TMOP: Chapter 7

[Bekah]

On Oct 12, 2008, at 3:41 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Is Coetzee suggesting that a writer, at least D., a writer like  
> Dostoevsky
> exploring 'evil' in society, PARTAKES of some of that evil by  
> opening himself to "knowing" it?

No, I don't think he's opening himself up to evil,  evil seems to  
take hold of Dostoevsky via gambling usually.  In the case of  
Dostoevsky,  he fought it and fought it.  Too bad, so sad -  
Dostoevsky was mortal and had failings and ended up in yet another  
card room.   Dostoevsky never had much of a sex life outside marriage  
that I've ever heard of.

There were rumors (probably started by Turgenev) that Dostoevsky had  
visited the child prostitutes around St. Petersburg but nothing  
substantial was ever found.

Dostoevsky experienced and heard of some serious evil doing as a  
child.   His father, who had a problem with womanizing,  was brutally  
murdered.  A young neighbor friend was raped.   He heard stories of  
this sort when he was in Siberia.

I think perhaps you could be right about Coetzee seeming to suggest  
that D. dabbled in order to find out - as an authenticating artistic  
experience.  But Coetzee doesn't seem to go very far with that idea  
and it's certainly not true to the historic author.

Bekah