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

[Jeremy Osner]

Apologizing as before for any incoherencies,

The first time we met Enzian, throwing Marvy from the train, he had the
stamp of a Jesse James type -- but here on p. 318 (only a few days
later) I don't get that impression anymore -- "...behind him another day
of schemes, expediting, newly invented paperwork ...What Enzian wants to
create will have no history."

I think in these couple paragraphs Enzian sounds almost like a Herero
Pointsman. Whose paperwork is it, invented by whom? It isn't Nazi
paperwork because there is no more Nazi government -- is is Zone-Herero
paperwork? I reckon it is, and that throws the Empty Ones' tribal
suicide into a whole new light -- a distinctly European,
nihilistic/bureaucratic light -- tribal governments don't run on forms.
And speaking of Empty Ones, is Enzian one? I guess not because "He has
thus himself found a strange rapprochement with the Empty Ones"; what
determines whether a Zone-Herero is an Empty One? Are the Empty Ones the
governing body of the Zone-Hereros? the government in exile so to speak?

Let's get science into the mix. Pointsman's problem is that he is
obsessed by his science, to the point that (generalizing) he does not
regard other people as people but as potential subjects. (Is that a fair
description? Because I think that Pointsman's problem is a symptom of
the broader problem with European cult-cha that I haven't been able to
name as yet.) Enzian seems to been, maybe, bitten by the same bug. Is
this because of Weissman's influence? (Weissman doesn't seem to me to
have the disorder that I'm saying is afflicting both Pointsman and
Enzian; I think his problem is not only of a different order of
magnitude but also qualitatively different.) Note p. 323, "He let
Weissman think what he wanted to..." But Enzian's troubles are still
European in origin, aren't they, because he "grew up into a
white-occupied world. Captivity, sudden death, one-way departures where
the ordinary things of every day." White occupation is a product of
European expansionism which is fueled by science, maybe.

I'm not sure where to go with these observations. But right now I'm
having a hard time equating the earlier Enzian and the current one.

Jeremy

--
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/