Nicole, “Girl, it’s no big deal. I’ve had sex with three guys. Just relax and have a good time. And if you’re not having a good time, it’s your problem, because you gotta ask for what you want.” The third girl agreed, “Yes!” Alisson wrote: “[...] I was thrilled that they were talking about sex without any accompanying shame.” But “[...] [f]or all her bravado, Nicole was a child.”
child: /CHīld/ [noun] a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority. (Oxford Languages) Thus, I’m assuming that Alisson was implying that Nicole had the mind of a child?
After the session, Nicole helped Alisson clean up, and Nicole put a handful of condoms into the pocket of her lavender slicker. How did Alisson react? She wrote: “I offered her candy for helping me clean up. “Thank you, Miss Alisson.”
I won’t discuss the misleading and erroneous errors that Wood wrote about Lolita. Like when she wrote of Lolita leaving Humbert: “She fled, she got out. Let’s not focus yet on where she ended up.” But it’s misleading if you mention that Lolita fled from Humbert but not mention that she fled to Quilty - another much older man. But I won’t discuss that topic.
Alisson taught an introductory undergraduate creative writing course. And guess what book she taught at the “culmination” of the semesters. You guessed it - Lolita: “[...] the only convincing love story of our century,” said Vanity Fair”. That’s correct. She taught the novel that she said her high school English teacher used for grooming. And Alisson shared in the penultimate chapter of her memoir - her final contradiction: “In many ways, I still want to be like Lolita.”
In the end, I suspect that Alisson Wood wrote Part i of Being Lolita for writer fame slash money. And that she wrote parts ii and iii to avoid being canceled, which may have been prompted by one of the over 50 people Alisson acknowledged in the acknowledgments.
Part 5: It’s Normal for a Nymphet to Crush on her Teacher
Kaia Gerber had Alisson Wood on her Instagram Live book club (November 13, 2020). To promote the event, Geber posted a picture of Alisson’s memoir, and Kaia wrote that she read Being Lolita: [...] four times and filling the margins with endless annotations [...]”
Before Alisson joined the live stream, Kaia said that in Being Lolita, Lolita: “[...] becomes a backdrop to their connection that blooms from like a crush into a romance and a relationship.” Thus, Kaia confirmed that Alisson had a “romance” with her English teacher.
But then Kaia said that, via Lolita, Mr. North, “[...] convinces her that that book is a love affair when in reality it is not [...] as time kind of progresses in the book and in Alisson’s life, ‘cause it is a memoir, you see how his grip on her tightens and how the relationship quickly becomes abusive.” Wait, is Kaia implying that Alisson’s “romance” with her English was not initially abusive, but that it became abusive after they had rough sex, which was after Alission turned 18, and she graduated from high school?
Kaia said misleadingly, “As a young woman you think you’re in control - a lot of the time. And realizing what consent is and when you can give consent. And as a minor that is something you cannot give to an adult.” I don’t know whom Kaia was referring to, because there’s no way that she was (correctly) referring to Alisson, because Alisson was not a minor when she had sex with Mr. North. In other words, there’s no state in the US that has an age-of-consent that’s higher than 18. (Note: 19-year-old Kaia was 18 when she began a romantic relationship with 26-year-old Pete Davidson.)
Remember that Alisson and Kaia related that Mr. North used Lolita to groom Alisson, but just like in the memoir, Alisson confessed that she didn’t actually read Lolita, “When I was in high school I didn’t actually [...] I didn’t really, like, carefully read Lolita. Umm, I read the parts that he read to me and, like, you know, sort of skimmed through it. And but I got bored by the second part. I was like, “This so boring and it is long [...]”
Then Kaia implied that it wasn’t Lolita but that Mr. North took advantage of Alisson’s mental issues (i.e., suicidal tendencies) to “control and abuse” Alisson. And Alisson agreed that Mr. North noticed that she had those vulnerabilities and took advantage of them, but there’s no explicit mention of that in the memoir. One could take a long stretch and make that inference, but there’s no explicit mention of that in Being Lolita. On the contrary, Allison explicitly related that Mr. North’s seduction methods were (excerpts from) Lolita, which, once again, she didn’t (fully) read, and control (i.e., Despite Alisson’s wishes, Mr. North made Allison keep their affair a secret.)
Here’s the penultimate (seeming) contradiction from the book club discussion.
Alisson, “Oh, I didn’t want a woman. I didn’t want any reader to come away from this book thinking, “Oh, she was ruined. She was broken.”
Kaia, “And I think that’s what’s so cool. While you are the victim. You don’t victimize yourself - especially in the beginning.”
Alisson, “I completely agree.”
But throughout the book club discussion, Alisson implied to Kaia that, as a consequence of her romance with Mr. North, she was a victim and that she had been ruined and broken.
And now for the final (seeming) contradiction from the book club discussion. Allison confessed that it’s completely natural, totally normal, and completely developmentally and socially appropriate for a high school student to have a crush on her older teacher:
Alisson, “That’s completely natural. It’s normal for a teenager. It’s totally normal for, like, a teenage girl to have a crush on her older teacher.”
Kaia, “Yes.”
Alisson, “And I was not the only one at my school to have a crush on him.”
Alisson, “It was totally normal for me to have the [sic] crush on the teacher.”
Kaia, “Yeah.”
Alisson, “Like that’s fine. Like, that’s completely developmentally appropriate. It’s socially appropriate.”
Lastly, in what is arguably Alisson's most pertinent statement, “Like that’s not the problem. The problem is that an adult man was like, “Hey, she’s got a crush on me, like, let me see if I can sleep with her.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Mr. North noticed that Alisson had a crush on him and, per Alisson, he correctly assumed that she inappropriately wanted to have sex with her high school English teacher, but Mr. North should have waited to begin the (non-sexual and sexual) romance after Alisson had graduated from Hunt. (Although, despite Kaia's own consensual age-gap affair, it appears that she would have (openly) objected to that scenario as well.)
Lastly, let me be absolutely clear, Mr. North should not have had an (non-sexual) affair with Alisson - his high school English student. But Alisson should not have had an affair with Mr. North - her high school English teacher. Like Alisson Wood wrote: “The wanting went both ways.”
