'If I had resisted and stayed in bed, the moth might’ve come to rest on my shoulder or my face, nibbled at my hair, eaten away the sheet draped over me.' Definitely a consistent part of his personality: always letting his imagination run away with him. Such a catastrophist! I interpret it as more than just wry humour, as we remember him in that small imaginary isolated room out there in space ....
I'm guessing this really existed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, while hoping for the sake of the man that it was a fabrication. It does however remind me of Han Kang's much talked about book, The Vegetarian, in which a woman's delusion informs her that she truly is, or must become, a tree. So she stands outside for sunlight and water - to take root, while refusing to eat and drink like a human. The book is about many things, but to my mind, also about the nature of psychosis.
It did! Alex (I) misremembered the details of the image, but I left it that way because that's what happens to images that stick with us through the years. This fakir image actually appeared in an earlier failed attempt at a completely different novel, so it's definitely an important part of my personal mythology.
I was sure I'd found information a long time ago about this particular fakir, but I can't find it now. But here's a similar case (you'll notice the arm in the Ripley's drawing is quite a bit beefier than it should've been):
Damn. There is this terrible sense of a merging of them and him - which is caused by him splitting into 'them' and him in the first place. So he is experiencing these external voices which are really self-generated in his mind. But the intimate knowledge these voices have as a result of their origins are so terrifying. It's as if they are coming closer and closer to him- and since they are hostile, this must be deeply distressing.
Yes, the bubble of his privacy has shrunk past the limits of his own body. In another comment you mentioned that imaginary room in space—palatial compared to where he is now…
'If I had resisted and stayed in bed, the moth might’ve come to rest on my shoulder or my face, nibbled at my hair, eaten away the sheet draped over me.' Definitely a consistent part of his personality: always letting his imagination run away with him. Such a catastrophist! I interpret it as more than just wry humour, as we remember him in that small imaginary isolated room out there in space ....
Yes, and even the fucking MOTH is in on the conspiracy to remove his privacy!
'Supposedly a bird built a nest in his hand.'
I'm guessing this really existed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not, while hoping for the sake of the man that it was a fabrication. It does however remind me of Han Kang's much talked about book, The Vegetarian, in which a woman's delusion informs her that she truly is, or must become, a tree. So she stands outside for sunlight and water - to take root, while refusing to eat and drink like a human. The book is about many things, but to my mind, also about the nature of psychosis.
It did! Alex (I) misremembered the details of the image, but I left it that way because that's what happens to images that stick with us through the years. This fakir image actually appeared in an earlier failed attempt at a completely different novel, so it's definitely an important part of my personal mythology.
The image from Ripley's Believe It Or Not:
https://www.zacharydillon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Ripley_Fakir.jpg
I was sure I'd found information a long time ago about this particular fakir, but I can't find it now. But here's a similar case (you'll notice the arm in the Ripley's drawing is quite a bit beefier than it should've been):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Bharati
I don't know about the bird nest detail in the Ripley's story, but it's a beautiful idea.
I still mean to read The Vegetarian! It sounds right up my alley!
Damn. There is this terrible sense of a merging of them and him - which is caused by him splitting into 'them' and him in the first place. So he is experiencing these external voices which are really self-generated in his mind. But the intimate knowledge these voices have as a result of their origins are so terrifying. It's as if they are coming closer and closer to him- and since they are hostile, this must be deeply distressing.
Yes, the bubble of his privacy has shrunk past the limits of his own body. In another comment you mentioned that imaginary room in space—palatial compared to where he is now…