At this point, I think Trump is genuinely confused as to why the entire U.S. Government isn’t fighting tooth and nail to keep him in power. He really thinks he’s done a good job, by some undefined metrics, and that people are just too cowardly or confused to do anything to help him.

In 2008, she allegedly punched Faiz Shakir

Well no fucking shit. Here’s what we do:

*Roman Polanski has been given Moderator Power*

No. I have too often, in the news, witnessed a “love story” between a teacher and a much younger student. In each case he or she comes from a troubled home, and the authority figure “grooms” the student. Same story whether the child is eight or 17.

What kind of car do you think he drives? The easy money would be on a windowless can, but that’s too obvious. I’m guessing it’s a nondescript sedan with a “my other car is a Millennium Falcon” bumper sticker. It’s pretty tidy inside, but there are cassettes everywhere. The thing doesn’t even have a tape deck, he just…

Worrying about making Humbert too unlikeable = missing the whole point entirely

It’s hard to engage in a discussion in good faith when the other person has already decided and declared that “if you disagree with me, it’s not that my argument was bad, it’s because you’re intolerant”.

You’re one of those guys who goes “ACKCHULLEE, in this case it’s technically ephebophilia” aren’t you

You have to understand something - generally speaking, the only people who offer an intellectual defence for screwing kids based on their potential level of maturity are people who want to, well, screw kids. The Venn diagram on this one is likely very near a complete circle. And there is zero appetite for social…

I’m a die hard liberal but I also accept some things are so objectively scarring and damaging to society and people that maybe it’s best if we just don’t go there. Discussions about whether 12 year olds have sufficient agency to screw adults is one of the few items on my “nope” list. That being said, I think its…

The beauty of Lolita’s writing is how well Nabakov uses an unreliable narrator. Humbert is never not a monster, and Nabakov cleverly shows how a rapist romanticises his abuse. There’s a scene in the book where, after the first night Humbert rapes Dolores, she screams, cries, and tries to escape. It helps show how…

Also, “movie narrated by pedophile” doesn’t exactly bring in the box office revenue.

Even Humbert is at least subconciously that self-aware. He consults legal books on rape at the library and refers to himself as a sex offender (though in delusion he also begs off that he is not a rapist in character only in law).

The greatness of Lolita is not in the plot but the writing, the ability of the words to seduce even when the story was off-putting. Translated into film, you lose the language so you’ve got to change the story, too.

Probably because no one, ever, in the history of time, has ever wanted to discuss that in good faith.

Also, because it’s not fucking relevant for this book. Nothing consensual, empowering, or even just vaguely positive happens within or because of the central relationship in “Lolita.”

“How has every man (and it is all men, oops) who has directed an adaptation of this story said with confidence that it’s a love story?”

*Kevin Spacey has entered the chat*

*Woody Allen has entered the chat*

Also, “movie narrated by pedophile” doesn’t exactly bring in the box office revenue.