It’s carnival season (or fair, depending on where you’re from), so it’s that time of the year when I get to make all that time I spend on my bike pay off. In other words, it’s fried food followed by fried dessert time.
Two of my biggest pleasures in life are good books and bad food. This year, the two had a connection I could never see coming:
If you’re on a device that doesn’t let you see the picture big enough to tell, look at the blue can directly above the price sign. If you still can’t see it, here’s a closeup:
When I say I love reading Nabokov because his writing is so delicious, this is not what I mean!
(I checked the brand they used last year by looking at my carnival fiction inspiration post from last July and it wasn’t the same one.)
I’m trying to parse the thought process that leads to naming a brand of mushrooms after one of the most famous characters in literary history. If they were named after Alice of Lewis Carroll’s imagination, I’d understand that somewhat. Hunter S. Thompson, sure. Aldous Huxley, absolutely. (“Doors” brand mushrooms may even already be taken.)
But Lolita? Somehow I doubt there was enough literary analysis going on at the marketing department for someone to say, “Hey does anyone remember Nabokov’s dazzling opening to Lolita where he’s taking about his tongue? You know, the part where he goes, ‘Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.’ Let’s go with that. Everyone will know what we’re talking about.”
So savory.
Unless they were talking about Alizée’s “Moi… Lolita,” which is a whole other can of, uhh, mushrooms:
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