This is a historical topic, and maybe it is well known while I haven't been paying attention all this time, But I'll share it anyway because it's interesting and instructive, I think.
One of my kids had to read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Who didn't have to read it in school? Probably a minority because it is one of the most assigned books that school kids have to read. I read it way way back and liked it then, but I could hardly remember what it was about except that it was about a teenager's angst. But because the teacher gave them some non-trivial interpretative questions, I thought I'd re-read some parts and help my kid.
We-e-ell, I am reading some chapters and letting them filter through my, unfortunately, no longer innocent mind, and I am noticing this really weird emphasis on little children. Mind you, the protagonist is a teenage boy, but he grows weak in knees and waxes rhapsodic at the sight of "very cute" kids. These are a lot of thoughts about and descriptions of little children. I am thinking to myself: this is really weird. This is not how teenage boys see the world, this is not what they like. This book is either an allegory that goes over my head or something is weird about this author. I start googling, and the first thing that come up is this:
http://postflaviana.org/a-pedophile-fantasy-in-the-rye/
Very interesting, indeed. It mentions MK Ultra also.
Another interesting "discovery" has to do with Thomas Mann, a really-really big author of the 20th century, a literary giant. He was married and is not very connected to various scandals, as far as I know. But he has a novella called "Death in Venice" that tells a story of a middle aged man, a writer, who comes to Venice and meets and falls in love with a very beautiful 14-year-old boy. It turns out that this novella is based on a real life episode of Mann himself who fell i love with a boy. But according to his wife's diaries, the real-life boy who inspired this story was not 14, but 10!! We can only guess whether this boy was molested or Mann's "love" was purely Platonic.
What is this with these aesthetes and artistic souls? Do they get so surfeited with regular sex that they need to up the stakes in order to continue being stimulated?
Yuke ago
The catcher in the rye? Really? The character of Holden Caulfield is a disillusioned lost soul. He hates the phoniness of life and appreciates the real, the untarnished, the innocent. Yes, children are the epitome of that innocence, but not in the way you are thinking. More so a recognition that the innocence of youth is often a much happier time, and to grow older, is to grow wiser to the wickedness of what the real world is.
AugustaJulia ago
Oh, and of course, talking about writers - Lewis Carroll and Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. Very creepy personalities and biographical episodes. Also some creepy and suspicious letters remain, while most are destroyed.
SaveTheChildren ago
Lolita is often hailed as one of the greatest love stories of all time...
AugustaJulia ago
I have my doubts about Nabokov being a pedophile. These doubts are not based on any evidence, just a feeling, and feelings can be wrong. But anyhow, the vibe I get from Lolita is that it is a product of a "normie" writer' consciouness who is trying to "try on" what it feels like to be a pedophile. But as I said, I could be wrong, so I wouldn't stake my life savings on it.
SaveTheChildren ago
Uh-huh.....non pedos don't Wright peso literature.