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Speaker 1: Lolita, Light of My Life, Fire of my Loins. It's

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Speaker 1: one of the most recognizable introductions to one of the

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Speaker 1: most controversial works in American history, Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita.

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Speaker 1: This story and its titular character have been adapted, misinterpreted,

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Speaker 1: and twisted over the years by Hollywood, by music, by fashion,

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Speaker 1: by fans of the book, and occasionally by the author himself.

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Speaker 1: Lolita has gone from the tragic story of an abused

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Speaker 1: thirteen year old girl to a cultural narrative that frames

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Speaker 1: her as the seductress and to blame for what happens

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Speaker 1: to her. So how did this all happen? It is

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Speaker 1: a messy and frustrating story. My name's Jamie Loftus, and

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Speaker 1: I am a comedian, writer and creator and co host

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Speaker 1: of shows like My Year and Mensa and The Bechtel Cast.

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Speaker 1: I've been haunted by this book since it was recommended

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Speaker 1: to me in middle school by a children's author, and

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Speaker 1: with all the progress we've made in the last several

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Speaker 1: years of unpacking the baggage that comes with media from

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Speaker 1: the past, Lolita has kind of fallen by the wayside

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Speaker 1: in that conversation until now. On November twenty three, My

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Speaker 1: new show, Lolita Podcast, is going to start exploring how

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Speaker 1: a firmly anti pedophile book got twisted into the sexualized

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Speaker 1: image we think of when we hear Lolita's name. Today,

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Speaker 1: I'll be taking you through the source material and its

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Speaker 1: history as a banned book, to its movie and stage adaptations,

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Speaker 1: to the impact it's had on internet culture of music,

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Speaker 1: even the vocabulary our culture uses. It is a long

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Speaker 1: and mired history that I think is worth taking a

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Speaker 1: closer look at. I'll be talking with literary scholars, experts

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Speaker 1: on abuse, directors, writers, fans of the book, not fans

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Speaker 1: of the book, my listeners, and the women who have

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Speaker 1: played Lolita in all of the different adaptations to trace

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Speaker 1: how this story has been taken so far out of

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Speaker 1: context that it's become completely unrecognizable and at times actively harmful.

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Speaker 1: It is a very complicated and bizarre ride, because at

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Speaker 1: its core, this is a story about it all of

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Speaker 1: year old girl meaned Dolores, and I think that she's

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Speaker 1: gotten lost over the years, So we're going to get

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Speaker 1: to the bottom of it for her in Lolita Podcast

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Speaker 1: Monday's starting November twenty three on the I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast