I'm mostly assured that Fyodor wanted to write a essay about the modern world, but he might have noticed it sounded too presumptuous, so he wrote a story in the format of a novel better exercising his point of individual, society and the detachment between the the individual and the latter.
You see, by being too thoughtful and rational of the world surrounding him the main character becomes a professional asshole in the art of bitterness and hatred. From where I see it the entire point of the story is to tell what becomes of certain individuals in the modern world, coming on life by their own special way, that they become too much of an emotional cancer for doing anything considered "normal" with anyone:
I have the memory of an ant so I'm going to sumarize three defining moments of the main character in it that I recall the most:
Pretty sure Dostoevsky wanted to make some type of work that would encapsulate some type of individual that exists in today's modern society (or rather of his time period, but the themes still holds up), and maybe an essay would be too dumb or on the nose, so maybe he decided to a novel.
An honest take on a man guided by jealousness and bitterness. I like to think that this work, and many of his others, are made as a form of respectful take of lower classes or renegade people considering his background, and opposition to the literary culture of his time: barons of literature drunk and high writing about love and drama while living close to a St. Petersburg favela.
You see, by being too thoughtful and rational of the world surrounding him the main character becomes a professional asshole in the art of bitterness and hatred. From where I see it the entire point of the story is to tell what becomes of certain individuals in the modern world, coming on life by their own special way, that they become too much of an emotional cancer for doing anything considered "normal" with anyone:
I have the memory of an ant so I'm going to sumarize three defining moments of the main character in it that I recall the most:
- He feels belittled about some officer because he bumped and gently move him from a seat, like a child. Because of that he tries to "avenge" this moral injury by planning weeks in advance on how he is going to perfectly bump into him in the streets, preparing clothing, time and... ultimately leading to nowhere because he realized how ridiculous all of it sounded;
- Failed assassination of one of his colleagues because I think he was drunk and some other stuff;
- His encounter with Alice after the failed assassination attempt: he makes her sad, gets sad himself and becomes increasingly paranoid over her coming to visit him. The dialog from when he starts talking trash about her life is an absolutely masterpiece: he goes on about how her life is pretty much over from not being married with some guy, and she being a fuckup.
Pretty sure Dostoevsky wanted to make some type of work that would encapsulate some type of individual that exists in today's modern society (or rather of his time period, but the themes still holds up), and maybe an essay would be too dumb or on the nose, so maybe he decided to a novel.
An honest take on a man guided by jealousness and bitterness. I like to think that this work, and many of his others, are made as a form of respectful take of lower classes or renegade people considering his background, and opposition to the literary culture of his time: barons of literature drunk and high writing about love and drama while living close to a St. Petersburg favela.
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