The Recognitions

—The eighth Bucolic, isn’t it, Carmina vel caelo . . .

He pulled at the roll of paper on the wall, to wipe away a smudge on his cheek, and that paper rolled out to him with a great creaking, and one small brave passenger, a cockroach, riding like Palinurus piloting the ship of Aeneas, where he went to sleep at the helm and fell overboard, to be murdered by natives ashore.

The Virgin conceived that way, the Logos entered her ears. I have no idea what a logos is, but it doesn’t sound at all nice does it. Val quoted Vergil and all sorts of dead people. Why, they all used to believe that all sorts of animals conceived that way. They thought that mares were made pregnant by the wind. And so I have to read this to really know what on earth I’m doing, covering their ears, because evil angels are waiting to do the nastiest things to them. Can you imagine conceiving on the badminton court?

—Yes, back there, that’s the place! They’re waiting! Yes, the harrowing of hell. That’s it. Then wood splintered, in the dining room.

The wind from behind stood Otto’s hair on end, and blew along before him an empty tin can, throwing it bounding over spots of snow, jingling it over bare stretches of pavement, to hurl it lost among the mutilated shadows as he turned the corner into her street and saw that he was not alone....

And when he raised his eyes, looking east toward the hospital, he was alone in the street. The wind had gone down, and the still cold was unbearable. He stood numb, surrounded by ice, among the frozen giants of buildings, as though to dare a step would send him head over heels in a night with neither hope of morning to come nor heaven’s betrayal of its triumphal presence, in the stars.

NOTE: in canto 28, the Sowers of Discord are characterized by their mutilated bodies. In the following canto, Vergil asks Dante: "'What are you waiting for? Why do you stare / as if you could not tear your eyes away / from the mutilated shadows passing there?'"

The only sound to reach him where he’d stopped was the regular tinkle of a bell, resting up against the jaw of a burro chewing somewhere near. He stood there as though this betrayal of rural tranquillity had engaged his whole attention, as though some innocent line from the Eclogues had turned up for the first time since he’d left Vergil behind in a dusty schoolroom and never read Latin again anywhere but on public buildings.

Mentioned on: 892, 699, 499, 442, 313, 221, 28

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Among the greatest of the Roman poets, Virgil was the author of the 'Aeneid'.

Publius Vergilius Maro, known in English as Virgil (or sometimes Vergil) was born near Mantua in northern Italy in October 70 BC. He spent his early life in northern Italy. His first work was the 'Eclogues', published in the mid-30s BC. They give an artificial, idealised picture of a world of singing shepherds - the Arcadia of a later European pastoral ideal - but are also filled with references to contemporary political figures.

Virgil's next work was the 'Georgics', published in 29 BC and was a didactic poem, in four books, on farming. It looks back ultimately to the work of the archaic Greek poet Hesiod (c.700 BC). It was dedicated to Roman statesman Gaius Maecenas, who had become Virgil's patron. His support enabled Virgil to dedicate himself full time to study and writing. As well as Maecenas, Virgil's friends included Octavian, who became the Emperor Augustus after establishing himself in power in 27 BC, and many prominent writers and poets.

Virgil's last work was the 'Aeneid', an epic poem in 12 books which looks back to Homer's two epic poems the 'Odyssey' and the 'Iliad', of the eighth century BC. It describes the journey of the Trojan hero Aeneas to Italy and the wars he undertook once he had arrived there. But the poem does not merely give a version of Rome's earliest origins - it alludes to the whole course of Roman history, which will culminate in the reign of Augustus. Thus the tragedy of Dido, the queen of Carthage, who was driven to kill herself by her passion for Aeneas, is the ultimate origin of the Punic Wars - Rome's later wars against Carthage for control of the western Mediterranean. Similarly, the struggle of Aeneas, as he attempted to found a city for his people, also in some respects prefigures that of Augustus in re-establishing Rome.

Virgil himself died of a fever in 19 BC. On his deathbed he is supposed to have ordered the 'Aeneid' to be destroyed, but on Augustus's orders it was published.

(From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/virgil.shtml) WORKS MENTIONED IN THE RECOGNITIONS: 

The Bucolics 

     Wiki

The Aeneid

—Some half-ass critic, Anselm said, —a three time psychoanaloser. He spat into the gutter.

—With his fake conversion to the Church. You remember that little tiny girl that used to be around? she came about up to his waist. He used to take her home and dress her in little girl’s clothes and rape her.

(Agnes)—What did I have to do with it? You know how much it costs to run a magazine. He smoothed down and released his obedient hair.

(Stanley)—Are you using my Dostoevski piece in this issue?

(Stanley)—Well, I haven’t finished it yet, but . . .

(Agnes)—And the autobiography of Dostoevski?

—Look Agnes, don’t start that with me tonight, that autobiography crap.

—Relax, Agnes Deigh said.

—Have another drink.

—All right. But just don’t start . . .

And in his enthusiasm Mr. Feddle came too close. The book was snatched from under his arm and he fluttered here helplessly, listening to the laughter, and an instant’s more hope that it might not be opened, that the dust wrapper he had made so carefully, lettering his name with such meticulous clarity on the front, pasting a picture of himself taken forty years before on the back, might yet sustain it. Then pages flashed, the laughter broke. —The Idiot? That’s the title of your book? The Idiot . . . the laughter came on, —by Feodor Feddle . . . ?

Mentioned on pages: 202, 446, 453, 476, 582, 937

SHORT BIOGRAPHY: 

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the human soul had a profound influence on the 20th century novel.

Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, as the second son of a former army doctor. He was educated at home and at a private school. Shortly after the death of his mother in 1837 he was sent to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Army Engineering College. In 1839 Dostoevsky's father died probably of apoplexy but there were strong rumors that he was murdered by his own serfs. Dostoevsky graduated as a military engineer, but resigned in 1844 to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Poor Folk appeared in 1846. It was followed by The Double, which depicted a man who was haunted by a look-alike who eventually usurps his position.

In 1846 he joined a group of utopian socialists. He was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in Siberia. Dostoevsky spent four years in hard labor and four years as a soldier in Semipalatinsk.

Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg in 1854 as a writer with a religious mission and published three works that derive in different ways from his Siberia experiences: The House of the Dead, (1860) a fictional account of prison life,The Insulted and Injured, which reflects the author's refutation of naive Utopianism in the face of evil, andWinter Notes on Summer Impressions, his account of a trip to Western Europe

In 1864-65 his wife and brother died and he was burdened with debts, and his situation was made even worse by gambling. From the turmoil of the 1860s emerged Notes from the Underground, psychological study of an outsider, which marked a watershed in Dostoevsky's artistic development. The novel starts with the confessions of a mentally ill narrator and continues with the promise of spiritual rebirth. It was followed by Crime and Punishment, (1866) an account of an individual's fall and redemption, The Idiot, (1868) depicting a Christ-like figure, Prince Myshkin, and The Possessed, (1871) an exploration of philosophical nihilism.

In 1867 Dostoevsky married Anna Snitkin, his 22-year old stenographer, who seems to have understood her husband's manias and rages. They traveled abroad and returned in 1871. By the time of The Brothers Karamazov, which appeared in 1879-80, Dostoevsky was recognized in his own country as one of its great writers.

(From: http://www.online-literature.com/dostoevsky/)

WORKS MENTIONED IN THE RECOGNITIONS:

The Idiot

Demons

The Brothers Karamazov 

The Town Carpenter found the soap among folds in the bottom of the pot, lifted it out, and dried his hands. —Something amiss, he murmured as he pulled out the light, —we must simplify, as he tramped toward the back stairs.