As our group finished with "Notes From Underground" by Dostoevsky, I found that more avenues of future learning have opened. So the title of this entry is somewhat a misnomer. We concluded our reading of "Notes..." but the thoughts and speculations aroused in the discussions about this work will cause more research and thought on my part. Some of our digressions touched upon Philosophy, especially Existentialism, and Art History, Russian History, Modernism, Post-Modernism, etc. I may eventually comment on these various topics if I have time (I have to sell off some of my life energy to support my family and my lavish lower middle class lifestyle.).
Some quick rhetorical (or not so rhetorical if anyone is reading) questions one could ask about "Notes...":
Is the narrator character in "Notes..." an existentialist? (Kaufmann seems to think so)
As the narrator could not live up to his former ideals of the beautiful and the lofty, I ask, can we live by our own ideals?
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In coming back to one of the purposes of my commenting on our Literary Group materials, the lesson I learned in "Notes..." was that I will try to strive for that polyphonic effect in the stories I hope to write (and maybe hope to publish).
For characterization, the lesson to apply is that since everyone to a greater or lesser degree seems to struggle (consciously or unconsciously) with questions of existence, by creating characters that are real in this way, perhaps I can bring the readers into identification with my characters that will heighten the interest in my stories and allow many of the good things to happen in the reading experience that happen in the best books.
Obviously from my past infantile creative attempts and what many may see for awhile, I will have a long way to go in achieving this level of writing mastery.
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The version of "Notes..." that our group used is a newer translation by Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky. Here is the publishing data on the version of this book:
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Vintage (August 30, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 067973452X
ISBN-13: 978-0679734529
Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
After listening to the unabridged audio version of another translation, reading this edition, and considering the opinion of others who know more Russian, I would say that this is the best translation of this work.
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