Ungrateful Biped

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Of all the dumb things Dostoyevsky had to say in this first part, my absolute favorite had to have been chapter 8. I don't know if it was because I was so tired or what, but him describing (and roasting) man for his stupidity is absolutely hilarious. I loved his parenthetical - "For, indeed, if we say he is stupid, whom will we be able to call intelligent?" - because a) oh my goodness, and b) who comes up with this? Because the book itself flows like stream of consciousness, I had to consider: how in the world did we get to that point? The best part is that the rest of our reading kind of built itself off of man's ineptitude. Chapter 9 considers man's purpose, chapter 10 considers the outrageous ways our imaginations can go, and Chapter 10 comes up with a grand solution to his "problem." I'm not the biggest fan of stream of consciousness writing, but I have to admit, it provides many great, hilarious sentences. You get the sense that Dostoyevsky's fictitious author has a sassy side to himself, as seen in Chapter 10: "Well, I wish I could stick you into a mousehole for forty years or so with nothing to do, and at the end of that time I'd like to see what kind of state you'd be in." And it's kind of true, if I were locked in a room for a long period of time, I'd probably go just as crazy. I know this type of writing is very strange to almost everyone in our class, but what do you think? Was it not kind of hilarious in an ironic sense? I'm curious to see what everyone thinks.

EDIT: I commented on Faith's and Will's posts.

Comments

  1. Sophia ColbertNovember 13, 2017 at 4:44 PM

    Honestly, the underground man's arrogance annoyed me to no end, which is exactly the point, which annoys me even more. Also, almost every person would go crazy if they were locked away with no one to see and nothing to do. Humans need each other, and they need something to do, it is how they were created. Even extreme introverts need human contact every once and a while. Their sanity might last longer than an extrovert's, but eventually they would need at least the presence of another human being to keep them sane.

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  2. Natalie SchulerNovember 13, 2017 at 7:20 PM

    He also has an extreme fear of failure and rejection so he brushes everything off as unimportant and claims he doesn't care what anyone thinks...yet he's writing this entire thing addressing his audience as "ladies and gentlemen" and asking himself hypothetical questions on their behalf...

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  3. Zelda PeachNovember 13, 2017 at 9:51 PM

    I personally really enjoy this kind of writing. It makes me feel as though I am reading someone's diary and peering in on their life through their own eyes. As far as being shoved in a hole with nothing to do for 40 years, yeah I would go completely insane. I think I would probably be the equivalent of Margarete at the end of Faust on the crazy scale.

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  4. Carmen KnowlesNovember 13, 2017 at 9:55 PM

    I often think to myself that I like this kind of writing until I actually start reading it and it begins to twist in on itself. With that being said, it's my own fault that I down like the fact that it twists in on itself because it requires my own thought and contemplation to really understand and agree or disagree with the writing. This is part of what the writers often want though, right?

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