A Crazy Good Time!

"The lunatic is in my head, you raise the blade,
you make the change, you rearrange me 'till I'm sane.
You lock the door and throw away the key,
there's someone in my head, but it's not me."
-Pink Floyd, Brain Damage

Dark Side of the Moon-buy it, lock yourself in a room, put it in an iPod/CD player and turn off all the lights. It's freakin' awesome (and no, you don't need drugs like some people suggest you do)! But I digress to make a more pertinent point-is Rodya insane? For those looking on the outside of Rodya's steady decline, it would certainly seem so. Just looking at his behavior, we see sarcasm, despair, rage, and an overall disgust with everything around him. He's like all the most annoying types of soap opera personalities rolled up into one! Of course, the inward focus on Rodya's mind is the main focal point of the novel and the ultimate conflict to be resolved, because if he's insane, he has good reason.

If one were to ask Rodya if he were insane, he would probably reply no, but in the back of his mind he'd be going over all the reasons why you asked him that question, what the implications are of that question, whethere you suspect him of anything, whether he really is insane, and then will either get really angsty about the whole thing or just blow up at you! Your first thought would probably be that he's a head case, but is he really? I'm reminded of me Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart in which the narrator insists that he is not a madman because a madman would not be as genius as he is-genius enough to go through with the master plan of murder! Rodya is clearly a smart man, evidenced by his dissertation on the "superman" (hello, nihilism!), he knows exactly how to handle certain situations, but all that changes when he commits murder. Suddenly, what once seemed so rational and explainable suddenly becomes a living nightmare, as logic and careful planning are dissolved by guilt and fear. Is Rodya's loss of control of his thoughts and actions the extent of his insanity?

What if you were in his shoes? Think about it-when's the last time you were doing something-or did something-you know you shouldn't have done. How did you feel? Did you maintain composure during and after the fact, or did doubts start having their way? Did you start looking over your shoulder uncontrollably, wondering whether someone would figure you, or-please no-how you would be punished?! If insanity is losing your ability to make sound judgements, then Rodya became insane the moment he chose to kill Alena, as that decision really has no good or helpful motivation. But before you start assuming you've never dabbled in insanity, think of all the times you've done something terrible and knew that you could be found out. Think of how you would feel to know that one irrational, evil decision could ruin everything about you. Suddenly, crazy isn't that crazy to think about, is it? Finally, to quote the Joker, an expert on the subject, "AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

So, that's that. Please feel free to comment as you please, thanks for reading! BTW, I commented on Lane's post, Man Complex.

I agree and disagree with you, although in the end I think I'm mostly agreeing with you. Yes, I know from personal experience that men deal with emotions in an equal and opposite manner as women, where we let things explode and things get broken. This is especially true when it comes to fixing problems, as that typically make us happy-the opposite is true when we can't. I could throw in a comment about how the family needs to turn to Jesus and trust Him as their provider, leaning on the church for support, but seeing as how Rodya doesn't believe in an afterlife that kind of compounds the problem and doesn't do anything to help his own male complex. That's sad.