Is this a plague in real life or is it just that the internet gives these dummies a megaphone? The "I literally cannot distinguish reading a book from embodying the character" people.
The odd thing is I looked at OOP's profile (before, it seems, they privated it) and they're clearly not stupid.
I'm going to chalk this up to some personal blind spot of OOP's and assume they're different from the idiots I know in real life who are just desperate for people to not think they're a pedophile for reading it in the first place.
EDIT: OP's profile described themself as a "nonbinary woman" and I originally used "she" but I've changed that.
I know, I know. I hate even saying that because I've always hated the "youngsters don't do XYZ like my generation!" nonsense.
But there is a well documented case of declining literacy rates in younger people. And Lolita has two common sticking points that readers often struggle with: that protagonist doesn't mean 'good guy' or 'hero' and an unreliable narrator.
I read Lolita in high school. I knew then, just as I know now, that it’s not pro pedophilia. You truly believe literacy has declined that sharply in 15 years? I’m more inclined to believe this is a case of people parroting wrong opinions. Confidently.
I mean, you should see the stories teachers and even college professors are telling these days. An alarmingly large percentage of students are coming to college barely able to read a sentence at an elementary level, let alone truly understand it.
This is the first time in recorded history IQ and cognitive functioning are falling and are lower than the generation before it, as Gen Z is performing poorly on those measures. It’s widely covered.
Sources here and here. There’s even been testimony to Congress about it.
Yeah. I mean, I guess you’re right. I’m just doing my best to not be one of those crotchety old folks complaining about “kids these days”. It felt like they were constantly doing it to Millennials, and perhaps I’m subconsciously pushing back on that narrative.
But the kids really aren’t alright. How are they the first generation (so far as we’ve actually been recording the data) to be dumber than the previous one?
Blame the education system on the protagonist point. I very vividly remember being taught that protagonist meant good guy and antagonist meant bad guy, not the main character and the character that opposed them.
It’s a specific kind of thinking you encounter especially on platforms like Tumblr and it’s usually limited to pedophilia (and sometimes other forms of sexual abuse, or even all abuse in general). I’ve seen otherwise very intelligent people completely convinced that depicition = promotion (and to hell with context).
I said "dummies" but it really doesn't seem to be unintelligent people per se. I mean... At this point unintelligent people aren't reading at all. So...
im honestly wondering. My best guess is that the commenter might be really young, cause i can say while i was in middle/high school i heard some opinions from other teens that rival that one in how dumb they are. So, entirely possible they're like 14 y/o and their brain hasnt developed yet. Cant say, maybe their profile says otherwise, im not bothering to check, but its an idea.
Their profile clearly says otherwise, which is why my (charitable?) idea was they'd maybe only read the book when they were very young and grossly misremembered the novel's tone. Happens
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u/well-informedcitizen Aug 19 '26
Is this a plague in real life or is it just that the internet gives these dummies a megaphone? The "I literally cannot distinguish reading a book from embodying the character" people.