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Loading... Notes From Underground: 150th Anniversary Edition (original 1864; edition 2004)by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Work InformationNotes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1864)
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The underground man is the worst kind of sniveling, worthless, and delusional little rat ever to be a stain on God's creation. ( ) I’m not sure if this novel is timeless or ahead of its time, but either way, it’s one of the most profound and yet relatable works I’ve ever read. I saw a Youtube video that updated the setting of the novel by portraying the main character as a blogger, and I’m convinced that if the Underground Man were alive today, the first forty pages of his book would indeed have taken the form of a blog. He shares his philosophical and existential ramblings, pretending he has an audience, but admitting that no one is really listening. In the second part of the novel, he transitions from philosophizing to recounting the actual events that drove him to isolation and despair. The humor is (sometimes painfully) relatable as the protagonist’s rich inner life is contrasted with his bathetic social interactions. For example, the section in which he tries to impress the popular kids from his former school—several years too late to improve their opinion of him—reminds me of the song “High School Never Ends.” The Underground Man’s disastrous attempts to gain the recognition he believes he deserves are as darkly hilarious as anything in contemporary entertainment, but with an added depth. Like the clues at the start of a well-written mystery novel, the narrator’s existential ramblings at the beginning of the book take on an ironic quality upon rereading. Although the underground man’s claims that humans will always choose freedom over happiness and individuality over rationality may be controversial as generalizations, they are certainly true of his own life. A ~40yr-old man philosophizes about conformity, identity, and society in general, and then tells a story about his experiences just prior to his being sent 'underground'. He seems to be both bipolar and an Aspie, and struggles with his manic phase as he is also trying to figure out how and why other people fit in easily and are accepted in society while he must struggle to do the same. He tries dressing differently, asserting himself into social circles with people he vaguely knows, and spending the night with a prostitute, and each experiment just complicates his life without making him any more accepted as just a normal guy. And of course, he knows he is really better than all of them anyway, so his failures just prove how exceptional he really is. Of course, when Dostoevsky was writing there was no Dr. Asperger yet, and no Aspergers diagnosis, so while he was no doubt writing from his own experiences of himself and/or people he knew, he would not have thought he was writing about the inner life of someone with this brain type(Aspergers/High-functioning Autism). I always find books like this interesting not just for the story, but also for what they show about past eras, that these mental disorders and neurotypes existed in the past too, and that they were just interpreted differently before psychology created the labels we know now. (So, there is not really such an 'epidemic' of autism; we simply are recognizing the wider range of people in the Autistic Spectrum.) I liked seeing how this book compared with Dostoevsky's others, too. Some of the scenes and ideas from this book crop up again in other books, in other contexts. And,I liked that this book was fairly short. I'm going to be honest. I don't understand what the function of the first half of the book serves, at all. The second half is great, however. The narrative works and the political rants tie in well. It's like reading the urine soaked rants of an incel in the 19th century. The issue with the other officer and the dinner with the classmates are inspired. But things really pick up with the prostitute. While the ending is a little uneven, it is full of some inspired drama and humor. I can see how this book was an influence on Taxi Driver. Marginal recommendation. Re-read this in 2022 for the first time in maybe 20 years? Not quite what I remembered it to be, but perhaps that is just my age making me less willing to be in reverent awe of classics like this. It's a dreary and joyless walk through foundational 19th century philosophical and moral ideas about human nature and society, ideas that would become very influential, told by a particularly unlikeable narrator. Worth refreshing my memory of those ideas, but I'm glad it's not a long book. Belongs to Publisher SeriesBabel (40) En bok för alla (1989) — 20 more Is contained inNotes from Underground; White Nights; The Dream of a Ridiculous Man; and: White Nights Dream Ridiculous Man and selections from The House of the Dead (Signet classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Has as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
Notes from the Underground is Fyodor Dostoevsky's 1864 masterpiece following the ranting, slightly unhinged memoir of an isolated, anonymous civil servant. A dramatic monologue in which the narrator leaves himself open to ridicule and reveals more of his weaknesses than he intends, this influential short novel lays the ground work for the political, religious, moral and political ideas that are explored in Dostoevsky's later works. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)891.733Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction 1800–1917LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Penguin Australia3 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia. Editions: 0451529553, 0141024917, 0141194863 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.An edition of this book was published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Voland EdizioniAn edition of this book was published by Voland Edizioni. Urban Romantics3 editions of this book were published by Urban Romantics. Editions: 1907832475, 1907832483, 1907832491 Tantor MediaAn edition of this book was published by Tantor Media. |