So I'm reading this book, The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr.

And it's made me think.

Love is a parasite.

That interrupts your thoughts.

"'Oh, Chiara - my Chiara!' he cried out in the most painful grief. " Abraham is infected as he debates with Madame Benzon, and his love cries out, interrupting his statements against the frailty of the woman's heart.

We find examples of this same kind of interruption as we explore more of the happenings surrounding Julia and Princess Hedwiga, even our dear Tomcat Murr as each is interrupted by thoughts of Kreisler or Herr Hector or Kitty respectively.

Like the earworms I discussed in an earlier blog post, this love wriggles its way in and replicates itself, replacing what thoughts you would otherwise have. It is virus. It is an infective agent.

In parallels to the blood parasite of Shivers, it overrides rational thought.

So I now wonder, what is the parasite we're dealing with in Tomcat Murr? Why would Tony choose this as a text? Merely to bring up Toxoplasma Gondii seems a great deal of work for a rather small reference.


I can't shake the thought that there is a parasite hiding in this text that I'm missing. Something bigger among the ideas and tropes presented. Perhaps I'm infected with it already.