It Happens
Nabokov and Kinsey present work that is provocative in the same way, though the former crafted an intricate work of fiction while the latter published research: Both writers confront the reader with a sexual matter the reader would like to deny by forcing him to recognize its presence in American life and society.
This is best stated by a woman’s response to Kinsey in Document 2. The last woman quoted says, “Whatever is said in praise or blame, the book presents a picture of female sexual activity as it is. No amount of protesting is going to change it.” (374, Peiss)
Kinsey and Nabokov write about controversial matters in a way that says: Like it or not, this stuff happens. Not only does it happen, but it happens in your own country, in your own city, in your own neighborhood, and perhaps even in your own home.
What remains is the human capacity of denial, despite being faced with facts. The first woman quoted in Document 2 feels the need to defend herself, and the people she associates with, by saying that the survey of sexual experience was an inaccurate assessment based only on the responses taken from people with less morality. If that kind of sexual behavior does exist she still wants to claim that she has nothing to do with it. But perhaps the shared human existence indicates that what other people to do is significant to both the people doing it and those refraining.
Tags: confrontation, denial, facts, Kinsey, Nabokov
