Author Birthday 11/11 Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky Birthplace: Moscow Date of birth: 11 November 1821 Date of death: 9 February 1881 Language: Russian Today is 194th birthday of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He is best remembered for such novels as Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot. After being arrested for his association with a socialist/utopian literary society, Dostoyevsky was sentenced to death. At the last moment (so the story goes) the sentence was commuted to four years hard labor in Siberia, after which he was obligated to serve time in the military. The only work of his I have personal experience with is a novella titled Notes from the Underground, published in 1864. This is divided in two parts, the first a series of short diary entries that are frankly difficult to understand and rather trying. The unnamed narrator is actually a madman who contradicts himself with a straight face. The second part (titled “Apropos of Wet Snow”) relates a series of events that begin when the narrator is twenty-four years old. The events don’t seem quite related. The text begins: “I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me.” He also tells the reader he is extremely superstitious, sufficiently well-educated so to respect medicine—well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but he is superstitious and won’t consult a doctor. He’s forty years old, retired from a government service job. One of the vignettes in the second part involves the narrator’s encounter with a prostitute. He convinces her life as she’s living it will become empty and gives her his address. After he’s done so, he panics because he’s ashamed of his poverty. When she later shows up at his apartment and says she wants to leave “that place,” he’s abusive to her. He becomes hysterical. “How I hated her and how I was drawn to her at that minute! The one feeling intensified the other. It was almost like an act of vengeance. At first there was a look of amazement, even of terror on her face, but only for one instant. She warmly and rapturously embraced me.” The narrator is mentally ill, of course, but he is able to see the ills of society. Apparently trying to do anything about it paralyzes him. If this had been a longer work, I would not have made it through it. The narrative style is taxing. The narrator is cruel, but the reader can’t help but feel sorry for him. Dostoyevsky’s contributions to speculative fiction include “Babok,” “The Dream of the Ridiculous Man,” (on the topic of suicide) and “The Inquisitor General” an excerpt from The Brothers Karamazov adapted by Michael Bishop. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky