/lit/ - Literature

the finest choice

If I'm a former Christian but struggling agnostic, should I give this book of fiction a read? Is it really that spiritually profound as some suggest?

>I would give a quadrillion quadrillions for two seconds of joy.

This is getting to complex, there's no way he's going to wrap up all these characters and yet he keeps introducing them....

>Dostoyevsky intended it to be the first part in an epic story titled The Life of a Great Sinner, but he died less than four months after its publication.

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?

SAY MY NAME LIT

>started reading as a no friends 18 year old healthy virgin
>still reading as a no friends 24 year old Bi-Polar Schizophrenic virgin with an alcohol problem, but much more patrician

In Brothers Karamazov (SPOILERS) we have 3 protagonists, who embody reason (Ivan), passion (Dimitri) and morality/ethics (Alyosa) ordered in a circle of some sort: ethics succumb to reason (Dimitri's punishment is unreasonable, so Alyosha tries to save him), reason succumbs to passion (Ivan goes insane) and passion succumbs to morality (Dimitri plans, but doesn't kill his father), so basically, Dostojevski invented pokemon (fire, water, grass), also morality "resists" passion (Alyosa does, what he think is right, not what he wants), reason "resists" morality (Ivans philosophical views could be deemed immoral or rather blasphemic) and passion "resists" reason (Dimitri doesn't plan his action but rather decides on the spot).
Could this be a valid interpretation of the novel?

Which books have you read?
What's your favorite book?
Favorite character?
Favorite scene?

>Squidward's father never hugged him... isn't that sad?

So, I've just finished reading pic related. Anyone want to talk about it? There's nothing in particular I want to talk about really, but I just thought it would be good to discuss it. It's that post-book excitement.

A few immediate thoughts:
- I was surprised by Dostoyevsky's seemingly (or at least often) pro-religious stance in the novel. It was almost too much of a morality tale at times; I was expecting something a bit more bleak.
- The ending too was surprisingly upbeat. Again, I was expecting something more miserable, but Alyosha's speech to the boys at the end was almost too positive.
- I thought a lot of the side-characters were more distinguishable than some of the main ones. The thoughts and speeches of the three brothers (and their father), for example, often seemed quite similar to one another at different points. I understand the need for character development in a 1000+ page book, but sometimes their worldviews and philosophies weren't particularly distinctive enough by the middle section. Anyone else feel that?
- Too many monologues. All those speeches got a bit tiresome at times.

But overall, a solid 9/10. Really enjoyed the ride and loved all of the characters on the whole. A lot of the minor characters were great - Rakitin, Snegiryov, Kolya, Grushenka etc.

Anyway, anyone fancy talking about the novel? I feel like I need to brainstorm it out a little.

First time reading TBK, loving it, and i just read the chapter Rebellion. I found it to be very interesting and would like to hear your thoughts?

Is it pronounced Smerdyákov or Smerdyakóv? Where does the accent fall?

A friend and I have been trying to figure it out for about fifteen minutes.

/lit/, Am i a fool for purchasing this? I knew a bit about Dotoevsky. I read his novel Notes from Underground... I've read books before that challenged me, the most recent being My Atonia. But honestly i would consider my favorite novels right now to be all by Kurt Vonnegut. Im kind of entry level when it comes to a novel like Brothers K...

Upon doing some research, this novel seems a bit... "above me"... Honestly speaking, truly, how hard is it to read and fully understand this novel? I hear about people reading it during their senior years of college and putting it down to try again when they are 50 and a bit wiser.

Shit scares me man... shit scares me...

Huge Tolstoy fan here. I can't decide if I should read Brothers Karamazov for the first time or reread War & Peace/Anna Karenina for, like, the fourth time.

Nabokov said some bad things about it. And Freud said some great things about it, but Freud arguably ruined literature.

/thread

Does this count?

Read this. You're fighting the wrong battle.

Ok, so...who do you think killed Fyodor? Was it Dmitri or Smerdyakov?
I've been thinking and I believe Smer is the culprit.
Also, discuss about the book.

'lo /lit/

I'm trying to get some things off my backlog and The Brothers Karamazov has been sitting on the list for a while now. Is there a translation that really stands out as being the best?

Thanks!

i see there's already a thread of it,
but i just finished this and
is it now one of the greatest books of all time?
yeah it is.

Howz dis?

Just finished this. It's hard to dislike an 800 page book once you've read it, because, I mean, will you really spend so much time on something you don't enjoy at least a little? But I really enjoyed this.
It's been too long since I've read Crime and Punishment to fairly judge the two against each other, but I think this was better.