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/lit/ - Literature

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4503768 No.4503768[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

I've been doing a close reading of Andrei Bely's "Petersburg" for some time and feel like taking a break to read something else. Have any of you done this? Is it a good idea? Is any comprehension of the work's nuances and ideas lost? "Petersburg" is easily my favorite piece of literature but I am afraid of losing interest in pursuing a thorough understanding of it over a longer period of time.

On a related note, how is "The Silver Dove"?

>> No.4503785

probably, but who cares? you're gonna lose it all in like 4 months anyways

>> No.4503804

>>4503785

I have a very retentive memory. I am not afraid of forgetting, say, the symbolism of "Petersburg" but rather the general nature and feeling of the novel, and consequently, when I return to it, discover that I've lost the thread of ideas that have run through the novel. I hope you understand what I'm saying.

>> No.4503810

I see that cerebral play is fucking with your mind too. Stop reading Bely now. He is simply bad for mental health.

>> No.4503829

>>4503810

I've certainly noticed that. It's as if I'm spinning in a vortex of half-meaningful symbols and historical allusions just to be mocked by the incomprehensible subtleties and views of the narrator's prose. The great irony here, perhaps, is that my post is itself an example of pure cerebral play. Nothing in what you said suggested anything of what I said. And just like Apollon ,in front of whom "the illusion of a room took form" (39, Penguin Classics), what is merely "a hammering in the temples" (39) I perceive as the outpourings of a soul just like mine. But, I believe, here lies the grim lesson of Petersburg: we are alone.

I certainly understand what you're saying but no novel has made me feel what Petersburg has. I feel that in these uncertainties and subjectivities lies the objective truth; and these uncertainties, dialectically, only underline this objectivity.

>> No.4505272

I went through the same feelings somemonths ago when I read it OP, and I said fuck it,I'mjust going to finish this. I still liked it very much, I was lucky to have already read a bit of Steiner so I get that part of it a bit... which is really not that complicated, Steiner is very easy to read.

>> No.4505325

from the way you're talking about it, i wouldn't read anything in between. all that could do is take away from the book, at best it would be neutral. if you really need a break, i'd either read nothing for a while or else read absolutely trash fiction.

also, i think i'll read it now, is there anything i should know going in (like preferable translations, historical event knowledge etc)?

fwiw, i had similar feelings when i was reading proust's remembrance, i got about 3/7ths of the way through and then stopped to take a break. i haven't revisited it for 2 years now, but honestly it's 90% because i forgot what page number i was on (which is why i'm mentioning this tid-bit at the bottom here, i don't think you'll face the same issue.)