TMoP: Chapter 5 pgs 36- 42

[Bekah]

TMoP:  Chapter 5  pgs 36- 48

  [from the book page 36 :     Maximov:   "I would not have thought  
you a martinet for principles"]

*a martinet is someone who insists on strict adherence to the rules  
-  Is Maximov referring to, insulting with irony,  Dostoevsky's  
gambling addiction and the contradiction with his Russian Orthodox  
views?

[page 36:  The list Dostoevsky is shown contains the names of people  
who are to be assassinated, according to Maximov.  Dostoevsky  
recognizes some names. ]

* "People's Vengeance"  was the Russian branch of the nihilist  
organization  Nechaev (and Bakunin) and were trying to set up.

***********
[page 37:  Maximov says Pavel took his own life - D. denies this...]

* but the alternative is that Pavel was murdered - perhaps an  
accident, though.

***********

[pages 38-39:   what is the nature of "private papers"?   Is  a   
short story written by a dead man  who has no stated heirs private  
material? ]

* interesting question -

***********
[ page 40:    D. adamantly agrees a short story is private until  
published.  The story in question is summarized and concerns the  
brutal murder of a lascivious landlord - ]

*  it's not really like the death of Dostoevsky's father.   The name  
of the victim is "Karamazin,"  which although it sounds like  
"Karamazov," but is actually the name of a 19th century Russian  
nationalist/slavophile historian.   The name of the young murderer is  
"Sergei" - as in Nechaev (and others I'm sure - could be purely  
fiction).

***********

[page 41 -   [from the book:  in Pavel's story,  Sergei takes the  
hatchet when he and the woman escape - "What for?"   " ' Because it  
is the weapon of the Russian people, our means of defense and our  
means of refuge."     ]

* I think this story is kind of important to Coetzee's work as Pavel  
is showing the old greedy Russia being killed but the murderer  
picking up the axe for use in future struggles - People's  
Vengeance.   The hatchet or axe was used as the seal on documents  
from the "People's Vengeance Party"
"Anarchist Portraits" by Paul Avrich - see Google Books
http://tinyurl.com/5crjoa   (pg 41)

***********
[page 42  Maximov sees the story with Sergei's taking the axe with  
him,  as evidence of Pavel's association with the revolutionaries.   
D.  is outraged that a work of fiction should be used to determine an  
author's ideas, identity,  possibly guilt. ]

* This is pure Coetzee -  Dostoevsky's works were almost direct  
reflections of his own ideas and beliefs, doubts or confusions.    
Coetzee has, otoh,  long disputed a reader's authority to make this  
connection.   As a result of "Disgrace,"  Coetzee was branded a  
racist and imo, this led to his decision to leave South Africa  
although it wasn't the sole reason for his emigration to Australia.

[page 42:  D. speaks :   "What you call Nechaevism has always existed  
in Russia, though under other names.  Nechaevism is as Russian as  
brigandage."

*  Dostoevsky's view of the underside to Russian-ness.