PS to "Freud's meaning, though, is clearly stated in his
extensive works (there's no need to interpret them any further). Wittels
accusation..."
In the sentece enclosed by parenthesis I should
have clarified that "there's no need to interpret them any further
- concerning Freud's ideas about frenzied sex and
repression."
The disordered spelling of Wittels's name
is an unfortunate consequence of "indignatio tremens."
btw: When Wittels observes
that Irma "is the exemplary alternative to our modern
neurasthenia. The opposite of a hysteric, she articulates her desire
unambiguously and directly. Unlike her civilised contemporaries, she is not
crippled by ambivalence" the entire sentence reeks of amateurish
mix-ups, such as proposing an "exemplary alternative" to social ills, the
imprecision of the sweeping "our modern neurasthenia", the untypical
hilarious "she articulates her desire".
Wittels confuses "ambiguity" and "ambivalence,"
with "conflict" (each word, when applied in the context of mental-illness
has a precise aura of meanings.) The word
"ambivalence" in psychiatric circles was coined by Bleuler in 1911.
I wonder how the verb "articulates" appears in the
German original (it sounds so "postmodern"...).
Alexey Sklyarenko: In my previous
post on Pale Fire I quoted an excerpt from Tynyanov's story Wax Person...What I
missed is that шестипалый (six-fingered man, a character in Tynyanov's story,
live exhibit and guide in Peter's Kunstkammer), конь крылат и змей рогат (a
winged horse and horned serpent mentioned by the six-fingered man) remind one of
шестикрылый серафим (the six-winged seraph) that appeared to Pushkin's Prophet
and put into his mouth a serpent's wise sting instead of his sinful human
tongue...
JM: The image Pushkin's lines on the
Prophet conjured in me was related to a Greek road-crossing. There, another
future prophet, Tiresias, encountered two serpents engaged in copulation.
Instead of a six-winged seraph and a biblical God, one can expect a host of
Olympic deities and even Pegasus hovering about. .