AMOK by Zweig
‘That…that was how I spent the day, just waiting, waiting, waiting…but waiting like a man running amok, senselessly, like an animal, with that headlong, direct persistance.’
Right before the start, I want to talk a little bit about the story (for sure, with no spoiler).
Amok means some kind of a intoxication that happens oddly to Malaysian people. They become to run madly and mostly dies in the end. By his own words from the story(translated by me): ‘Amok… yes, Amok is something like that: Extremely modest, extremely big-hearted Malaysian drinks… Sits over there just like nothings gonna happen. Insensitive, reckless, dull… How I sit in my own room. Then suddenly, he stands up, grabs the dagger and runs through the streets. Runs straight-forward. Always forward. Without knowing where he’s running. Whatever comes in his way, human, animal, whatever, he kills it with his dagger and the blood drunkenness makes him more frantic (…). Until someone hits him and knocks him out like he is a mad dog or until he breaks down by himself with the froth coming out of his mouth.’
The story is about an European doctor who currently works in Dutch East India and his tragic search for the woman who wanted something from him. One day an arrogant, wealthy lady comes to the place where he’s working. Tells him that she wants to have an abortion before her husband comes back from Europe trip. But the thing is, nobody should know about it. She says that she will pay for it how much he wants. Because of the womans proud and arrogant behaviour, doctor feels humiliated and rejects her offer. Just after she leaves, doctor changes his mind and begins to run after her to catch. He becomes obsessed with the woman and becomes an Amok runner. So the novella goes on.
The novella containes some racist expressions about whom the doctor works with. I think, it can be because of Zweig’s attitude during the time he wrote Amok. According to some informal resources, Zweig was not that much anti-fascist at his early ages. But yeah, anyway… The obsession that the doctor has, is something between passion and sickness. He doesn’t know about woman, but her acting and arrogant behaviours make him both angry and impressed. So, he wants to know more about her and feels a strange desire to have her. Before the woman comes in, doctors life was so simple and he was expecting nothing from his life. That incident thrilled him and drove him crazy. We will never know if the doctor was such that kind of person or if he was triggered by the event.
