The Opiate, Summer Vol.2
Lana Del Rey, English Professor/ Nabokov Necro Genna Rivieccio
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assing something off as one’s own is generally the name of the game when it comes to art. For centuries, writers and musicians alike have stolen from their forerunners to recreate and repackage a concept or idea that’s already been done at least ten to ten thousand times before. Considering the current landscape with regard to the masses’ level of interest in literature, particularly the classics, it is thusly no surprise that Lana Del Rey, goddess of new-fangled goth, has adopted a number of well-known authors’ words as her own. The scribe toward whom she possesses the most fondness is, by and large, Vladimir Nabokov. Quotes from
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his famed Lolita appear often in the lyrics of her songs. In fact, one of her own track titles is “Lolita.” Being that Del Rey’s early shtick from the Born to Die album era consisted of cultivating the youthfully innocent air of what Humbert Humbert would call a nymphet, it makes all the sense in the world that she would croon, “I know what the boys want, I’m not gonna play,” as part of a persona centered around Dolores Haze. On the same album, Del Rey continued to showcase her nepotism for Nabokov with another song called “Carmen.” In this sultry tale, most of her inspiration is culled straight from Lolita, including lyrics like, “It’s alarming, honestly, how charming she can be,”
