Subject
Re: Botkin
From
Date
Body
Anthony Stadlen writes (in answer to Jerry Friedman and Jansy): While what
Jansy says has its own validity, I do think that it is not "psychologically
strange" that someone "deluded" gives hints as to the "reality" from
which his "delusion" is an escape. After all, it is only such hints that
justify those who argue, as Sartre and others (including myself) do, that
"delusions" are a form of "bad faith", intentional acting on one's own
consciousness, a game that the person is playing with his consciousness and his
relation to others, rather than a kind of accident afflicting the person from
"outside", or from "the brain", etc. So, in this respect, it seems to me that
VN is quite "realistic" and insightful.
Jerry Friedman writes: Especially after reading Matt Roth's comments, I'd
like to ask Anthony Stadlen and anyone else who might know: Was I right in
suspecting that Kinbote's mentions of Botkin are "psychologically strange"?
Or are people with such delusions known to refer to their original
selves, not as overtly the same person, but revealing that they still know of
some connection?
JM:In my opinion, we run the risk of deviating into another set of tracks
when we plan to investigate psychological facts and "realities" following
Nabokov's inventiveness and satirical turn of mind.
What could be the answer for what's "psychologically strange" in Kinbote's
reference to Botkin, outside of the boundaries of Nabokov's novel? The
Index entry that introduces Botkin and the text from CK's note n.247 ( am I
mistaken to assume that Botkin has only made another appearance -
extra-textually?) is necessary to the novelist himself. It serves him to add a
fundamental information, but it leaves a mark that is similar to a navel, no
longer functional but revelatory and non-deletable.
Anthony Stadlen
"Oakleigh"
2A Alexandra Avenue
GB - London N22 7XE
Tel.: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857
Email: stadlen@aol.com
Founder (in 1996) and convenor of the Inner Circle Seminars: an ethical,
existential, phenomenological search for truth in psychotherapy
See
"Existential Psychotherapy & Inner Circle Seminars" at
_http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/_ (http://anthonystadlen.blogspot.com/) for programme of
future Inner Circle Seminars and complete archive of past seminars
In a message dated 04/09/2010 22:29:55 GMT Daylight Time, nabokv-l@UTK.EDU
writes:
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS re: Botkin
From:
Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello _<jansy@aetern.us>_ (mailto:jansy@aetern.us>)
Date:
Sat, 4 Sep 2010 16:19:22 -0300
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum _<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>_
(mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU)
Jerry Friedman writes: Especially after reading Matt Roth's comments, I'd
like to ask Anthony Stadlen and anyone else who might know: Was I right in
suspecting that Kinbote's mentions of Botkin are "psychologically strange"?
Or are people with such delusions known to refer to their original
selves, not as overtly the same person, but revealing that they still know of
some connection?
JM:In my opinion, we run the risk of deviating into another set of tracks
when we plan to investigate psychological facts and "realities" following
Nabokov's inventiveness and satirical turn of mind.
What could be the answer for what's "psychologically strange" in Kinbote's
reference to Botkin, outside of the boundaries of Nabokov's novel? The
Index entry that introduces Botkin and the text from CK's note n.247 ( am I
mistaken to assume that Botkin has only made another appearance -
extra-textually?) is necessary to the novelist himself. It serves him to add a
fundamental information, but it leaves a mark that is similar to a navel, no
longer functional but revelatory and non-deletable.
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