Has anyone read "Notes from the Underground" by Dostoevsky? (Not Drama)

1  2020-07-03 by hungarianmeatslammer

Me neither. I did listen to it though and loved it. I have no one else to share my love of it with so here you go. (🛑 WORDS WORDS WORDS Warning!🛑)

Anyway, the main character is an r/drama poster from the mid 1800's. Some choice quotes for your new motivational screensavers:

“I am a sick man...I am a spiteful man. An unattractive man. I think that my liver hurts.”

“...there is no explaining anything by reasoning and so it is useless to reason.”

“I agree that two and two make four is an excellent thing; but to give everything its due, two and two make five is also a very fine thing.”

“I am to blame because, first of all, I am cleverer than anybody else around me.”

“You know the direct, legitimate fruit of consciousness is inertia, that is, conscious sitting-with-the-hands-folded. I have referred to this already. I repeat, I repeat with emphasis: all “direct” persons and men of action are active just because they are stupid and limited.”

“As for my own personal opinion. I find it somehow unseemly to love only well-being. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, smashing things is also sometimes very pleasant. I am not standing up for suffering, or for well-being either. I am standing up for my own caprices and for having them guaranteed when necessary.”

“I say, let the world perish, if I can always drink my tea.”

“The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.”

“I swear to you gentlemen, that to be overly conscious is a sickness, a real, thorough sickness.”

“I've never been a coward at heart, although I've always been a coward in action;”

“How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself”

“an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything.”

“Now answer me, sincerely, honestly, who lives past forty? I'll tell you who does: fools and scoundrels.”

“Oh, gentlemen, do you know, perhaps I consider myself an intelligent man, only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything. Granted I am a babbler, a harmless vexatious babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?”

“It was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier, that it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise; that there was no escape for you; that you never could become a different man; that even if time and faith were still left you to change into something different you would most likely not wish to change; or if you did wish to, even then you would do nothing; because perhaps in reality there was nothing for you to change into.”

“You know the direct, legitimate fruit of consciousness is inertia, that is, conscious sitting-with-the-hands-folded. I have referred to this already. I repeat, I repeat with emphasis: all “direct” persons and men of action are active just because they are stupid and limited. How explain that? I will tell you:”

“The pleasure came precisely from being too clearly aware of your own degradation; from the feeling of having gone to the uttermost limits; that it is was vile, but it could not have been otherwise; that you could not escape, you could never make yourself into a different person” “Do you ask why I tortured and tormented myself? The answer is that it was too boring to sit and do nothing, and so I indulged my fancy.”

55 comments

Lmao imagine being so humorless that not only do you not understand certain types of humor, but you actively seek and destroy humor elsewhere that you don't understand. src

Snapshots:

  1. Has anyone read "Notes from the Und... - archive.org, archive.today

  2. r/drama - archive.org, archive.today*

I am just a simple bot, *not** a moderator of this subreddit* | bot subreddit | contact the maintainers

I didn’t read your post yet, sorry not sorry. Was The Idiot with reading? I never finished it. Compared to Bros and Crime and Punishment it just wasn’t clicking. It felt like he was too hungry and desperate while writing it, but it didn’t inspire better writing. Maybe I’ll try again.

It's all good. It's a lot of words. I thought The Idiot was good but clearly not his best work. This is the 5th book of his that I have consumed.

  1. Notes from the Underground

  2. The Brothers Karamazov

  3. Demons

  4. The Idiot

  5. Crime and Punishment

All are absolute masterpieces compared to contemporary fiction but I had my preferences. You should check out Demons. It doesn't get a lot of love but its an underrated gem and is really relevant right now with all the protests and cultural revolution going on right now.

Your order is mine except I place C&P at number 2 and TBK is at 6 while The Double takes its place at 5.

Notes is such a brilliant fucking piece of work. Manages to achieve timeless social commentary of a low value manlet seething at the world and his place in it. No book has made me feel such rage and joy at the same time within the span of mere sentences.

Also, you listen to books? What are you, a fucking child?

I haven't read a book in a while because I am r-slurred plus I like listening to posh British men reading books to me instead of that naggy voice in my head.

voice-in-your-head-cel

It never even began.

You don’t need that and I don’t do it. There are apparently exercises to get rid of it online.

I never had that problem so I don’t know but someone somewhere posted about it.

i feel like that voice is so ingrained in my head from smoking so much weed when I was younger. That voice is so damn prominent when I am baked. I started smoking weed daily way too early. From like 12-23 I was consistently stoned so my brain developed that way. I don't know if I could ever fix it.

It’s normal, really. It’s something that people get while learning how to read and it can be reversed. I do it only sometimes, mainly with comics.

Just lol if your dogbrain doesn't automatically add breathy autistic timbre or homolisp to certain dramaposters, even without noticing the username.

voice-in-your-head-cel

What the fuck is this?

Take out the hyphens. I believe in you.

I actually really like The Idiot, like I can see its definitely not his best book but in some ways its my favorite.

Oh wow, I’ll give Notes a go then, thanks.

Read white nights If you want decent lit

Demons is an absolute classic.

I've read the Idiot and I'm working on the Brothers Karamazov. I've got a copy of the Possessed (I think that's just an alternate english name for Demons) and that's next on the list.

I can dig the liver hurting one, mistress alcohol is very kind and cruel, but a fuck ton of milk thistle lately and it's back to it's normal size, done and done. Imagine living when there were no Amazon Subscribe & Save supplements lol 19th century gulagcels.

I think that my liver hurts.

Fistfuls of milk thistle, dog. Imagine being a 19th century gulagcel without access to Amazon Subscribe & Save.

I am reading Dostojewskis the idiot right now and it's unironically a wonderful book. One of the best I've read.

The Brothers Karamazov is unironically one of the most engaging books I've read

90% of good literature is written pre 1950 CMV

Big brain time: more than 90% of literary history happened before 1950.

the remaining 10%? Harry Potter. Truly the work of our generation.

[removed]

No good books were ever written until Patty Duke's 1987 autobiography

that book is amazing, my favorite book of his by far

One of my favorite books and should be studied by most young men.

Whenever I pitch the book to friends I always say "It'll describe parts of your own thinking better than you yourself could, and then proceed to poke massive holes in it showing how much of a big fat narcissistic loser you actually are. It's great."

Most people don't read it.

The way he delineated the eternal failson in several of his books is very uncomfortable to read.

“I wish there was a classic novel with me as the protagonist, my mistakes and little flaws would be much more sympathetic if it were laid out with context I bet.”

Monkey paw finger curls

People that take themselves way too seriously can't handle that level of cognitive dissonance.

Are Dostoyevsky audiobooks any good? I'm too lazy to read wordswordswords but listening to audiobooks while I take a shit may be good way to start with Do

You missed the greatest quote of the book, and possibly of his entire work, that wrecks commies to their core " Sign up My Books Browse ▾ Community ▾ Join Goodreads and meet your next favorite book! Sign Up Now

Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in bliss so that nothing but bubbles would dance on the surface of his bliss, as on a sea...and even then every man, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer libel, would play you some loathsome 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 rationality his fatal fantastic element...simply in order to prove to himself that men still are men and not piano keys."

zoz

zle

zozzle

Read that in Petersons voice because he's lectured on it

[removed]

I actually did have the long version of that quote on here thats a couple of paragraphs but I cut it before I posted it. It seemed like it was way too much WORDS WORDS WORDS and I thought seeing another two paragraphs of text would dissuade people from reading the post.

OT but I just finished reading “Limonov” by Carrere and I actually loved it.

Isn't that book about cleaning your room or some shit?

as someone with autism, the underground man 100% has aspergers. but yeah its unironically one of my favorite books ever.

I highly recommend reading Sarasine by Balzac, i think you would like it

Never heard of this one I’ll try to read it this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation

One of the first books i've read when i was a teenager, i genuinely can say it affected me deeply.When he talks shit about his own vulnerabilities and shortcoming within only his perspective, you clearly can see how he fills up his bussy at the same time. Pleasure of self criticism makes me want to say "post-modernizm lmao"

[removed]

Since when is this /r/books? Or is this /r/bookscirclejerk? I never learned to read.

Arr books wouldn't like this because it isn't 1984 or YA and bookscirclejerk would screech about the fact that Dostoevsky was a man

I couldn't even finish reading this post I'm not reading a wholeass manifesto

reading

NERD

Here's a link to the audio book if you're interested like I am.

HQ post op

https://youtu.be/8a8xw4YO6AA

Thanks 😉😘💕

Wasn't he white 🤢

He's Russian.

I picked it up and I just got done with the first chapter. If this book was written today by a redditor it would be called "TrueIncelOffMyChest."

Can I get the book online or do I have to exert effort and pay money?

Heres the youtube audiobook, or you can use Audible. If you want to actually read, I am sure a PDF of the book is pretty easy to find if you look for it.

koszonom

[removed]