Thanks for reading my article and sharing your thoughts. You might want to take a second look at “Lolita” if you read it a long time ago. Despite it’s difficult content, it is an excellent study in projection, desire, obsession, and the consequences of acting on them. Sometimes novels reveal themselves differently when you read them at different times of your life. At least, that’s been my experience.

I’ve received other feedback on this article from men who feel the ambiguity surrounding the maturation of post-pubescent girls, especially those who behave as grown women, ought to be grounds for decriminalizing sexual contact with them. However, I would argue that it’s precisely because of that ambiguity that we need laws to protect them. Humbert Humbert, Lolita’s abuser, dies heart-broken after realizing that his lust has ruined her childhood. As the novel points out, her “nymphet” attractiveness is only a stage, which will pass like other phases of adolescent life. Our job as adults, individually and through the wisdom we hope to see embodied in our laws, is to see them through to healthy adulthood. And to keep those who would exploit these passing phases as far away as possible.

Too bad about men caught with pornography downloaded in bulk from the internet. This is truly a case of “caveat emptor” — Let the buyer beware (even if it’s free).

Thanks again.