Fugue state

[kelber at mindspring.com]

In Thomas Mann's novel The Confessions of Felix Krull, there's a great scene where the title character, after studying the symptoms and practicing for weeks, fakes an epileptic fit, with the aim of being excused from military service.  He does the whole shebang:  emotional and physical, including the fugue state.  Felix is convinced that he's actually caused himself to experience a real epileptic fit.  It's a fun book, and that scene is the highlight.

Laura

 
-----Original Message-----
>From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>

>
>Does Dostoevesky call it a fugue state in the novel, David?  Coetzee's evocations of the "pre-seizure" moments were very striking and more than a little unsettling....
>
>--- On Mon, 4/6/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>

>> If I remember correctly, the
>> Dostoevsky character in Coetzee's Master
>> of Petersburg felt himself repeatedly on the verge of a
>> Fugue episode.
>>  The actual Dostoevsky described the onset of a seizure as
>> a state of
>> intense clarity.
>> 
>> David Morris