Cuddle Littell? Does this mean Heydrich is free - I'd be cuddling him!
And I meant souffrait - I can't spell in any language today! Also, my dictionary translates Einfühlungsvermögen as sympathy, which seems even more fucked up. Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another's position and understand their actions, but sympathy implies that there is an emotional attachment as well. I don't know the context in which Eichmann was saying it, but I think that Heydrich (even Bienventailles!Heydrich) leans towards the former in his professional dealings. Even that doesn't make sense, because the phrase in French implies (to my school French brain anyway) a forceful passion and strength rather than a cold, purely logical analysis. So surely what Littell means is a duality: on the one hand, Heydrich is capable of turning interactions into pure mathematics and starting from the moral axioms of someone else, is able to plot their responses and act accordingly; on the other his reason for doing this makes his soul burn with intensity.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Please, please write the letter!
Date: 2009-12-27 06:15 am (UTC)And I meant souffrait - I can't spell in any language today! Also, my dictionary translates Einfühlungsvermögen as sympathy, which seems even more fucked up. Empathy is the ability to put oneself in another's position and understand their actions, but sympathy implies that there is an emotional attachment as well. I don't know the context in which Eichmann was saying it, but I think that Heydrich (even Bienventailles!Heydrich) leans towards the former in his professional dealings. Even that doesn't make sense, because the phrase in French implies (to my school French brain anyway) a forceful passion and strength rather than a cold, purely logical analysis. So surely what Littell means is a duality: on the one hand, Heydrich is capable of turning interactions into pure mathematics and starting from the moral axioms of someone else, is able to plot their responses and act accordingly; on the other his reason for doing this makes his soul burn with intensity.