No Subject

[Mona]

Hello,<br><br>Touched me so much.<br>Thank you so much.<br><br>Mona

[Unregistered]

So you understand it and we can't? Bummer...and I thought I had a pretty good grasp on it. Guess I'm just not as gifted as you are.

[Unregistered]

Almost all people who read it agree that this is one of the greatest masterpieces in the world literature. But, believe me, few people understand its beauty fully. It's difficult do describe the depth of the masterpiece accurately. It's about both human kind and society. the novel is beyond the circle of literature, its sensors extended to almost every walk of social life and every corner of human mind. it's an encyclopaedia about the true social life of the 19-century russia as well as nature of human race.

[Rata]

It´s not that I want to sound confrontational or anything but one of the characteristics of art is that it extends beyond the aesthetical and delves into life itself. Because of this, it also means it´s within the scope of everyone to actually understand it. Maybe not all of us read russian, and not all of us know literary theory nor are we literary critics...it does not mean we cannot understand the novel´s "beauty fully". To understand it is to rationalize it and the aesthetic pleasure is, by principal, something emotional, something that cannot be expressed fully. It´s not that few can understand it, it´s that few can come close to expressing it properly. The reason, to may way of thinking, that few people seem interested in literature is because they believe it´s boring or that it´s beyond their reach. Truth is, you really don´t need much training to read the classics, just an open mind. And this should also apply to those of us who study literature (and art in general as well), since we often will close the doors to "the common man" because we believe them incapable of comprehending "great literature".

[bugmasta]

I will have to whole-heartedly agree with Rata. I was one of those who felt great literature and the classics were out of my reach. Right from high school I was pushed away from subjects like English and toward math and science. Since graduating with a degree in engineering I have read many of the "classics" I missed out on in my formal education years. I have not read Anna Karenia yet but I did read War and Peace. I am by no means a literary critic or guru or have any formal training in literature but found it a beautiful work. There are other works that people are scared of that anyone can read and find quite interesting (The Republic, Walden, Shakespeare in general to mention a few) but people are intimidated by them. This is unfortunate and I always encourage my colleagues to read more.