tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post7708203014286766697..comments2024-01-15T05:26:06.518+00:00Comments on THOUGHTS OF XANADU: Nezhdanov: The idealist of realismKubla Khanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-91392438623848446822008-08-05T18:20:00.000+01:002008-08-05T18:20:00.000+01:00"i think it even segues into dishonest propaganda ..."i think it even segues into dishonest propaganda at places in the way it portrays those revolutionaries as absolute criminals. what redeems it is the insights Dostoevsky provides into minds which are at the extremes... (specially in Stavrogin)"<BR/><BR/>i could not agree more with you.<BR/>i also agree with the satire you have mentioned. the scene, as i feel it is, when long eared Shigalyov gives a lecture to the assembled people is nothing less than a farce. Turgenev is different. he hates violent action but has a deeper and broader sympathy for the causes and the ramifications of revolutionary activity. all in all, these comparisons might not be apt but they enhance our understanding of those turbulent but great times. may be.<BR/><BR/>i would love to re-read these classics but the length dissuades me. most of what i remember is sketchy and this prevents me from writing a post on these novels.( Russian lit. is the lit. of my growing up....i read the devils around the age of 13-14 and so on. the understanding of these books might be hazy too. however, i have read Virgin Soil with Smoke only last year and plan to read Dead Souls again.<BR/><BR/>i plan, hopefully to revisit these great books one day.<BR/><BR/>i hope that you will write a post on Virgin Soil and that we can write around and about the issues these books raise, if not the books proper.<BR/><BR/>btw.....am re-reading Anna Karenina these days.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-15162207627506756532008-08-05T18:19:00.000+01:002008-08-05T18:19:00.000+01:00"i think it even segues into dishonest propaganda ..."i think it even segues into dishonest propaganda at places in the way it portrays those revolutionaries as absolute criminals. what redeems it is the insights Dostoevsky provides into minds which are at the extremes... (specially in Stavrogin)"<BR/><BR/>i could not agree more with you.<BR/>i also agree with the satire you have mentioned. the scene, as i feel it is, when long eared Shigalyov gives a lecture to the assembled people is nothing less than a farce. Turgenev is different. he hates violent action but has a deeper and broader sympathy for the causes and the ramifications of revolutionary activity. all in all, these comparisons might not be apt but they enhance our understanding of those turbulent but great times. may be.<BR/><BR/>i would love to re-read these classics but the length dissuades me. most of what i remember is sketchy and this prevents me from writing a post on these novels.( Russian lit. is the lit. of my growing up....i read the devils around the age of 13-14 and so on. the understanding of these books might be hazy too. however, i have read Virgin Soil with Smoke only last year and plan to read Dead Souls again.<BR/><BR/>i plan, hopefully to revisit these great books one day.<BR/><BR/>i hope that you will write a post on Virgin Soil and that we can write around and about the issues these books raise, if not the books proper.<BR/><BR/>btw.....am re-reading Anna Karenina these days.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-32938848050072550332008-08-05T18:03:00.000+01:002008-08-05T18:03:00.000+01:00no worries... i did read your whole post. I think ...no worries... i did read your whole post. I think The Devils should be read as a work of satire (though it is funny only in parts), that's why the characters are so grotesquely exaggerated. It is true for other Dostoevsky's novels also but this one is even more extreme and frankly i think it even segues into dishonest propaganda at places in the way it portrays those revolutionaries as absolute criminals. what redeems it is the insights Dostoevsky provides into minds which are at the extremes... (specially in Stavrogin)<BR/><BR/>Turgenev had a much more widely encompassing imaginative sympathy and that shows in Virgin Soil. It is even more surprising and impressive once you realize that he spent most of his time away from his home, in Europe.<BR/><BR/>Don't remember it was in penguin or oxford classics but the introduction to Stendhal's The Red and the Black advises to skip it and come back to it afte reading the book as it reveals plot surprises..Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-37225272797443053642008-08-05T01:12:00.000+01:002008-08-05T01:12:00.000+01:00on the other hand, there is nothing else, apart fr...on the other hand, there is nothing else, apart from the death, that you don't know.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-49561347272578268682008-08-05T00:44:00.000+01:002008-08-05T00:44:00.000+01:00Oh, do excuse me.... i was under the impression th...Oh, do excuse me.... i was under the impression that you are reading it the 2nd time.<BR/><BR/>anyway, with such great fiction, nothing comes as a surprise. i am sure that you can predict most things that happen.<BR/><BR/>one of the worst things is to read these introductions in Penguin Classics.....they reveal everything.it is irritating. i fully commiserate if i revealed too much.......Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33019812.post-36040825047183533092008-08-05T00:12:00.000+01:002008-08-05T00:12:00.000+01:00wow, that was a great way to start the essay, you ...wow, that was a great way to start the essay, you revealed everything that happens in the end!! <BR/><BR/>just joking... obviously if you read to know only the ending, you are not reading well. <BR/><BR/>anyway, I am still in the middle of it. I wasted the last weekend when I should have been reading. Will get back to your essay after I am done...Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.com