The Double

Is there a duplicity inherent in all human behavior? Does everyone possess or produce a doppleganger or shadow that is and is not the self to which they're wed? Dostoevsky famously wrote "The Double," a story that was later appropriated by Borges. The crux is that a titular counselor, Golyadkin, encounters himself on the streets of St. Petersburg. They start out as friends but then become rivals and bitter enemies since Golyadkin II is able to handle himself in the very social situations where his "other" fails. Is Dostoevsky merely prosecuting a clever conceit or is this story a jeremiad?            You have undoubtedly heard about wolves in sheeps' clothing of the family type guys who were so good at it that they decided to plant their seed elsewhere. Who to believe? Appearances can be deceptive. The dog who barks doesn't bite, but do dogs that bite succeed precisely because they don't bark?

read Mark Segal in The East Hampton Star on Hallie Cohen's "Mi Ricordo"

and listen to "The Tears of the Clown" by Smokey Robinson