NFTU Final Reaction

I have many mixed feelings about this book. As I read it, I hated it, I felt that it was a huge waste of time and that I was pretty much listening to an old guy complaining about life and contradicting himself in the process. I did not understand absolutely anything that he was saying. I knew that there had to be some sort of meaning behind his contradictions but no matter how hard I looked I could not seem to find it. As we began to discuss the story and his arguments in class it became more clear to me that he was not a whiner but he is actually more  of a philosopher with a very unique idea about life and human nature. I found particularly insightful and interesting his idea of religion and how it came to be and the impact that evolutionary theory had on people who were devoted to religion. After having this explained to me and contemplating it for a while I realized how much truth there is in this idea and I could see clearly why people were so shocked by this new way of thinking.

Another one of Dostoyevsky’s ideas that stood out to me was the idea of the wall that we place around infinity. After the discussion about trying to picture infinity, I actually went outside and looked up at the sky for about five minutes trying to keep going out and picturing what really was up above me. I kept getting the feeling that it ends somewhere I realized how truly frustrating it is to try to picture infinity because it seems so impossible that something has no end. I believe that Dostoyevsky is completely right when he argues that humans need a wall to lean on. It is very hard for us to venture into the unknown and just take the left turn on the unknown road. I wish that we could do this more often because maybe then we would actually experience why it is to live completely free of the laws of science.

I think that in the end reaching and discussing this book was worth the trouble. This book not only gave me an interesting and different perspective on life but it also taught me new ways to analyze and interpret a difficult text. I am really glad that we were pushed to read this book because as I said in class, I would not have picked it up by choice of my own.