TMOP Chapter 9 - Nechaev

[David Morris]

TMoP Chapter 9 – Some initial thoughts…

D. sees the "plump, almost spherical" Finn with a tall thin woman on
the street.  He surreptitiously follows them, and after almost losing
them is directed to the blind alley entrance of their apartment
building.  (Bind alleys?  Hmmm...)

D. tells the Finn he want to pursue her charge that the police
murdered Pavel.  But he wants to do this "Not in any spirit of
vengefulness.  I am inquiring for my own relief.  I mean, in order to
relieve myself."

D's stated motive strikes the Finn (and this reader) as odd for a
number of reasons:

1.  Vengeance is the namesake of Nechaev's movement.  A discussion in
this dwelling cannot avoid this spirit.

2.  Is the "relief" D seeks a quest for evidence to prove the Finn's
charge false, so that he can wash his hands of further action (not
seek justice for a murdered son)?

3.  Or is the "relief" D seeks a quest for evidence that Pavel didn't
commit suicide ( that he WAS murdred), and thus D's neglect was not
the cause of his son's death?

Amidst this discussion with the Finn, with the tall woman in the
background, D has a vision of Pavel and his "chosen" bride:

"But who can this bride be?  Can she be the tall young woman (nearly
as tall as Pavel) with the piercing blue eyes?"

And then:

"the tall girl leaves the room.  The rustle of her dress and a waft of
lavender as she passes awake in him an unexpected flutter of desire.
Desire for what?  For the girl herself?  Surely not – or not only.
[…]  Something to do […] with finding himself in Pavel's world,
Pavel's erotic surround."

Later the tall woman invites him to sit with her at a small table and
then aggressively twice nudges his foot with hers, "instep to instep."
 And:

"A disturbing excitement creeps over him.  Like chess […]
Deliberateness and tawdriness [because these advances are being
witnessed by a child] […] Where could they have learned so much about
him, about his desires?"

But moments later, when:

"he has a felling he knows more than he wants to know.  The foot
[becomes] […] No longer a a foot but a boot"  [notice the near rhyme
of foot & boot]

And immediately the vision of Pavel and his bride returns, with the
bride "obscured."  The implication of all of these visions and scenes
becomes clear.  Do you know where this is leading?  D knows, but
represses the clear reality before him:  "Pavel would not be playing
these games."

Clearly Pavel and Nechaev were lovers.

More next week…