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/lit/ - Literature

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13075643 No.13075643 [Reply] [Original]

>professor says Tolstoy is better than Dostoevsky
>call him a pleb and get out of class early
>next day he hands out assignment
>have to write 200 word essay on who is better Tolstoy or Dostoevsky
>mfw it's due tomorrow and I've read nothing by either author

I'm fucked.

>> No.13075651

Go full Wittgenstein mode and grab any book by Tolstoy (preferably the Gospel in Brief) and whack people over the head with it while shouting loudly.

>> No.13075659

>>13075643
Tolstoy has more thought, Dostoevsky has more heart.

>> No.13075664

Murder your teacher with an ax and hide his possessions.

>> No.13075685

>>13075643
Kek, you got pwnt
>>13075664 is your only solution now

That or just submit "Dostoyevsky" and 200 words of the Brothers Karamazov as your essay

>> No.13075689

>>13075651
Hot Ziggity!

>> No.13075697

Soul vs Souless

>> No.13075699

>>13075643
200?ugotoffeasy

>> No.13075743

>>13075689
kek

>> No.13075752

>>13075643
Read the first chapters of War and Peace and Notes from the Underground

Shouldn't take you more than 2 hours

>> No.13075753

>>13075643
>200 pages.
Mate, just pseud your way out of it. Not like an actualy decent argument could be written out in 200 pages.

>> No.13075774

>>13075643
I could write a 200 word essay on anything if I had a day. Obviously you won't know if you're writing pure bullshit but just google dosto vs tolstoy and I'm sure you'll find people comparing their work. Read for a few hours and then plagiarize a composite.

>> No.13075846

>>13075643
While both authors have their merits, few writers have ever captured the parochial voice of primal storytelling like Dostoyevski. Take for example the introduction of The Brothers Karamozov. By introducing the story so naturally as merely a story heard (, but which also the author can verify in parts,) the philosophical/moralistic commentary becomes neither subtext nor metaphor, but part of the narrative structure itself. Compare this to The Death of Ivan Illyich. Both are driven by the question of what is a good life, and yet while Tolstoy's work leaves the reader with a definite sens of an "answer", Dostoyevski manages to put forward his own ideas plainly while leaving the work as a whole a question, rather than a statement. Regardless of which outlook you find more compelling, you must admit that Dostoyevski's use of language is far more complex and sophisticated, while at the same time conveying a sense of the simple and ordinary, versus Tolstoh which can only be read with a sense of heavy intellectualism.

>> No.13075887

>>13075846
Based anon helping OP btfo his professor.

>> No.13075898

>>13075643
skim the most famous work of both and do surface level caparisons of their style and thought

>> No.13075906

>>13075643
200 words? What, are you in middle school?

>> No.13075907

>>13075887
Careful though. You're going to have to follow it up for the rest of the semester, and your professor will hate you. Also, he will quickly realize that this is not your normal writing style. I suggest not using it. You're kind of fucked, but at least now you know you could have had an answer you actually read books.

>> No.13075908

Your teacher is right anon. Only edgy underageb& christlarpers disagree

>> No.13075916

>>13075908
>dostoyevki edgier than Tolstoy
Ouchy

>> No.13075999
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13075999

>>13075643
Research hierophany and write about the manifestation of the sacred in Dostoevsky's work, i.e. the experience of the numinous in literature.
Tolstoy is the better stylist (though Dostoevsky's roughness is overstated, sometimes he writes very beautifully, it's just that he is uneven). The only way to argue then is to write about the religious/spiritual/sacred set pieces in Dostoevsky's work, which I sincerely believe outdo Tolstoy. Dosto had a special talent present in scenes like the horse murder in C&P and The Grand Inquisitor that I don't think Tolstoy ever topped. Both of those have a very mystical and effecting feeling to them that I never had in Tolstoy, though I was more impressed with him as a technically skilled artist. That should give you plenty of ammunition for 200 words.

>> No.13076005

>>13075643
Read DFW's short essay "Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky," he talks about some of the things that make Dosto special in it.

>> No.13076263

>>13075643
just like any paper, simply repeat your thesis in as many ways as you can think of until you reach the required limit, and then, having not arrived a a clear conclusion, merely state that while no clear option has presented itself, it was still worthwhile considering all aspects equally important

>> No.13076413

Invtis friend high skool writings advice forum AAAH 405x1184835 & g crime and pumice meat
Jesus died?for this!

>> No.13076418

>>13076413
>pumice meat
yummy

>> No.13076461

>>13075643
>professor says Tolstoy is better than Dosto
>calls him a pleb
>read nothing written by them
Why people do this?

>> No.13076468

>>13075774
Based