Russian Church Seeks Ban on Modern Classics Such as 'Lolita,' Citing 'Pedophilia'

Fox News - AP ^ | September 28, 2011

[Borges]

A senior Russian Orthodox official claimed Wednesday that novels by Vladimir Nabokov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez justify pedophilia and said they should be banned in the nation's high schools.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin's demand that Russia's government investigate and limit the use of the books was his church's latest attempt to impose religious norms in a country that once rejected religion altogether. Chaplin, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate's public relations department, discussed Nabokov's "Lolita" and Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" on Ekho Moskvy radio, accusing both of "justifying pedophilia."

The priest later elaborated in comments carried by Interfax, saying the authors' works should not be included in high school curriculums as they "romanticize perverted passions that make people unhappy."

[Jack Hammer]

Say what you like about assigning Nabokov to kids, but one thing is for certain - you’ll never get through a single copy of any of his works without ample use of a dictionary.

That may not be a bad thing for students.

[Borges]

A lot of people never finish Lolita because of the intellectual effort and concentration it requires. Every sentence has to be absorbed.

[Borges]

Remember when the Mainstream Media actually paid attention to serious Art?

[Jack Hammer]

I’m afraid we’ve declined into The Era of the Lowbrow.