Final Post

When I first picked up and read the novel, Notes of the Underground, I hated it. Initially I thought the novel seemed to be about a bitter man ranting about his life and the terrible situation he was in. The character, whether it be Dostoevsky or a character of his creation, gave the impression that since he was to social inept to function, he blamed his short comings on the people who could actually produce something of value in our society, or the “man of action”. Towards the end of the novel when the story went from a terribly contradictory rant to actual narration and the character who embodied Dostoevsky’s theories seemed just as insane as his inner thought, I assumed that we opinion on the book was correct. But as usual, I was wrong. 

The class discussion really helped me to understand Dostoevsky. I missed entire section or ideas because I was stuck on the idea that the man writing the novel was insane. Through close analysis his book was full of contractions, but purposeful contradiction, which intended to prove the point that life was full of contradiction. That people who see the world in black and white, or the “men of action”, are limited. They are limited because they put up a wall, and decide to travel in a single direction. They are unable to see the whole picture because they choose a side. While this man because of his brilliance was able to see the “gray” or in other words, life nature contradiction. This made this made his mind unchained and limitless, because it rendered him incapable to moving. A man incapable of moving in our society is considered unsuccessful. But what is success anyways? And perhaps only by our definition he is unsuccessful. Another topic that made me think was how infinite scares us, but ending also scare us. I liked the idea that there is no one idea that can ever completely define us, no math equation you can use to solve us. Take Darwinism, for instance, it so solid and completely backed by evidence. Then why do humans live completely against the rules of the strongest survive and the weakest die. If it encoded into us, why hasn’t our race gotten physically stronger. So I ended up really enjoying the book because of the discussion. I really think taking it apart was really helpful.