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A review by mollyxmiller
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4.0
"I consider myself an intelligent man, only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything. Granted I am a babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?" ~p. 221
"In short, one may say anything about the history of the world--anything that might enter the most disordered imagination. The only thing one can't say is that it's rational." ~p. 230
"Notes from Underground" is the first work by Dostoevsky that I have picked up since high school and I LOVED it. It is a novella in two parts. In the first part, the narrator/main character addresses a group of "gentlemen," with an attack on Western romanticism and philosophy, particularly on the idea of humans being rational creatures. Dostoevsky argues through the main character that human beings do not always act in their best interests, in other words, they act irrationally, simply to prove their existence, their independence, and to exert their free will. Even if it is harmful to themselves and/or others. He attacks Rousseau as well as the Russian voices that were the beginnings of what will become Marxism/communism.
In the second part of the novella, the unnamed main character tells his tale of woe--the one time he stopped "dreaming" and wanted to live in the real world, to take part in real life. First he embarrasses himself by inserting himself into a dinner of former school friends that he did not particularly care for, and tries to insult the guest of honor. Then, he visits a brothel, where he tries to "save" the prostitute from her degrading lifestyle by giving her a long, encouraging speech, giving her his address and telling her to come to him. When she does actually show up he is in despair--he is embarrassed by his poverty and the fact that he cannot "save" her and really had no intention to in the first place. This man of books and ideas and intelligence cannot even help himself...how is he to help others? In many ways, we see the ideas that he "babbles" in the first part of the novella come in to play in the second part. I also think that some of Dostoevsky's insecurities about being in the career of arts and letters, of being a journalist and a novelist also show a bit more in the second part. I also like that this character is "underground" in the darkness and in direct opposition to the "age of enlightenment" and transcendentalism.
"In short, one may say anything about the history of the world--anything that might enter the most disordered imagination. The only thing one can't say is that it's rational." ~p. 230
"Notes from Underground" is the first work by Dostoevsky that I have picked up since high school and I LOVED it. It is a novella in two parts. In the first part, the narrator/main character addresses a group of "gentlemen," with an attack on Western romanticism and philosophy, particularly on the idea of humans being rational creatures. Dostoevsky argues through the main character that human beings do not always act in their best interests, in other words, they act irrationally, simply to prove their existence, their independence, and to exert their free will. Even if it is harmful to themselves and/or others. He attacks Rousseau as well as the Russian voices that were the beginnings of what will become Marxism/communism.
In the second part of the novella, the unnamed main character tells his tale of woe--the one time he stopped "dreaming" and wanted to live in the real world, to take part in real life. First he embarrasses himself by inserting himself into a dinner of former school friends that he did not particularly care for, and tries to insult the guest of honor. Then, he visits a brothel, where he tries to "save" the prostitute from her degrading lifestyle by giving her a long, encouraging speech, giving her his address and telling her to come to him. When she does actually show up he is in despair--he is embarrassed by his poverty and the fact that he cannot "save" her and really had no intention to in the first place. This man of books and ideas and intelligence cannot even help himself...how is he to help others? In many ways, we see the ideas that he "babbles" in the first part of the novella come in to play in the second part. I also think that some of Dostoevsky's insecurities about being in the career of arts and letters, of being a journalist and a novelist also show a bit more in the second part. I also like that this character is "underground" in the darkness and in direct opposition to the "age of enlightenment" and transcendentalism.