Yes! I remember one professor pointing out that, up until then, in all literature, there was the obligatory set-up, the back-story, the descriptions (of people and places) and scene-setting....but with late 19th C Russian Lit, we start getting into the Vodka and God on page 2. So true. There's an urgency and honesty to the Russian masters that cuts right thru most of the BS and, of course, is as--or more--applicable to our contemporary psychosis!
I had a graduate course in Russian Lit with a chain smoking—in the classroom—professor who was from Russia. She broke down Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky in such a cellular way that it broke me down as a human being. The cells of those writers and their stories rearranged and enriched my own.
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Eliot Rosewater tells Billy Pilgrim that everything to know about life was in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. "But that isn't enough anymore," Rosewater adds, but if given a chance to chat with Mr. Rosewater, I would disagree.
Historical circumstances change, but the struggle to live a moral life within a harsh and often malevolent world remains consistent, and the internal tug of war between "good" and "evil" is a battle every person faces daily. The good and evil may not play out, for most of us, in historically significant ways, but the choice to treat others with cruelty, indifference, or kindness is always before us.
Perhaps The Brothers Karamazov by itself isn't enough, but throw in some Tolstoy, some Chekhov, and perhaps some George Saunders too, and you've got a pretty good foundation of everything to know about life. Read Anna Karenina enough times and you'll even know how to harvest a field of wheat!
Yes! I remember one professor pointing out that, up until then, in all literature, there was the obligatory set-up, the back-story, the descriptions (of people and places) and scene-setting....but with late 19th C Russian Lit, we start getting into the Vodka and God on page 2. So true. There's an urgency and honesty to the Russian masters that cuts right thru most of the BS and, of course, is as--or more--applicable to our contemporary psychosis!
Brilliant. Thank you.
I had a graduate course in Russian Lit with a chain smoking—in the classroom—professor who was from Russia. She broke down Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky in such a cellular way that it broke me down as a human being. The cells of those writers and their stories rearranged and enriched my own.
Thanks for this inspiring piece.
In Slaughterhouse-Five, Eliot Rosewater tells Billy Pilgrim that everything to know about life was in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. "But that isn't enough anymore," Rosewater adds, but if given a chance to chat with Mr. Rosewater, I would disagree.
Historical circumstances change, but the struggle to live a moral life within a harsh and often malevolent world remains consistent, and the internal tug of war between "good" and "evil" is a battle every person faces daily. The good and evil may not play out, for most of us, in historically significant ways, but the choice to treat others with cruelty, indifference, or kindness is always before us.
Perhaps The Brothers Karamazov by itself isn't enough, but throw in some Tolstoy, some Chekhov, and perhaps some George Saunders too, and you've got a pretty good foundation of everything to know about life. Read Anna Karenina enough times and you'll even know how to harvest a field of wheat!