Posted by Sterling on 14/1/2011, 18:41:01, in reply to "Re: The Idiot"
98.71.122.197
It's been a while since I read The Idiot, but I certainly agree that Myshkin is not severely mentally challenged like Benji. As I recall, Myshkin is a naif who is "subject to fits."
I'm not exactly sure why the phrase "ironic glance" bothers you so much. The irony is not necessarily in the statement. Let's say that I'm sitting with a friend and our boss. The friend and I are liberals. The boss is a Tea Party republican who says (without a bit of irony), "Sarah Palin is the greatest woman of our time!" My liberal friend throws me an "ironic glance," which communicates that we both think the statement is laughably absurd, but we don't wish to say so and start an argument with our employer. Is there something amiss with that usage?
--Previous Message--
:
: I'm not reading The Idiot now, but I've read it a
: couple times.
:
: I read somewhere that Faulkner's idiot Benji in The
: Sound and the Fury is more convincing than
: Dostoevski's. I take Dostoevski's title ironically or
: something like that. Is Myshkin really meant to seem
: mentally challenged, or is he just completely lacking
: in self interest? Perhaps that would be a handicap,
: but it's not the same as Benji's.
:
: My translation of The Idiot uses the phrase 'ironic
: glance'. I think it's by Sydney Monas. Do other
: translations use that phrase? What is an ironic
: glance? Is it a look that seems to imply that one
: thinks what one is hearing is the opposite of the
: truth? Even if that's it, I find it a very awkward
: phrase since the irony is in the statement and not the
: glance. Did I ask this here before?
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