A Hater's Discourse

Obsessive devotion and its discontents

In Ivan Turgenev's Spring Torrents, protagonist Dmitry Sanin, overwhelmed by the lifelong aftermath of an obsessive and abusive affair, cowers in a cheap hotel room and buries his head in his hands. "He was afraid of the feeling of self-contempt which he knew he could not conquer, which he knew beyond doubt would wash over him, and, like a tidal wave, d…