Novel ''Off To The Races'' Is based on?

[HEARTCORE 18,969]

Lolita, for sure. And the Leaves of Grass collection of poetry by Walt Whitman, as someone mentioned earlier - particularly Song of Myself (Cola monologue uses a few lines from it) & I Sing the Body Electric (for obvious reasons). I'd also say The Great Gatsby - mostly because Y&B was used for the movie, but also because it's often seen as the classic American novel, which is an idea that I think Lana tries to replicate through her music. 

 

Any books that glorify American/Americana, really, would be appropriate, as long as any literature considered to be "the great American novel" (except Moby Dick cause that is a useless and stupid book).

[longtimeman 8,908]

She also quotes from Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl', which is a poem worth reading (and may be the first mainstream use of the term 'hipster', although here it's about heroin addicts).

 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381

[whitman 1,286]

I might read it anyway as it sounds like a great book.

 

Any suggestions on novels that would be a great too read as a Lana fan?

 

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman is a directly influence on Lana's work. You don't really to read all of it but the Children of Adam copilations of poems ( which Body Electric is part of) is essentially to understand Tropico and her Paradise EP 

 

"Whitman reverses this traditional Christian tenet. He asserts that it is not Adam but Adam's children who have really lost the Garden of Eden. Adam's children can regain this lost paradise not by denying the flesh, which had been a Puritan belief, but by accepting it. Man will then be reborn through this glorification of his body, for the human body is as sacred as the spirit. Thus, man is not born debased as a result of Original Sin. He should be proud of his heritage and of the "Adamic" in him."

 

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/l/leaves-of-grass/summary-and-analysis-children-of-adam/introduction

 

 

- Lolita: Nobokov's work in general is amazing - not just Lolita but I love it The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. But as a Lana fan of course Lolita is a must read!

 

- Think and Grow Rich: Lana mentioned once this book by Napoleon Hill as a influence but I honestly never read it. You can check it out!

 

- Great Gatsby:  When it comes to novels that aren't explicit influence I think Great Gatsby is a great reading and I always think of Lana. The "dark side of the american dream" is a recurrent theme in Lana's songs and this novel summaryze this whole subject perfectly.

 

- On The Road by Jack Kerouac. If you love Ride ( music and video) you must read this classic. Ride's dialogue is heavily inspired by his work ( at least for me). Example:

 

"the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars."

 

"Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry"

[LolitaE 143]

Also, just wanted to put it out there, just because I didn't like Lolita, it DOESN'T make me any less of a Lana fan.   

She'll always be my favourite <333333   

[QueenofAlchemy 186]

I'm currently reading Lolita, approx 40% in, and the only direct quotes I've spotted so far are (the obvious) "light of my life, fire of my loins " and "glimmering darling" . It's a good book, I like it. It's not pedophilia, it's hebephilia - but it still makes you slightly uncomfortable. But Nabokov is a great writer, though confusing at times. I'd recommend reading it, if only to say that you had .

[Jazzmin 302]

I wouldn't say OTTR is based on "Lolita". It's kinda inspired by it lyrically but the content is diametrically different... If I were to bind it with anything by Nabokov, I'd rather say it could correspond with Margot's story ("Laughter in the Dark"). Though, it's just about some common themes, not the entire book. And I'm doubtful if Lana has read it so my reasoning probably doesn't make sense ((

 

"Lolita" is awesome, though. 

[brooklynbaby91 1,385]

From interviews I've read, it seems like a lot of BTD was based on experiences she had as a teenager in New York.

 

And Lolita is the most repulsive books I've ever read in my life. Graphic, eroticized scenes of pedophilia. You're not missing out on anything.

 

I don't think anything about OTTR is like Lolita. There's an older man in OTTR but the woman in the song clearly loves him. Lolita was a little girl who was repeatedly molested and raped.

[brooklynbaby91 1,385]

I'm currently reading Lolita, approx 40% in, and the only direct quotes I've spotted so far are (the obvious) "light of my life, fire of my loins " and "glimmering darling" . It's a good book, I like it. It's not pedophilia, it's hebephilia - but it still makes you slightly uncomfortable. But Nabokov is a great writer, though confusing at times. I'd recommend reading it, if only to say that you had .

 

How is it not pedophilia for a grown man to molest and rape a child? 

[Swan Song 289]

On 1/22/2015 at 3:51 PM, brooklynbaby91 said:

From interviews I've read, it seems like a lot of BTD was based on experiences she had as a teenager in New York.

 

And Lolita is the most repulsive books I've ever read in my life. Graphic, eroticized scenes of pedophilia. You're not missing out on anything.

 

I don't think anything about OTTR is like Lolita. There's an older man in OTTR but the woman in the song clearly loves him. Lolita was a little girl who was repeatedly molested and raped.

Yes, the main character in the novel is a pedophile and incredibly flawed, but this is never seen as acceptable (besides Humbert's desperate attempts to persuade the reader, and it works on some..). Nabokov is a beautiful writer, and the book is held in high regard because of his writing style and prose.

 

The subject matter is definitely not for the faint of heart. It is uncomfortable and infuriating, and that is the point of the novel. It is certainly taboo, but it is so well written and developed that it is a shame to skip it.

[CarcrashBandicoot 760]

I still have yet to read Lolita... I want to, but every time I get money, I spend it on something else. 

[kik 1,564]

Got mine at the public library

[QueenofAlchemy 186]

How is it not pedophilia for a grown man to molest and rape a child? 

 

Semantically, the attraction to pubescent girls is called Hebephilia. I'm not saying it is any less disturbing. 

[LiamViljoen 908]

From interviews I've read, it seems like a lot of BTD was based on experiences she had as a teenager in New York.

 

And Lolita is the most repulsive books I've ever read in my life. Graphic, eroticized scenes of pedophilia. You're not missing out on anything.

 

I don't think anything about OTTR is like Lolita. There's an older man in OTTR but the woman in the song clearly loves him. Lolita was a little girl who was repeatedly molested and raped.

 

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LuKzt7p-MnM

 

 

[rivieragirl 143]

Found this thread just because I was reading Lolita earlier and the line "...that mad year (August 1947 to August 1948)..." made me think of 1949 when Lana sings "we're in the Pontiac from July to July". Of course there are wider similarities between Lana's music and Lolita but actually I would say Off to the Races reminds me more of the film Scarface than Lolita (book or film). I always picture Tony Montana when listening to Off to the Races   

 

I would add A Streetcar Named Desire to art similar to Lana's. Blanche's line "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" is very similar to Lana's "I believe in the kindness of strangers" in the Ride video. I think there are other similarities between the character of Blanche DuBois and the character of Lana Del Rey (in her music, at least). Ride also reminds me a lot of Whitman's Song of the Open Road.

 

I agree with others who have mentioned Breakfast at Tiffany's (Carmen is very similar thematically to Breakfast at Tiffany's), and on the topic of Capote I would recommend In Cold Blood for certain Lana-esque themes following the dark side of the American dream or the underbelly of society.

 

It's so interesting to read about art that is reminiscent to others of Lana's music, would love to see more discussion about this

[slayLANAslay 239]

She also quotes from Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl', which is a poem worth reading (and may be the first mainstream use of the term 'hipster', although here it's about heroin addicts).

 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381

Hearing Howl, the way the words are emphasized...the sound and cadence and resonance of Phrases reminds me so much of how lana writes

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50

 

And whaddya know, James Franco in the movie Howl reads it too. Maybe I need to see this movie

 

[rivieragirl 143]

Hearing Howl, the way the words are emphasized...the sound and cadence and resonance of Phrases reminds me so much of how lana writes

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50

 

And whaddya know, James Franco in the movie Howl reads it too. Maybe I need to see this movie

 

I love hearing Howl read aloud   I completely agree that Lana's writing (particularly what we've heard of it in Tropico and Ride) is heavily influenced by Ginsberg and Nabokov, in that her words are both semantically and sonically expressive. I remember reading Lana say that she admired how Ginsberg used words to paint, or something of that nature.

 

I want to see the movie Howl too 

[larina 682]

 

Lolita is my favourite novel of all time. It's so exceptionally written, as many have said above. I love how it somehow resembles that of a love story but it is in fact quite the opposite. It's so twisted, which makes it two times more interesting...well for me anyway. 

 

I feel Lana's "daddy" theme comes from "dd/lg" (daddy dom/little girl) which I believe is branched off of or at least heavily inspired by Lolita. And the fact that Lana seems so submissive and often talks about violence in her songs kind of relate to that. Also Lana's love for road trips, as someone had also mentioned earlier. Most of the novel is when Humbert and Dolores go off, on the road and staying at lots of motels. Lana had this whole motel aesthetic going too, associated with road tripping, which is a heavy theme of the novel. Lolita is set in the late 1940s, and with songs like 1949 & Every Man Gets His Wish, I believe Lana expresses that too.

[CarlPFisher 46]

Here is the quote from Nabokov.

 

 

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/32046-lolita-light-of-my-life-fire-of-my-loins-my

[DeadAgainst 1,515]

One of the few classics of modern literature that is actually fun and engaging to read all the way through ...