Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
I think the difference is in the fact that Hannibal's victims were either dead when we hear about them or were going to be. A dead person can't feel pain or suffer mental anguish after they are killed, but a victim of someone like Humbert can suffer even after it's all over. That and we've all had the desire at one point or another to hurt someone else for what they did (or we think they did) to us. It's easy to understand rage but not so easy to understand what makes someone like Humbert tick.
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I'm not sure I buy that, people get squicked out by necrophilia too. However, your last sentence is a great reason to read the book.
The book is fiction, but the fact that it makes us uncomfortable and pushes us out of our comfort zone means Nabokov hit the mark. I certainly wasn't suggesting we should be blasé about the subject matter, just that I find it odd that other very disturbing subjects aren't nearly as taboo.
As I'm still just under halfway through, I can't comment on whatever happens later in the book, this is just what popped into my head after reading as far as I have.