Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Gide

Finished "The Counterfeiters" and loved it.  I noticed this time that Dmitri Karamazov was mentioned at least twice so now I'm doing a reread of "The Brothers K..." (all 913 pages).

2 comments:

Tim said...

"Is it possible," I cried to him, clasping my hands, "that such a small incident should generate such resolution in you?"
—Book Six, Chapter Two, Section Four ("The Mysterious Visitor").

My reading took me to differet rereading, The Confusions of Young Törless, following the theme of schoolboys behaving badly—"behaving badly" here consisting inter alia of three mates repeatedly sodomizing one of their chums. I'm sorry I never interested the group in reading this novel. Certainly it would present a great occasion for discussion.

Dmitri, by the way, is mentioned exactly twice (pp. 273 & 310), the second entailing a memory of the first. Do let us know where in BK this "killing of oneself out of sheer excess of life" occurs. And while you're at it please keep an eye out for Ivan's rhetorical question about how such a shameless man as his father can live, i.e. can go on shamelessly living. (The direct question, as I remember is much more direct: "How can such a man live!?")

Thinking it might take a while, I began The Counterfeiters two weeks ago … and couldn't put it down. I'm hoping that the notebooks and appendices will revive my memory for this week's discussion.

Robert Muir said...

In "The Brothers Karamazov" Dmitri addresses "killing oneself out of..." in Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 4 (the penultimate paragraph). He is talking to Alyosha about his passion for Katerina Ivanovna and says, "She jumped up and ran away. I was wearing my sword. I drew it and nearly stabbed myself with it on the spot; why, I don't know. It would have been frightfully stupid, of course. I suppose it was from delight. Can you understand that one might kill oneself from delight?

Another translation: "Do you realize that one might kill oneself in certain moments of ecstasy?"