Dostoevsky

[Rorschach Twin]

I'm reading The Idiot by him, right now. It's incredible.

Anybody else ever read anything?

[Methadrine]

Yes, Crime and Punishment as well as The Brothers Karamazov have their place in my bookshelf.

[Delkaetre]

Sadly, nothing yet... I've read a little Kafka, but that was years ago. At the moment, I have no money and not enough spare time to attempt Dostoevsky. I prefer to read books in as few sittings as possible, rather than pick them up and put them down because of interruptions.

[Rorschach Twin]

I've always heard stuff about how incredibly difficult he is to read, but I'm really not getting that.. it's not really that hard so far. Then ago, I'm rather intelligent (not to sound cocky.) I recommend you read it when you get time though, I really don't ever want to put it down, but I have to because of school and well... my family distracts me.

[Sir Canvas Corpsey]

Originally Posted by Rorschach Twin

I've always heard stuff about how incredibly difficult he is to read, but I'm really not getting that.. it's not really that hard so far. Then ago, I'm rather intelligent (not to sound cocky.) I recommend you read it when you get time though, I really don't ever want to put it down, but I have to because of school and well... my family distracts me.

I should read some of his work as well, also people often say J.R.R Tolkien's The Silamarillion is incredibly difficult, where I did not find it challenging at all, interesting yes, but not challenging.

[Methadrine]

The difficulty with Silmarillion is the awkward job of remembering who's who with all those names and events.

[Sir Canvas Corpsey]

It would diffcult for me now since i haven't read it in over a year but when i was reading it I could keep almost everything straight.

So do tell, how would you explain Dostoevsky as a writer and a storyteller, a comparison to another writer if you will.

I don't like to start reading something with a false impression of the author and subsequently be disappointed.

[JCC]

I've read Crime and Punishment.

Amazing.

[Apathy's_Child]

Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, The Double. The dude rocks.

[Rorschach Twin]

Originally Posted by Sir Canvas Corpsey

It would diffcult for me now since i haven't read it in over a year but when i was reading it I could keep almost everything straight.

So do tell, how would you explain Dostoevsky as a writer and a storyteller, a comparison to another writer if you will.

I don't like to start reading something with a false impression of the author and subsequently be disappointed.

Well.. i honestly can't compare him to anything else I've ever written. Of course, it's translated from russian.. so that never helps. I thought it would be pretty difficult because of that, but it's really not that hard to grasp. "The Gambler" is rather short, so I'd recommend that as a place for you to start.

Here's a quote from him.

"Columbus died almost without seeing it [the New World]; and not really knowing what he had discovered. It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all."

[silverbaal]

Originally Posted by Rorschach Twin

I've always heard stuff about how incredibly difficult he is to read, but I'm really not getting that.. it's not really that hard so far. Then ago, I'm rather intelligent (not to sound cocky.) I recommend you read it when you get time though, I really don't ever want to put it down, but I have to because of school and well... my family distracts me.

I"m still on Crime and Punishment Book 2. Dostoyevsky's stuff is extremely easy to read. It's ridiculous. Most stuff written a long time ago is ridiculously hard to read. Not all. But most. Like Thomas Hardy, for example. Ick. I wish I could have said to him, "You don't have to use a college vocab word every microsecond in Tess. We get it. You're smart." But Dostoyevsky's stuff is written in plain, straight-forward English, i'd say. Or tranlated into. Whatever. It's so easy to get caught up in everything Dos. writes because his works are so deep...like on a psychological level. You don't just get to know what his characters do...you get to KNOW them, inside and out. I was reading that his writing is considered to be one of the first books that can be called a "psychological thriller". I don't know if that's true but his work is definitely in that genre.

This is all i've read from him so far. But it's a VERY good read and I highly reccommend it.

[Godslayer Jillian]

I started The Idiot, but I had to give it up before page thirty because I had to read three other books for college.
Never picked it up again.
But I don't have anything right now to read, so I'll pick it up in this moment.
I have read something by Dostoevsky, though. Ever read Notes From Underground?
It's genius! The most important work that preceded existentialism.
And this is not all: even if man really were nothing but a piano-key, even if this were proved to him by natural science and mathematics, even then he would not become reasonable, but would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. And if he does not find means he will contrive destruction and chaos, will contrive sufferings of all sorts, only to gain his point! He will launch a curse upon this world, and as only man can curse (it is his privilege, the primary distinction between him and other animals), may be by his curse alone he will attain his object - that is, convince himself that he is a man and not a piano-key! If you say that all this, too, can be calculated and tabulated - chaos and darkness and curses, so that the mere possibility of calculating it all beforehand would stop it all, and reason would reassert itself, then man would purposely go mad i order to be rid of reason and gain his point!

[Methadrine]

Wow, that was brilliant. I must hunt down that one.

[Rorschach Twin]

I have to read that now. It's not that long, is it?

[Godslayer Jillian]

It's a short story, you can read it in a day. I recommend you to look for an anthology on existentialism by Walter Kauffman. That's where I read it and it also contains Sartre's The Wall and Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and Ortega's Man Has No Nature and Nietzsche's Live Dangerously and Kafka's Three Parables, et cetera. I just had to mention those stories.

[Rorschach Twin]

I'll look for it. I have the Gay Science translated by Kauffman.

[wonderland]

As far as dead Russians go, I actually prefer Tolstoy. Although Dostoevsky is certainly an incredible writer, I can't seem to feel a very strong emotional connection to his works. I can read them, and be completely aware of their brilliance while I'm reading them, but can't seem to make myself really care about what's happening. I have no idea why, and I wish I could change it.

[Godslayer Jillian]

Roscharch, I'm wondering if you liked The Idiot. Don't tell me spoilers because I'm still only three fifths into it, but I feel I'm missing on everything. Maybe everything wraps up in the last section, but currently, I feel I should have read The Brothers Karamazov of Crime and Punishment if I wanted something good by him.

[Apathy's_Child]

I read Notes from the Undeground a while back - great comment on the perversity of humanity, and a kick in the nuts for the utopianists. I think it may even be my favourite.

[Shadows_Jukebox]

The only thing that troubles me with his works is remembering everyones names and titles.

[Godslayer Jillian]

Yeah! They're been talking about Pavlovich, and for about frty pages I thought they were talking about Pavlichev. Now I still don't know who Pavlovich is, but I just go with it.

[LadyStardust]

Originally Posted by Godslayer Jillian

Yeah! They're been talking about Pavlovich, and for about frty pages I thought they were talking about Pavlichev. Now I still don't know who Pavlovich is, but I just go with it.

I frequently have that problem while reading translated texts. For some reason, foreign names have a tendency to sound far too familiar.

As for Dostoevsky readings, there was a section of the Brothers I read years ago, concerning a debate between one of the brothers and a priest of some sort. . . . Oh, I wish I could remember more!!

[Zavulon]

Originally Posted by Methadrine

Yes, Crime and Punishment as well as The Brothers Karamazov have their place in my bookshelf.

Crime and Punishment is so good. Though i havent read anything else by him.