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  • Truth from the Blood

  • I attended a lecture by Simon Critchley a few years ago and I remember that in response to a difficult question posed by an audience member concerning the relationship between Levinas and Dostoevsky, Critchley paused and said with a beatific expression: “We should all read more Dostoevsky.” An edify ... Continue

    I attended a lecture by Simon Critchley a few years ago and I remember that in response to a difficult question posed by an audience member concerning the relationship between Levinas and Dostoevsky, Critchley paused and said with a beatific expression: “We should all read more Dostoevsky.” An edifying calm held the audience for a few seconds. But I couldn’t help but think Critchley had just evaded the question.

    It’s likely he did evade it. But either way, there is wisdom in his words.

    We should all read more Dostoevsky.

    *Notes from the Underground* would be a great place to put this wisdom to practice. It is a remarkably small novel - some might call it a ‘novella’. It’s organization is rather odd. The first half is a series of haunting, and often hilarious, reflections by the anonymous man from the underground. There is very little narrative to this section: it’s more of an autobiography of a self-proclaimed ‘anti-hero’. Here you will find something resembling a philosophy of freedom, in which the Underground Man both attacks notions of scientific determinism and pushes the idea of free will to its conceptual limits. Perhaps to its breaking point.

    The second part of the novel develops a brief story, presumably the story of the Underground Man’s life and the events leading to his eventual breakdown. Each part can be read separately, but I would recommend reading them together.

    Apparently Nietzsche said it was as if *Notes from the Underground* cried truth from the blood. I’ve often wondered whose blood he was referring to. Dostoevsky’s or the Underground Man’s? It may well be that, on some level, the two are indistinguishable.

    

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• ― Owen (owen81) said on Aug 25, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Dostoevsky's genius

  • In the economy of words, of discourse--Dostoevsky "speaks" much on the human condition, the frailty of the corpus and the acknowledgment that we are all monsters; we are all culpable; and our livers hurt.

    

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• ― Ftobienn said on Dec 7, 2008 about the Audio Cassette edition| Add your feedback

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  • The narrator is an asshole.

    

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• ― shazzpezzazz said on Sep 13, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • A forgotten masterpiece. A articular short novel with preview of wimp characters and narrative mood of last century. A little bit of Joyce mixed with Svevo and unmistakable Dostoevsky's style ... A great rapid reading not so funny but really deep and bleeding for who search something about to thin ... Continue

    A forgotten masterpiece. A articular short novel with preview of wimp characters and narrative mood of last century. A little bit of Joyce mixed with Svevo and unmistakable Dostoevsky's style ... A great rapid reading not so funny but really deep and bleeding for who search something about to think.

    

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• ― sommaTo (broch) said on May 23, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Critical comment(s)/introduction:

  • Contents: Notes from the Underground; White Nights; The Dream of a Ridiculous Man; Selections from "The House of the Dead".

    

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• ― Your Sources said on Jul 19, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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