/lit/ - Literature

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toaster !FFYOhIHmow Sat Oct 15 01:48:32 2011 No.2138461 [Reply] [Original]

I was rereading portions of Demons by Dostoevsky when I encountered this sentence by Stepan Trofimovich. "My friend, I've been lying all my life, even when I was telling the truth". The meaning of this sentence escapes me. In my attempt at understanding, I saw the meaning as similar to saying to myself "I am lazy", but not fully exploring the reasons behind my laziness. Still, this doesn't feel like a very satisfying analysis.

Curious about your ideas on this /lit/

>>	Anonymous Sat Oct 15 01:49:32 2011 No.2138463 I dunno, never read that shit. It could be that the truth is beyond human perception.

>>	toaster !FFYOhIHmow Sat Oct 15 01:53:32 2011 No.2138468 >>2138463 That is a good interpretation, reminds me of a character in the book, Tikhon, who says of Christ, "Who can embrace him who is unembraceable, who can grasp the whole of him who is infinite".

Anonymous Sat Oct 15 01:54:32 2011 No.2138470

My immediate interpretation is that though we believe we are speaking the truth at times, it is only true from our perspective. Or that opinions change over time and so sometimes in retrospect we appear to have been lying.

I haven't read the book though.

Anonymous Sat Oct 15 02:03:32 2011 No.2138482

Did you read the book carefully? Dostoevsky mocks Stepan Trofimovich mercilessly throughout the entire novel until the last chapters when he repents. He realizes that he was just posing as an intellectual and exiled radical and he gives up his faux-radical ideals.

toaster !FFYOhIHmow Sat Oct 15 02:04:32 2011 No.2138484

>>2138470
This is also a great interpretation, characters do go through changes in this book. Stepan Trofimovich is on his deathbed at this point, and he was perhaps one of the most ideal spewing characters in the book. I can see him looking back in shame over the many ideas he let loose.

>>	toaster !FFYOhIHmow Sat Oct 15 02:06:32 2011 No.2138486 >>2138482 Ah, yeah I realized Stepan was in many ways a symbol of the 1840's idealistic man that supports the western european life. And what you say makes much sense. Forgot about his self-imposed ideas of being an exiled radical, haha.

>>	toaster !FFYOhIHmow Sat Oct 15 02:24:32 2011 No.2138497 Would love to watch a movie or some form of visual interpretation of the book. If anyone has suggestions, please respond!

>>	twattle !EA3bdMFX0. Sat Oct 15 03:18:32 2011 No.2138591 >>2138470 Good job, i was just posting that.

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