Grim Etymology
Humbert Humbert was a monster.
Who’s he?
He raped Dolores Haze when she was only 12.
Horrible, but why are you telling me?
You’ve heard of her.
No, I haven’t.
She’s Lolita, the victim of an evil abuser.
Not Dolores?
The rapist who pretended to be her daddy used that name.
Oh. That’s grim.
Yes, but it’s only a made-up story. You know what is grim though?
No?
It’s that Lolita in the book is an orphan whose late mother resented her – poor kid. Yet somehow ‘Lolita’ now means a child who’s asking for it: Precociously seductive in the dictionary.
