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Monday, April 27, 2009

Don't Stand So Close to Me/The Police


This song, from Zenyattà Mondatta (1980), the third album by The Police, tells of a young teacher pursued by--and attracted to--an underage student. The allusion to Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita is found in the lines: It's no use, he sees her/He starts to shake and cough/Just like the old man in/That book by Nabokov. "The old man" is a reference to Humbert Humbert, the book's middle-aged protagonist, who develops an obsession for the 12-year old title character.

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