jkmcsparran

The Gambler (1866) Whenever I read, I hunger for goodness. If I start to suspect that the book doesn’t have any, I lose interest. But here’s the thing—goodness is difficult to write about. Why? It might be in the nature of how I taste goodness. Take the goodness of pizza. My experience of this goodnessContinue reading

“Mr. Schedrin” & “The Crocodile” (1865) In Dostoevsky’s story, “The Crocodile,” Ivan is swallowed alive by a crocodile, but everyone is having a hard time caring about getting him out. The narrator is running around trying to get people to care, but as he continues, it becomes clear that even he may not care allContinue reading

Notes from Underground (1864) Part 2 When I first ingest the words of Notes from Underground’s narrator, the Underground Man, I think, “Wow, this guy is really eccentric.” Then I keep reading, and I think, “Dostoevsky seems to be deliberately trying to make a personality that is as contradictory as possible—how can such a disjointedContinue reading

Notes from Underground (1864) Part 1 The Underground Man claims that his reason for writing down episodes from his life twenty years earlier is because “I am particularly oppressed by a certain memory from the distant past. It came back to my mind vividly a few days ago, and since then, has remained with meContinue reading

Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1862) Winter Notes on Summer Impressions is a collection of essays about Dostoevsky’s tour of Western Europe. In it, he outlines the themes that usher in his masterpiece period. With this work, Dostoevsky’s scope widens dramatically. Much of his earlier writing focuses on individual psychology or isolated cultural issues. TheseContinue reading

“An Unpleasant Predicament” (1862) The theme of “An Unpleasant Predicament” is similar to many of Dostoevsky’s other works: reality isn’t how I conceive it—it’s much more complex and paradoxical. Ivan Ilyitch, a high ranking general, stumbles across the wedding of Pseldonimov, one of his petty clerks. Ivan Ilyitch imagines what it would be like forContinue reading

Memoirs from the House of the Dead (1862) “Reality resists classification,” Dostoevsky writes in Memoirs from the House of the Dead, which recounts his time in prison. This statement could almost be a slogan for all of his writing. If ever he is presented with a person that appears to be all one thing, heContinue reading

The Insulted and Injured (1861) Prince Valkovsky, the villain in Dostoevsky’s novel, The Insulted and Injured, is a strange man. He is at times so strange that he often pushes the limits of what a reader can believe. He comes dangerously close to violating one of the best diagnostics of fiction, which is simply asking,Continue reading

Unpublished Notebooks (1860-1865) I’m no philosopher, but I couldn’t help but notice that the world seems to have problems. So how do we solve them? Some problems can be solved through logic. Diagnosing where a pipe is leaking, for example, can be solved in this way. Because such rational thinking can be so successful inContinue reading

Letters 1860-1867 Someone once asked Flannery O’Connor why she wrote, and she answered, “Because I’m good at it.” A great quote—an inspiring quote, really—but for every inspiring quote there’s a time. And that time is not at two in the morning after reading a limp draft eleven. The quote somehow fails to hit theContinue reading