Last post

I think reading and thoroughly going through and analyzing notes from the underground has been a good experience for me. It taught me how to sort of analyze a text much better. Before, I'd just sort of wing it and try and figure out the text on the fly, rather than going paragraph by paragraph like we did as a class. I think it also presents a lot of ideas and a lot of principles into my life. I find myself questioning a lot of my motives and a lot of the thoughts that arise in my head. I always noticed that example of when we tell our friends about our break. When we usually ask them what they did, we stop listening and focus and prepare what we were going to tell them. I always noticed this, but I didn't really think that anyone else did, which now leads me to believe that a lot of the things that I notice in human nature has also been noticed by others as well.

Overall, I think reading Notes from the Underground has been a really good experience for me. Although a bit painful at time, I truthfully believe that it has helped me not only as an AP student, but as a human being. I look at a lot of aspects of life much differently than I did before. I question everything, I question people's motives, my motives, and sort of try and figure out and explain those motives to myself. So, I have indirectly learned how to analyze my surroundings, which is pretty cool to be honest.

The daily blogs were also pretty cool. I think that reading other people's blogs was a good way to sort of take the ideas and analytics of something they observed in the work, and apply it to myself. Being able to write about what you want to write gives the student a great sense of freedom, and allows us to think much more freely, leading to the creation of new ideas, ultimately helping the student.

In short, I think NFTU was a great way of not only excersising my analytical skills, but also my mind, and the way I observe and think about the world.

final reaction

If I were to see this book in Barnes & Nobles or any other bookstore, I would probably pick it up without someone telling me about it. I truly enjoyed reading this book because it got me to think about so many things that would not have occurred to me. The book has taught me a lot more about human nature than some of my teachers. I would defiantly suggest this book to anyone and I would most likely read it again. I enjoy reading books that force you to think about what is actually going on around you instead of being in a bubble believing what people tell you.

While I was reading the book I was lost through the majority of it since the Underground Man contradicted himself so often that it was hard to keep track of what he was saying. At first I disliked the book because I felt as if I could not trust the narrator but after discussing the book in class and figuring out what Dostoevsky was pointing out, I realized how much I actually liked it. When we discussed the book in class and reading my notes in the margins I noticed that at certain points my thoughts were so far off from what Dostoevsky meant. It was one thing just writing down my thoughts in the margins and writing reactions on the blog but hearing others opinions was interesting. It was a different approach to what I was used to doing in previous classes but I really liked it because you could hear and somewhat relate to what others thought and it was a good way to get your point across and argue different perspectives.

Our class discussion on evolution and religion was the one that I found the most interesting. It made me really think about what I was taught back in grade school and what I really think about religion.  The book forced me to think differently than I normally would have. Instead of arguing a certain idea I found myself agreeing with what Dostoevsky was saying. The fact that we have all these advances and take them for granted really frustrated me when I thought about it. It was not until I got home that I realized it was true. We are stronger and smarter than most animals and yet we do not use our advantages to their full potential. We sit around and waste them. We use our advantages for simple tasks.

Final Post

            To be honest when we had to read the book on our own at our homes for homework, I completely hated it. I resented having to go read every night. Personally, I did not really understand what Dostoyevsky was trying to portray. Instead, I thought he was rambling and creating contradictions in an attempt to just mess with the reader. However, over the past three weeks, the discussions in class have actually made me appreciate this book more and more. Not only was the way that Dostoyevsky wrote the novel remarkable, but every single line can be analyzed in a different way and have life lessons that made everyone in the class think. One of my favorite things that the author talked about was the fact that our greatest advantage is that we have the ability to put ourselves in the face of danger even though we know that we might die from it. I think that I enjoyed this point because it is something that I can easily understand and relate to everyday as a high school senior. If you think about it he could have been referring to many tasks that I normally do such as wake boarding and going full speed on a jet ski, which he would perceive as being “dangerous”. Another part of the novel that caught my attention was the author’s point of view regarding being self conscious. I think that I enjoyed this because in my opinion everyone is self conscious and thinks about things in great detail. However, some might do it more than others and Dostoyevsky did a great job in showing how this might change one’s outlook on a situation. So to sum this up, after reading this book I know look at something things differently. I think that it was in fact a very important book to read not only because of the meaning, but because of the analytical tools that I developed from these discussions in class. By the third week I was able to understand what Dostoyevsky was trying to convey before we discussed it.

Adios

Wendell Pfeffer

2/25/14

            Everyone that was called on in class today agreed that they thought about doing something terrible or evil during their lifetimes. To me this happens a lot especially if someone has done something bad towards me. All I think about after that is how in the world am I going to get them back. Their have been at times when I don’t take revenge because I think to myself that it isn’t worth it and as time passes the urge to take revenge goes away. This relates to all the negative thoughts that have come across my mind. I think about it but then I forget it as time passes. Dostoyevsky said that those thoughts are stored in our minds and the thoughts can perhaps come back even stronger, but I disagree. I think about it, forget it and then come up with a new disgusting thought. To me its like a cycle that repeats itself.

            Apart from todays discussion the book itself has been a tremendous help towards my literary analysis and reading comprehension. I have not only improved but I now look at things I read in an abstract manner. Dostoyevsky’s thoughts are so complex but yet once you understand what he is talking about you learn a lot from it. Unfortunately, when I read I was completely off on most of his ideas but the discussions made everything so clear and interesting. The one notion that discussed human civilization as a whole and how we are clearly getting weaker was to me the most fascinating idea. If a member of the group of lions becomes week and cannot hunt then the whole groups leaves it to die alone. That one member cannot serve its purpose anymore and is only making the group weaker; the young and strong group of lions are not going to waste their energy and time taking care of the sick member. We humans instead of doing the same are keeping the weak alive. Weak people who cannot serve their function and thus cannot benefit society. The United States wastes trillions of dollars on welfare and on the hospitals to keep these people alive instead of investing it on the younger generations. This is ultimately making the human race weaker.  

Final Reaction

    Like I mentioned in class, I do think think that this book is worth reading, as long as you have a discussion afterwards. While I read the book I found it easier to hate the narrator rather than think of him as a highly intellectual man. His manner of writing was ridiculously difficult to understand, causing me to believe that he was just some spiteful, pessimistic, envious man.
    Our class discussions completely changed my thoughts about the narrator. With each paragraph discussed countless amounts of ideas were retracted. Ideas and concepts that I would have never thought of on my own. I formulated a complete new perception of this man. I suddenly understood why he was so spiteful. Having the clarity to know more than one side to a situation and the intellectual capability he acquired differentiated him from the rest of society. Yet, the underground man was still questioning what made him such an outcast.
      Even though I do not particularly feel a connection to the narrator, his thoughts are applicable to our every day lives. Although he never truly reveals his thoughts he still manages to give rational explanations to questions I've never even thought of. He explains what it is that makes mankind so ungrateful and stupid. We seek to find answers that we do not want; we want a logical explanation to every question we may have, yet when we we're asked if we would take advantage of this opportunity if possible, mostly all of us said no. We do not fear failure, we fear accomplishment. We fear that all of the work leading up to achievement will somehow not turn out as expected and imagined, even worse, what will we do after its accomplished?
       There are so many more topics that the underground man has covered that have overwhelmed me with thoughts. Strangely, they all seem to make sense and are all to some extent true. So many things have been learned from reading even one single page. Yes, it seems impossible to read at first but as you get to understand his thoughts and the way his mind works you understand more of what he is trying to say, which I think is something that I will carry with me for a long time.

Final Post

This book was probably the most annoying work I’ve ever had to read. It was hard to understand, time consuming despite its small size, and packed a lot of information into every paragraph, which made me miss a lot of what he was saying in most pages. Like I’ve said before, I thought I understood a paragraph and I the next day I would be sitting in class listening to what it actually meant and I would just think to myself “What is happening?”. To be honest, it wouldn’t be a book I would recommend reading unless it will later be discussed because a lot of outside help is needed to understand the complex work of Dostoyevsky. As for my outside help, the discussion was vital to my understanding of the book. It was frustrating to have an idea about what Dostoyevsky was saying and then have that idea completely revoked the next day in the class discussion, but at the end of class, I was glad I got a little more understanding on this work because the only thing worse than being wrong is having total doubt, which is what I had up until the discussion times. I enjoyed the discussions, and although I didn’t talk very much, I was always aware of what everyone was saying and I would be able to relate what they were saying to the written words. It was as if something clicked in my head as the ideas were thrown out and I suddenly understood Dostoyevsky, at least a little. It was an interesting read because it was just so compact and full of information in such little words. He is easily the most efficient writer I think I will encounter for a while. Although he would ramble, he rambled in a way that one word meant twenty other words and so a paragraph was actually pages worth of information.

The topic of talk I most remember is the most advantageous advantage. Human free will is a God given gift (and I say that because I am religious) and I agree with Dostoyevsky that we are pathetically ungrateful to what we have been given. Our souls are what differentiate us from all other animals, our ability to stray away from what our instincts want us to do. It’s funny because that topic had actually crossed my mind a couple times even before the book discussions, but I never really realized the complexity of it. The fact that we make bad decisions on purpose to prove to ourselves that we can. It is selfish of us because if we truly followed our instincts, many of the problems we have today would not be an issue.

bye

Overall, I thought this was a really interesting book. I can’t say that I necessarily agree with all of the ideas that the author presented, but I definitely think that it is something that everyone should read, because it opens you up to new perspectives and ideas. Reading this book also kind of made me look at my life and think about what I really want to accomplish in my time on earth. This book made me think about how truly monotonous people’s lives are and how no true pleasure is derived in it. I feel sometimes like I am just going through the motions of life, keeping my head down, having my life calculated with this “mathematica equation” that the author speaks of. This, to me, isn’t really a living. I want to try to break free from this idea of just trying to have my life planned x,y,z, and trying to have answers for everything. I think it’s important to notice, after reading this book, that there are some things that we just can’t explain, and to just come to realization with this fact to focus on living a life that is truly fulfilling and rewarding. I definitely think discussing this book was worth while. When I first read this book, it was difficult for me to place any real merit into what the author was saying, because I didn’t truly grasp the concepts that he was speaking of. Discussing them not only allowed me to understand these concepts, but opened me up to opinions of others that I didn’t know before; it was an enlightening experience. Without any doubt, this book helped with my analytical skills. I got my fair share of practicing the extraction of concepts and ideas from what, at first glanced, appeared to be just the jumbled ideas of an insane man. All in all, I really liked this book, because it was more than just your typical piece of literature, it was an attempt by an undoubtedly intelligent man to truly just piss you off, and at some points he succeeded. It is in these points, however, that I learned the most about my belief system, and that of those around me.