Notes From The Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Book Review

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(The Passage I mentioned)

// “Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. It is just his fantastic dreams, his vulgar folly that he will desire to retain, simply in order to prove to himself – as though that were so necessary – that men still are men and not the keys of a piano, which the laws of nature threaten to control so completely that soon one will be able to desire nothing but by the calendar. And that is not all: even if man really were nothing but a piano-key, even if this were proved to him by natural science and mathematics, even then he would not become reasonable, but would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. And if he does not find means he will contrive destruction and chaos, will contrive sufferings of all sorts, only to gain his point! He will launch a curse upon the world, and as only man can curse (it is his privilege, the primary distinction between him and other animals), may be by his curse alone he will attain his object – that is, convince himself that he is a man and not a piano key! If you say that all this, too, can be calculated and tabulated – chaos and darkness and curses, so that the mere possibility of calculating it all beforehand would stop it all, and reason would reassert itself, then man would purposely go mad in order to be rid of reason and gain his point! I believe in it, I answer for it, for the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano-key! It may be at the cost of his skin, it may be by cannibalism! And this being so, can one help being tempted to rejoice that it has not yet come off, and that desire still depends on something we don’t know?” // Notes from the Underground’, 1864. (Pages 34-5).

[Laura-otfy]

Thank you for this review! I enjoyed it a lot, it made my day! 😁 I could really relate to your view
Love from the Netherlands

[grenouillesscent]

I loved how petty the underground man was. He reminded me of Larry David from curb your enthusiasm. I often wondered if Dostoevsky was trying to write a comedy or if it was just coincidental.

[montanagal]

His characters in a state of internal conflict is another word for REAL, the way things really are. We tend to walk around in society with "a mask of falsehood", pretending things are gong well; that we are normal.
His characters embrace the best and worse of human nature. I find myself, although repulsed, a sense of connection and empathy to his underground man. He gets what he deserves, very satisfying.
I appreciate the humor as well. Thank you for your video!!!

[JP-kuhw]

YouTube recommended me this video. Thanks god

[mattbrown]

Dostoyevsky died in 1881, did you meant this was written in 1864? Not 1964?

[TheJury]

You remind me a bit of G.C. Mckay. I love how you compare Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche. They possess an uncanny ability to paint the human condition in such an eloquent, penetrating, and thought-provoking way. You know, with the narrator of this book, you realize that he has been so disconnected from society for a prolonged period of time that he's gone a little bit crazy, but not entirely; nonetheless, he's so human and so real.