A Lolita Reads Lolita

Okay, today was meant to be my DMC post but unfortunately I have had a stinking cold the past few days. So I am doing a bit of self care and posting a post I already had written up. I am hoping to have the chance to go through all my stuff later, so the DMC post should be up next Thursday. Apologies for the delay. So much crazy stuff has been going on! Anyway, here is a post about the Lolita novel...

As wearers of lolita fashion, how many times has the phrase "It's not like the book" come out of our mouths as we explain to others what the fashion is about? It has almost become a bit of a running joke in the fashion community. There is this great fear of the clothing we love getting compared to the main subject of the book- pedophilia. But how many of us have actually read the book? I got asked recently if I had read Lolita and I had to admit that I hadn't. So I decided that something needed to be done about this and went and got myself a copy. Be warned- MASSIVE SPOILERS are going to follow.

The book is told from the point of view of Humbert Humbert, the nymphet loving pedophile who falls in love with Dolores (also known as Lolita). He has been imprisoned for murder and the book sort of reads as his confession. Before reading the book, I was expecting to view Humbert as simply being a dirty old pervert. In the beginning, that is indeed how I viewed him. Despite hearing his tales of his early love life pre-Lolita, all I could see was the pedophile. In fact, hearing his tales sounded awfully as if he was trying to justify what he was about to tell us all about his misdemeanors with Lolita. Humbert obviously knows what he did is wrong and has the audacity to try and pleas with the reader to understand him!

But as I got further in to the book, it became more confusing to me. The Humbert near the start of the book is very focused on his lust and his careful pursuit of Lolita. He catches little glances of her and satisfies himself with brief moments, such as having Lolita sit on his knee. I never had the impression that he was genuinely in love with Lolita. I don't believe that Humbert feels he is in love with Lolita either. He talks about how when she gets older, she will eventually lose her 'nymphet qualities' and how he wishes to enjoy her whilst she is still young. Later on, it becomes apparent that there is another Humbert. This other Humbert is hopelessly in love with Lolita. When he sees her as a pregnant, married 17-year-old, Humbert tells us that he is still in love with Lolita, even though she is no longer a child. His feelings towards his former lover seem to genuine. The romantic poetry and flowery descriptions throughout the book feel more heartfelt. I never once felt sorry for Humbert, and it remains the case that his sexual tendencies are illegal, but I found myself feeling a lot less hostile towards him as I finished the novel.

Initially, I was not a fan of the character Lolita. Her character felt very two-dimensional and written to sound like a 'typical' teenager, obsessed with movies, clothing and all the usual stuff. Humbert is not a reliable narrator, which means we are only seeing her through his eyes. He is focused solely on the sexual elements of their relationship for most of the book. It is only later on that he realises how damaging his actions have been and how maybe Lolita may have been thinking. To truly build a picture of Lolita's character, I had to remind myself how I was when I was her age. When I was 12, I was curious about sex but not so much in forming meaningful relationships. I see that same curiosity in Lolita. It is almost as if sex is a game. Only as time goes on, and Lolita's vulnerabilities come through, it becomes more apparent that she is maybe not as willing a sexual partner as Humbert first thinks.

When I finished the book I was pleased to see that it really wasn't anywhere near as smutty as I thought it was going to be. Humbert is clearly a very troubled character, as evidenced by his time in a mental institution and the mourning of a childhood lover. Lolita is equally troubled, and you do have to wonder how a typical 12 year-old would react if they were to go through the same events as Lolita. I found myself finding that the way the events pan out in the book are maybe not as unrealistic as I first thought. It is the tragedy of the situation that I have found has stayed in my mind after finishing the book.

Although the book left some confusing feelings inside me afterwards (there are lots of little subtleties I missed at first until they were pointed out in the afterword and reviews of the novel) I am still glad that I read it. I do think the book fully deserves its reputation as a Modern Classic and it was interesting seeing what other people thought of it. Perhaps on a second reading, it will gradually begin to make more sense to me. From a lolita fashion point of view, the book has absolutely nothing to do with the fashion. But rather than dismissing the book as some kind of dirty piece of erotica, I would invite others to actually pick up and read the book. It is also fair to say that there is a sexual fetish named after Lolita, but usually it is simply enough to explain to members of the public that it is not connected to the book. At least now, I can say with confidence that I have indeed read the book. I may still dislike Humbert's appalling actions and his pathetic attempts to justify them to both the reader and himself, but the book is written in such a way that you can almost get a better idea of how his mind works. His realizations towards the end help to make him seem a lot more'human'. Lolita is maybe not a good book for a more casual reader, but if you are a book fan then I would recommend giving it a go.

Our Kawaii Tokyo

I hope this post is okay! I am currently away from home and I haven't been able to put as much time in to my blog lately. I am hoping to get some quality blogging time a some point soon. There are lots of posts I have planned, but it is finding the time to sit down and actually write them!

Our Kawaii Tokyo is a project by Kaila, Ashley and Allie. It is basically an e-book with guides to popular areas in Tokyo and all the cute things you can do there. For quite a few years now, I have been following Kaila, who runs rainbowholic.me and her story about moving to Japan and all of her adventures there. As somebody who is unlikely to ever go to Japan myself (I have a really bad fear of flying which resulted in an incident which delayed take-off when I was a toddler. Even with sedatives, I think 12 hours is a bit much...) I find myself having to live vicariously through other traveller's blogs and photos. I especially love the level of detail Kaila goes in to when photographing everyday life, catching even the small little details you may otherwise miss. 

So when I heard they were doing an e-book called Our Kawaii Tokyo, I was curious to see how it turned out. I should point out that obviously I mainly got this for the photography, but I wanted to have a look and see what they had to offer for travellers.

I don't wish to put up too many photos, as I feel that people should support the e-book by buying it. I placed my order through the Rainbowholic store (you can find it on via the link I posted above) and checkout was super easy. I was able to download my e-book very quickly. The book is 60-something pages long and it is mostly photographs. However, there is advice on how best to enjoy the popular areas of Tokyo. I personally wouldn't have known to go to the tourist bureau by Takeshita Dori for a free map and advice in several languages. On the whole though, if you are more than a casual fan of Tokyo, chances are you will already know about most of the places recommended. There was some helpful information, but overall this is quite basic knowledge. Near the back there was some basic level Japanese phrases which will be very useful for any travellers who don't know Japanese.

I think a lot of where this book succeeds is with the presentation. The photos are of a good quality and it really shows off Tokyo in a good light. It really does make you want to go and visit the places in the pictures. The text that is there is very easy to read in small bite-size chunks. What I really like is that it is divided in to sections on different areas and at the end of each section you get a handy checklist of all the places that get shown in the photographs. Rather than being like a stuffy tourist guide, it is more like a scrapbook, but it is a very well organised scrapbook. A lot of thought has gone in to the layout.

To be honest, this e-book was probably a little bit expensive for what you get. This book only covers Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku (I believe further guides are planned). But it is a really fantastic visual experience. You can really tell that this is a labor of love and the author's passion for all things kawaii really comes through. If you are planning a Tokyo trip, you are probably going to need a much more extensive guide, but if you like looking at pretty photos there is a lot here to gawp at. I don't think I will be buying any future guides, but I did enjoy looking at this book. If you are looking for ideas of things to do in Japan though, it would be worth checking out various Youtube channels (there are loads out there dedicated to all things Japan). I am really content to just continue reading Kaila's amazing blog.

Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute Book Review

My husband kindly gave me a book on Kawaii culture for Christmas and I have since managed to finish it. So I thought today I would give a mini review. The book is called Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute and is by Manami Okazaki and Geoff Johnson. 

The book is a decent size and as you can probably tell from the cover, it is pretty colourful! The book has lots of photos, so it is fun to just pick up the book and have a quick flip through it. The photos are definitely a strong point of this book.

Rather than being a guide to all things kawaii, the book is actually a collection of interviews with various faces from the kawaii scene. If you are a fan of Japanese fashion or kawaii culture in general, then you should definitely recognise a few of the faces in this book. I can't say that I learnt very much from reading the book, although I did discover some new artists who I hadn't heard of before.

The interviews are typically a few pages long, with massive photos accompanying them. This is pretty short, although the questions do get straight to the point. Rather than teaching people about kawaii, I would say the interviews are more about giving an insight in to what the interviewees personally feel kawaii is about. It has a more personal feel to it, rather than teaching the reader. However, one thing that I did notice is that the interview questions got a bit repetitive after a while, which is a shame. I think the interviewer could have mixed things up a bit more. But the people being interviewed were very varied and the book talks to people in the toy industry, fashion models, shop staff, artists from both the past and present and many more. Hopefully there is enough here to keep any kawaii fan happy. I was a little disappointed that some people didn't get a full interview and I would have liked to have known more about them.

The photos really dominate the book, but they are absolutely fascinating to look at. A lot of the time, the photos take up the whole page. Rather than just taking store photos or using pictures of the interviewees, the book includes more personal photos too. For example, this photo is not of the Swimmer shop, but of one of the staff's bedrooms! 

The book does delve a little bit in to the history of kawaii and how the culture grew, especially at the start of the book and with the first few interviews. It is interesting to see how kawaii evolved from it's early stages. Of course, there are also some very familiar faces too. Any book about Japan's kawaii culture should definitely feature characters such as Hello Kitty!

But despite being more of a collection of opinions instead of a guide, that is not to say that I didn't learn anything. For example, there is the suggestion that maybe there is such a thing as being too cute. After thinking about it for a while, I kind of get what the book means. I know there have been times where I have worn lolita where I have felt that an outfit has pushed the cuteness a little too far! I also found it interesting that with kawaii, sometimes imperfections are important and something being too perfect may not actually be kawaii. The book also gives an insight in to why so many Japanese mascots don't have mouths or have an indifferent facial expression.

So after reading this book, I think I would definitely recommend it. If you were introducing somebody to kawaii for the first time, then this may not be the first place to start, although that's not to say that they wouldn't learn anything from it. Despite reading similar books, there is enough fresh material here to keep me interested. Although I found the interviews interesting, it was the pictures that initially caught my eye. The book is definitely eye catching and is good for a quick flick through or to properly sit down and read. I really enjoyed this book and after reading it from cover to cover, I have kept going back to have another flick through.

The book is published by Prestel and I have found it available from many large online retailers.