I think I may start reading #Dostoevsky (and #Chekhov and #Gogol, et al) again, because I suspect I will really vibe with the themes of social alienation in a crushingly indifferent world.
#RussianLit is the most thematically appropriate stuff I can think of for this apocalypse.
#SundaySentence@bookstodon “Let us not forget that the reasons for human actions are usually incalculably more complex and diverse than we tend to explain them later, and are seldom clearly manifest.”
Fyodor #Dostoevsky, ‘The Idiot’ (Part IV, Chapter 3)
I've been really enjoying these Hubert Dreyfus "Existentialism in Literature and Film" lectures. The ones on Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov are particularly illuminating.
Today in Writing History December 15, 1905: The Pushkin House was established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin, (6/6/1799–2/10/1837). Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era. He was influenced by Enlightenment writers and thinkers, like Diderot and Voltaire. He spoke out in support of social reform, and wrote poems, like “Ode to Liberty,” leading to the government exiling him from the capital. In 1920 the Pushkin House was renamed the Institute of New Russian Literature, with the main objective of preparing authoritative "academic" editions of works by Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and others.
Today in Labor History November 16, 1849: Russian authorities gave a death sentence to author Fyodor Dostoevsky for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group called the Petrashevsky Circle. He and his colleagues were lined up before the firing squad when, at the last minute, a cart arrived with a letter from the Tsar, commuting their sentence. He still had to serve 4 years hard labor in Siberia. Dostoevsky alludes to his experience before the firing squad in his 1868-1869 novel, “The Idiot.”
Every coverage on this event blames Kremlin propaganda, but Kremlin propagandists, like #Solovyov (who is Jew himself) did not call on killing Jews, they just accused Israel government in being imperialistic
Same time, #Dagestan is 100% Muslim nation occupied by russians, and this action goes against Kremlin will. The #EndOfEmpire is getting closer?
there is an old-school soviet propaganda pattern of blaming government of Israel in being bad (without targeting Jews as a culture), which is shared by every leftist on the planet, including #Greta and Kremlin just follows it when it suits them. Same time this Pogrom is performed by Muslims, it is the same as pro-Palestinian marches in EU and US . The trick is that Muslims in russian empire are allowed only to be cheap labor and cannon fodder, they are not allowed to express themselves in any way. Because russian empire is the last defender of true Christianity and all this Dostoevsky orcshit. #Dostoevsky and the idea of orcish spiritual superhuman is pretty antisemitic beneath, but it's not meant for Muslims, only targets the masters of russian empire, orthodox slavs. So it's not really result of russian propaganda, which tries to keep russian Muslims in check, it's kind of anti-imperial Muslim #emancipation
@yunchtime@bookstodon yes, and precisely this atmosphere helps in maintaining a good pace. #TheBrothersKaramazov is my third #dostoevsky and one of my favourite things about his writing is that the characters feel like real people. Even the female characters, Grushenka and Katarina are well-written. Also, in this book, the whodunnit part is also done well. Usually I find most murder mysteries too easy to solve, but this book has kept me interested.(I have training from #agathachristie lol!)
Despite its sensationalist pulpy title and #ColdWar premise, Jack Arnold's adaptation of the #RichardMatheson novel is an existentialist treatise.
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) plays with the understanding of what it means to be acknowledged as a human, and one's place in the world. The story is told through the eyes of the titular Shrinking Man – Scott Carey – who after being exposed to strange fog, finds himself increasingly lost in this world.
A young woman jumps out of a window, leaving behind her husband, an antiques dealer. Sitting in their bedroom with the body lying in state, the widower remembers her. In his memory, she is nameless, abstract, a state not a life. This is Une femme douce [A Gentle Woman] (Robert Bresson, 1969), closely adapted from Fyodor #Dostoevsky's A Gentle Creature (1876).