TMoP: Chapter 5 pgs 36- 42

[Mark Kohut]

Maximov, and the office, is very in the Russian bureaucratic "tradition' from Gogol on. "Poor Folk", Dostoevsky's [and D.'s!] first novel is in that tradition.  There is a pale reflection/allusion---given Maximov's postion and interrogation of D.--of the classic Grand Inquistor scene from The Brothers Karamzov, perhaps? Or, Authority vs. the Artist? 

Or any number of police interrogations from many countries, as M. knows things/clues that the interrogated does not---and tries to extract more info. See if he is 'complicit' in any knowledge. Where suspicion and paranoia might start? Brought to high art by Kafka, say?

There is a famous Kafka line: A book/story worth reading must be“‘like an ax to break the frozen ice within us.’” Coetzee may be alluding to that, (among other things) in D.'s exchange with Maximov?. D. has "fire within him" as he excoriates Maximov for his inability to read! D. says reading "is being the arm and being the axe and being the skull"..."reading is giving yourself up"....An inquisitor---"holding himself at a distance and jeering" can not feel a book right. D. says M.'s policeman's motives are grounded in hatred (and revenge)? 

Then M. says that D. sees reading 'as though it were demon-possession"!!!
Wonderful. Fully thematic, of course. Shakespeare, others, have written that one cannot write anything believeably---including about evil,etc.--without in some way having felt it. 

If D. is mostly C. here, then maybe the argument is that a genuine reader must be a kind of co-creator? The genuine reader must FEEL the genuine work
as the author did when he wrote it? A metaphoric entry into the writer's ego/feelings? 

Coetzee has found a literary image to embody all of that, imho. 


--- On Fri, 10/3/08, Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: TMoP:  Chapter 5  pgs 36- 42
> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>, "Bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 10:51 AM
> Another evocative aspect of this scene is D's tenderness
> toward Pavel's writing, which he appears to regard as
> amateurish but touching, and his counterpoised hostility
> toward Maximov, who he accuses of not knowing how to read
> (i.e, reading without an understanding that the imagination
> is never an uncomplicated reflection of reality....)
> 
> In the writer-reader dichotomy, Coetzee's Dostoevsky
> would seem to be clearly sided with writer.  
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Fri, 10/3/08, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
> From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: TMoP:  Chapter 5  pgs 36- 42
> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 8:19 AM
> 
> 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.