hot summer days

they are predicting highs near 100 degrees today, so i am trying to stay cool in my un-airconditioned apartment by sitting in front of the fan in a dark room with my book and a huge glass of iced tea (it's working to some extent, but i'll be grateful for my airconditioned 4:30 train ride to an airconditioned house in the suburbs). the book? "ada or ardor" by vladimir nabokov, who is becoming one of my favorite writers, despite his often uncomfortable themes of pedophilia and incest, "ada" being no exception.
touted as one of nabokov's masterpieces, the book tells the story of ada veen and her cousin van, who spend one summer together as lustful adolescents who spend what seems like every waking moment of their free time finding secret spaces in which to "make love."
is it really "love"? it appears that nabokov would like us to think that these two children, 12 and 15 years old, are truly in love and therefore justified in their actions, despite the fact that they later discover that they are not just cousins, oh no, they are actually brother and sister.
i think this is why people are drawn to nabovkov - aside from his witty, intelligent writing. he takes a situation that is taboo to humans, such as incest or pedophilia, and attempts to twist it into something that everyone searches for: love. people are uncomfortable with incest and most would do anything to put an end to it, but who would dare stand in the way of true love? it would be a crime against humankind to tear two lovers apart.
but i don't agree that ada and van, or even humbert and lolita, were ever in love, and i don't think nabokov does either. love and lust are two entirely different things, and the characters in nabokov's books often confuse them, just as we often do in real life (damn those hormones). and i think it's important that we have such stories; rather than writing about the traditional romance between two consenting young adults, nabokov chooses to write about the things that make us squirm, but the things that happen all too often.
the other day i read a review for the movie "heading south," which has gotten a lot of press for this same conundrum, the seeming interchangeability between love and lust. the movie received good reviews, but this last sentence stuck out to me: "... it becomes one of the most truthful examinations ever filmed of desire, age and youth, and how easy it is to confuse erotic rapture with love."
hear, hear. in our culture it is becoming harder and harder to tell the difference between love and lust because sex seems to take the place of both. maybe we all need to take a step back and re-learn what it is to truly love someone and how much better it is than plain old lust.