If we examine this question more closely, there is something childish about the highly implausible claim to a rationality that is immaterial, pure, transparent and objective—childish and deeply fearful. Faced with a character who appears impervious to doubt and sure of himself, his knowledge and his superiority—whether he’s a doctor, a scholar, an intellectual or a barfly—it can be hard to remember that this stance may cloak a fundamental insecurity. And yet, this hypothesis is worth considering, as Mare Kandre implies in The Woman and Dr. Dreuf, in which she flushes out the terrified little
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