveness, and apparently cannot be recognized by anyone who isn't sexually attracted to Nymphettes. Anyway, he makes do with creepily gazing at the nymphettes by where he lives and works, until he feels the societal pressure to get married. He ends up marrying a young woman, who is not really a nymphette but looks close enough that he's able to look past it....At least until she gets older. She ends up having an affair and leaving, and Humbert goes insane....sorta.
In this, the beginning of the story of Humbert and the young Lolita, the root of the problem is presented. Humbert clearly has pedophilic tendencies, however much more at issue, at least in the inital chapters is that Humbert worships these nymphettes. Don't misunderstand, I'm not condoning sexual relations between adults and children. However one merely has to look back a couple decades before the time period that Humbert would have existed in to find grown men marrying 15 or 16 year old girls. And a short time before that it wasn't uncommon for men to marry girls as soon as they began menstruation. I cannot claim in any way to know the mind of God, but I find it difficult to believe that God's feelings on the age of consent changes century to century like ours. A much bigger issue, I feel, in the eyes of God (and subsequently to me as I seek to discover the basis for perversion in our society) is that Humbert elevated these young girls, effectively worship them like effigies of the relationship that God intended for men and women to have together.
Later on in the book, Humbert makes a claim that he always loved Dolores (Lolita to him). I'm completely unconvinced of this. However over the next couple of weeks I hope to explore this claim. And if, as I believe, Humbert is among the many that God, "gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another" (Romans 1:24) then I plan to look into what God would have him do.
