Tag Archives: literature

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