One thing I find fascinating about Lolita is that it is a study in erasure. Society so often tends to erase the victim while giving the abuser a voice, especially when the victim is a child or otherwise powerless and the abuser is powerful and articulate. Lolita gives us a narrative entirely under the control of the abuser and challenges the reader to see through it to the Dolores Haze underneath. Exercising this skill in fiction may encourage us to equally avoid an unquestioning reading of real abusers exculpatory narratives.
This seems like a “what if the author is playing 3D chess” kind of excuse. When there’s enough game playing going on, it becomes a Rorschach test where there’s evidence to support multiple fan theories. Like, what if all the intellectual sophistication is a smokescreen for something else?
