Crime and Punishment

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 What an incredible writer! And I feel like the style is gone, just don't feel like anyone writes with this kind of patience and detail, nor does anyone allow for such long monologues and so much philosophy, legal, science, etc. to be brought in. It is also shocking how similar it feels to Dickens and Austin, more Dickens in the horrors of poverty and Austin in the melo-dramatic and extravagently wordy mother-in-law and marry for love or money portion. 


I never realized that this was a deep exploration into the Great Man Theory ... that there are some great men who get to transcend morality to accomplish their greatness. My mind, ignorantly and with only a popular understanding, jumps to Neitzsche, but it says its very unlikely that FD read him. More likely is that both FN and FD were reading the same things or some of the same things. Where FN embraced and took these ideas further, FD explored the dangers in this novel. 

I did find the resolve unsatisfying though ... or maybe I am in a mental/emotional state where I wanted an winning argument and not what FD offers to defeat this Great Man Theory. There is a scene where the protagonist, Rodya, belittles the drunkards daughter, who has enters into prostitution to in order to provide for the family, for her simple faith. The protagonist is trying to justify his murder in saying that nothing was going to save them from poverty and death ... that her mother would die of consumption and the children turned out into the streets. She, Sonya, responds, God will not left that happen. 

But God does let that happen. That is what is still hard for me. Of course, the great man theory needs exploding and it isn't about us getting beyond morality and deciding when its ok to murder ... but isn't the Sonya's response just magical thinking, belief in the Deus Machina? 

But as I sit with the larger story, I see that is not exactly what FD is saying. Sonya isn't sitting eating bonbons telling others she is "Too blessed to stress." She is more like the believer that Bonhoeffer describes in his letter about magical thinking, who will watch with Christ in Gethsemane, who will drink the cup of suffering to the last dreg. And in her simple faith, her hope and perserverance to love, even her drunkard dad, even the murderer and then the other criminals as she goes to Siberia, she holds out a life worth living I guess? 

But again, as rich a world as FD is capable, isn't Sonya a flat character? Doesn't she fit into the mold that you can't have an all good character without them feeling unreal and pure sentimentalism? I guess I question putting up the richness of Rodya against the flat and stereotypical Sonya. Is it just another happy wedding story even though it wanders into some psychologically dark zones. 

Of course, Rodya and Sonya are not the only characters in the story. Maybe the real contrast that FD wants us to take in is between Rodya, who believes his murders were justified, and Svidrigailov. Svidrigailov has completely given into vice and it is basically the Jeffry Epstien character, rich and in love with many many women, especially young ones. Svidrigailov does not love any woman, but only to use them and take from them ... FD makes him a round and interesting character and the dialogues between Rodya and Svidrigailov are amazing. 

Maybe for another time, but I wonder how this story and its ideas contrasts with Ayn Rand's theology in Atlas Shrugged? Does she argue the great man theory? I have only ever read Anthem (which I hated) and struggle to imagine finding the 60 hours to listen to Atlas ...

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