Subject
Clairvoyance (fwd)
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From: Ben Walsh <benw@meta.dublin.iona.ie>
I'm enjoying Brian Boyd's superlative "Russian Years" at the moment, and
I'm puzzled by the author's unquestioning acceptance of VN's "clairvoyant"
incident during a childhood fever.
The incident is beautifully documented in "Speak, Memory" - the thoughtful
but useless gift of the giant display pencil, thought desirable because it
seemed inaccessible - but surely it is more likely that the delirium of
fever coupled with the lens of elapsed time made jumbled the events up to
make him think that he imagined the event before it happened, and that VN
transposed his vivid imagination of his mother walking into the shop onto
the events he actually did observe, like Martin watching the mailman crunch
bluish footprints in the snow.
ben
I'm enjoying Brian Boyd's superlative "Russian Years" at the moment, and
I'm puzzled by the author's unquestioning acceptance of VN's "clairvoyant"
incident during a childhood fever.
The incident is beautifully documented in "Speak, Memory" - the thoughtful
but useless gift of the giant display pencil, thought desirable because it
seemed inaccessible - but surely it is more likely that the delirium of
fever coupled with the lens of elapsed time made jumbled the events up to
make him think that he imagined the event before it happened, and that VN
transposed his vivid imagination of his mother walking into the shop onto
the events he actually did observe, like Martin watching the mailman crunch
bluish footprints in the snow.
ben