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[Mark Kohut]

Bekah writes:


> I think Coetzee does want the possession theme of epilepsy to  
> resonate (as you all probably do)...He, Coetzee, seems to be  
> working with mutual back-and-forth resonances the notion of 'being  
> possessed'...this is Dostevsky's way of understanding Nechaev (and  
> group), and Coetzee's way of understanding D. ...?

Well,  in Demons the revolutionaries are possessed by demons and they  
do absolutely nothing of any import.  They are presented as fumblers  
and bumblers as well as generally perverse and demented people.  But  
it's because they're possessed by ideas which are really demons  
abroad in the land (as Maximov discounts).   Ideas can possess people  
and as such they are demons.

But D. in TMoP does call the demons, 'anti-ideas"...But, yes, Dostoevsky uses the metaphor to apply to nihilistic notions...Stavrogin does do something of import (for Dostoevsky's vision)....

And, Coetzee doubles down, so to speak....having "ideas" which possess even
Dostoevsky be bad,,akin to nihilistic ones?