My rant about how good it is

[Ineverland]

This will become long and tedious but when I read this a few years ago I could hardly believe how amazing it was (still is).

Dostoyevsky must have been one of the most insightful and intuitive people at that time. The way his central character thought was incredible. It was contadictory and the book was not afraid to expose the darker side of people's personalities. Also, is this just me or is the book intended to be humorous? My parents thought I was crazy for laughing my way through it but I found it had a wonderful touch of mockery in the way it depicted the main character. I am probably being completely ignorant here but I found some parts of the book hilarious. It seemed that he was using a lot of black humour and the part where he gave the example of a man growing to enjoy his toothache was very witty. Have I misinterpreted it entirely?

[tudwell]

Not at all! Notes from Underground is quite hilarious. I enjoyed the dinner scene, where the narrator thought he was engaging in some sort of intricate battle of the mind when really he was just ruining everyone's dinner. And the idea that bumping into a man on the sidewalk constitutes revenge? It is indeed a very funny novel.

[Ineverland]

I'm glad it's not just me then!

Do you mean the part where he is walking backwards and forwards across the room all evening?

[quasimodo1]

I was not long in coming to myself; everything came back to my mind at once, without an effort, as though it had been in ambush to pounce upon me again. And, indeed, even while I was unconscious a point seemed continually to remain in my memory unforgotten, and round it my dreams moved drearily. But strange to say, everything that had happened to me in that day seemed to me now, on waking, to be in the far, far away past, as though I had long, long ago lived all that down.
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[tudwell]

Do you mean the part where he is walking backwards and forwards across the room all evening?

Yep. Very, very funny. You always hear people rave about how existential or psychologically deep Notes from Underground is, but I think the comedy is also a very important aspect of it, as it places those more weighty subjects in a ... um ... lighter light.

[Turk]

Not at all! Notes from Underground is quite hilarious. I enjoyed the dinner scene, where the narrator thought he was engaging in some sort of intricate battle of the mind when really he was just ruining everyone's dinner. And the idea that bumping into a man on the sidewalk constitutes revenge? It is indeed a very funny novel.

I really didn't think at all that NFU is a funny novel, but actually quite sad.

[libernaut]

i used to relate to it and think it was sad but i realize now i was probably "underground" at the time if you will.

i love how the guy holds a grudge against some random stranger who accidentally bumps into him or whatever and he just dwells on it for 6 months and then gets his revenge.

[mcvv09]

I am pouring my way through Notes From Underground for the second time, and am enjoying the humour much more the second time. During my first read, I saw the book as unfocused and hated the underground man. My next read has had me frequently laughing at the dark humour that infuses the book. Does anyone else see this book as an inverted version of plato's cave allegory? He can see the flaws in the common man, yet this propels him to dig farther and farther into a literal cave. While he is metaphorically being lifted, he is literally sinking into a cave.

[Kent Edwins]

I just read this for one of my classes! Fantastic book, but I wonder about my translation. The writing just seemed... passive and bland. Still, I am fascinated by the disconnection the underground man feels, and how he unknowingly works to perpetuate detachment in his own life. So impulsive, yet justifying it all for some strange reason. What a shell he builds around himself!

[Saladin]

Haha yeah i agree with tudwell. The part where the Underground-man sees walking past another man as some kind of revenge is funny.

Also the part where he wants to be slapped is funny.

[jgweed]

I have always thought that NFU has parallels with some of Kafka's (more extreme) novels, not the less because both can be very funny.

[cheerupfyodor]

i read this while my housemate had just undergone a minor operation, the bit in the begining where he describes the man with a toothache....and then wanting to smash your head against the wall...

per-fec-tion.

[Shatov]

I just read this for one of my classes! Fantastic book, but I wonder about my translation. The writing just seemed... passive and bland.

I'm curious: which translation was it?



As for humour, I like to think of Notes as a caricature. It's a satirical work of Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What is to be Done? as well as a carticature of modern man -- or so that's what Rene Girard says: "many people praise Notes from the Underground without any idea that they
are unearthing a caricature of themselves written a century ago."

All this aside, I think the comic element is extremely important to Notes. It not only makes for a good read, but it helps the reader laugh at himself (if he sees a part of himself in the Underground Man).

[whatsername]

I have always thought that NFU has parallels with some of Kafka's (more extreme) novels, not the less because both can be very funny.

Yeah I thought the same!

Well the thing is, when the character is in a situation where it's just too depressing then everything seems to be against him which makes it funny (in some way)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book, from the first page till the last. The whole idea of him ignoring the chance to love and be loved reminded me greatly of one of the stories in Dubliners by James Joyce called 'A Painful Case', so I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading such themes.

[Gladys]

The whole idea of him ignoring the chance to love and be loved reminded me greatly of one of the stories in Dubliners by James Joyce called 'A Painful Case', so I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading such themes.

Mr. Duffy, in 'A Painful Case', does not so much ignore the chance to love as have rather too high expectations for love. Mrs. Sinico, and most others in the city of Dublin, fall far short.