Also from last week, I don't "hate" Poe. I don't understand him AND I was sick. Further, even if I did understand his motivation better I would not prefer his writing. However, I still recognize him as an important literary figure and am glad we all participated in a nice study of a selection of his work. ALSO, I ONLY like sappy comedies....just in case anyone was wondering ;)
I have decided I really like Russians. (:
I throughly enjoyed this weeks reading of Dostoevsky and "Notes from the Underground". In fact I was so entertained I read the whole packet and got to the end wishing I had a little more to read. I don't know if any of you read the beginning notes on Dostoevsky, but I definitely recommend them for your understanding of this reading.
The Underground Man is angry, mad, cynical, and any other descriptive word to describe a grumpy old guy. He is the antithesis to the "beautiful and sublime" (which he quotes at least 7 times) we learned about from Kant. He stands in direct opposition to the socialist idea that man can be taught to work for his greater good, which is the good of all. Specifically, the audience can see his rant in section VII on this topic, "If his eyes were opened to his true, normal interests, he would stop doing nasty things at once and immediately become good and noble, because, being so enlightened and understanding his real advantage, he would realize that his own advantage really did lie in the good". He continues onward to satirically poke fun at this notion of a man attaining this better knowledge. The Underground man believes that a normal man is stupid, and will make choices based on what he wants whether or not it benefits himself.
This philosophy was a hard pill to swallow. I always believe the best about people often to my detriment. (sometime ask me about Silk ;) I wave and smile when I see people on the street, forgetting my small, white, female stature...Further, I am confused when my baggy shorts and tshirt do not hide the fact that I am a woman. (It really is always a surprise to me). The point not being that I will stop advocating for the poor, neglected, homeless, and fatherless; but rather, recognizing the nature of mankind. Just because the deeper I look into my soul I find a want to help more and more people does not mean that everyone else feels the same exact way. This does not hinder nor terminate my love for the broken, instead in a weird way it enhances this love.
Okay, I am happy I am not the only one who would have described him in that way... He is just a strange strange man. He seems to be very vexed by the world and holding a grudge over something in his past that he will not let go of. Yet he deals with it in a totally nonchalant way. When he mixes in a lot of emotion he then comes back to contradict it with words... Does that make sense? Any way, I do agree with the words you used to describe him. (I was totally going to make a Bible reference here, but I won't... lol... Are you proud? haha)
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