GRGR(15): Enzian, nihilism, and a few other things

[Jeremy Osner]

Stuck on Suicide, yes everyone seems to be right about now; but in Josef and
Enzian's conversations I hear quite a bit of Ironic Detachment -- for someone
to really be SOS doesn't he need to have abandoned hope? It seems to me like
I.D. is pushing away despair, rather than accepting it. I guess an argument
could be made to the contrary. Either way I have a hard time seeing J and E as
despairing, though I could think of them (at the present moment) as evil.
What's up with Enzian's relationship with Weissman?

--
The right-hand, still untasted part of the novel, which,
during our delectable reading, we would lightly feel,
mechanically testing whether there were still plenty
left (and our fingers were always gladdened by the
placid, faithful thickness) has suddenly, for no reason
at all, become quite meager: a few minutes of quick
reading, already downhill, and -- O horrible!

Invitation to a Beheading
Vladimir Nabokov
http://www.readin.com/books/invitationbeheading/