GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[rj]

Seb 
> I like the way Weissmann realises, looking back, that he'd
> completely misinterpreted what Enzian said: the invocation of God
> presses Weissmann's button, sending him off on a riff which is
> entirely his own, or the Rhenish Missionary Society's - it's
> because Weissmann believes in blasphemy, and is overwhelmed by
> the desert, as a European,  that "the peril of buggering the boy
> under the resonance of the sacred Name fills him insanely with
> lust".
> 
> All Weissman's own very verbal, very European reaction - but "to
> the boy, Ndjambi Karunga is what happens when they couple, that's
> all".  Weissman couldn't get very far with this as a claim of
> innocence, as he hasn't a clue what exactly is going on in
> Enzian's head, thus what the boy actually means.  And his Rilkean
> rhapsodies make him look momentarily very foolish, a bit
> Humbert-ish.

Yes it does, to us. But not to Enzian, of course, who falls under
Weissmann's spell entirely, and as a man continues to "love" him
throughout the remainder of the narrative, even though the two are
separated soon after(?) Weissmann brings Enzian to the Fatherland.

best