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epic_taters 's review for:
The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Depressing, but I was expecting that, because it's Russian.
Also very insightful.
I get the impression that Fyodor created characters and placed them together, and then tried to figure out how they would interact, in order to answer questions about human nature. It's like a great big thought experiment, while simultaneously being a novel with a gripping story, and fascinating characters the like of which I haven't found in other novels, and yet which are quite familiar to me. We know people like all the characters in this book, except the titular Idiot - Prince Myshkin. His character is the experiment that Dostoevsky primarily wishes to run. An almost Christ-like figure evidently too perfect for this world. Quite probably the inspiration behind Forest Gump, but much more fleshed out, much more real, less two-dimensional, and much more believable.
If I take anything from this experiment it's that I shouldn't be like Prince Myshkin. I shouldn't even try. He was like half a person. We should be good, but we also need to have teeth. A good person who isn't strong, who can't be mean or aggressive when he needs to be just won't cut it.
Also very insightful.
I get the impression that Fyodor created characters and placed them together, and then tried to figure out how they would interact, in order to answer questions about human nature. It's like a great big thought experiment, while simultaneously being a novel with a gripping story, and fascinating characters the like of which I haven't found in other novels, and yet which are quite familiar to me. We know people like all the characters in this book, except the titular Idiot - Prince Myshkin. His character is the experiment that Dostoevsky primarily wishes to run. An almost Christ-like figure evidently too perfect for this world. Quite probably the inspiration behind Forest Gump, but much more fleshed out, much more real, less two-dimensional, and much more believable.
If I take anything from this experiment it's that I shouldn't be like Prince Myshkin. I shouldn't even try. He was like half a person. We should be good, but we also need to have teeth. A good person who isn't strong, who can't be mean or aggressive when he needs to be just won't cut it.