The children thought lions, and there were lions
Interesting because there's no way children could think of the landscape in high enough resolution for it to seem realistic to adults. So the nursery renders what its subjects want to see but not specifically what they imagine. Or, it induces its subjects into a shared dream-like state (like how things seem so real and high resolution in dreams but couldn't possibly be)
When I punished him a month ago by locking the nursery for even a few hours
Kind of a weak way to do character exposition, the convenient dialogue that comes across slightly unrealistic
The hot straw smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the smell of dust like a red paprika in the hot air. And now the sounds: the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod, the papery rustling of vultures
Has me thinking about an immersive virtual reality experience where you can feel like you're actually in an African veldtland and smell those smells, with no risk of being eaten alive. And a library of other such rare spectacles. A killer product, I'd get one.
VELDT
open, uncultivated country or grassland in southern Africa. It is conventionally classified by altitude into highveld, middleveld, and lowveld.
But I didn’t feel like I was inside anything.
What does this mean?
I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise, and which I now despise.
Say the lawyer knew for many years that he didn't want the money. He could've walked out long ago, yet he did not. Is this to say his contempt for humanity had grown to such a point that his remaining in the cell was preferable to freedom?
I throw away two millions
Cavalierly betting two million with a stranger reveals how unstable his financial success was all along.
the caprice of a well-fed man;
A man who he is no longer
a garden-wing
Ostensibly worse than a prison cell, what with the taunting of chirping birds outside each morning.
Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom
The lawyer is clearly insane to imprison himself for years to prove a point. The lawyer is a deeply opinionated individual, and [SPOILER] probably had anti-humanistic sentiments before ever entering his cell.
In the fifth year, music was heard again
Chekhov's gun: what doesn't add to the story must be left out. We skip 3 years with not a detail because it just isn't relevant.
The banker found it strange
Interesting that there is little mention of the happenings of the banker's life during this 15 year period. Why?
The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages
Among the 6 the lawyer learned must be German – at least it would be that way for me. Half of everything I want to read but can't is in German.
, quite haphazard.
Why do we suppose he read in this manner during his last two years?
In the prisoner's room a candle was burning dim
The candle is a symbol for the prisoner's dwindling faith in humanity or whatever. So this sentence can be read in a non-literal sense. Or as a double entendre.
In your books I climbed the summits of Elbruz and Mont Blanc and saw from thence how the sun rose in the morning, and in the evening overflowed the sky, the ocean and the mountain ridges with a purple gold.
The magic of literature. I get this majestic feeling sometimes.
You would marvel if by certain conditions there should suddenly grow on apple and orange trees, instead of fruit, frogs and lizards, and if roses should begin to breathe the odour of a sweating horse
Speaks to how surprises excite our attentions. Connect this to social media and the news I guess. Negative content and outrage thrives online. But there are people who marvel at the everyday miracle of life. It's just not as natural.
What about human nature makes eliciting outrage so lucrative? I had an answer for this many years ago but seem to have forgotten.
You would marvel if by certain conditions there should suddenly grow on apple and orange trees, instead of fruit, frogs and lizards, and if roses should begin to breathe the odour of a sweating horse
Speaks to how surprises excite our attentions. Connect this to social media and the news I guess. Negative content and outrage thrives online. But there are people who marvel at the everyday miracle of life. It's just not as natural.
What about human nature makes eliciting outrage so lucrative? I had an answer for this many years ago but seem to have forgotten.
In your books I climbed the summits of Elbruz and Mont Blanc and saw from thence how the sun rose in the morning
The magic of literature. I get this majestic feeling sometimes.
In the prisoner's room a candle was burning dim
The candle is a symbol for the prisoner's dwindling faith in humanity or whatever. So this sentence can be read in a non-literal sense. Or as a double entendre.
He read as though he were swimming in the sea among the broken pieces of wreckage
Why do we suppose he read in this manner during his last two years?
The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages;
Among the 6 the lawyer learned must be German – at least it would be that way for me. Half of everything I want to read but can't is in German.
The banker found it strange that a man who in four years had mastered six hundred erudite volumes
Interesting that there is little mention of the happenings of the banker's life during this 15 year period. Why?
In the fifth year,
Chekhov's gun: what doesn't add to the story must be left out. We skip 3 years with not a detail because it just isn't relevant.
Agreed. You stake two millions, I my freedom,
The lawyer is clearly insane to imprison himself for years to prove a point. The lawyer is a deeply opinionated individual, and [SPOILER] probably had anti-humanistic sentiments before ever entering his cell.
a garden-wing
Ostensibly worse than a prison cell, what with the taunting of chirping birds outside each morning.
the caprice of a well-fed man
A man who he is no longer
I throw away two millions.
The levity with which he bet two million dollars with a stranger weighs heavy on the banker. He's revealed later to have made his money on the stock market, so consider how unstable his currently financial success may be, if he makes bets so cavalierly.
It's better to live somehow than not to live at all."
The irony of this after the ending.
I waive the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise, and which I now despise
Say the lawyer knew for many years that he didn't want the money. He could've walked out long ago, yet he did not. Is this to say his contempt for humanity had grown to such a point that his remaining in the cell was preferable to freedom?
The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his study,
i.e. pacing around anxiously. But why? What occurred at this party?
During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished
A comment on form. This is a cool first sentence. "Professional fasting" is such a ridiculous concept that it intrigues the reader to continue. It also hints at Kafka's trademark surrealism.
A HUNGER ARTIST
I almost feel like I should've chosen another story because I feel some blockage in coming up with comments. I have thoughts, they're just not forming sentences right now.
repast
a meal.
Answer that, sincerely and honestly I will tell you who do: fools and worthless fellows
My impression is that he's envious of people who found direction in their lives since he "did not know how to become anything."
Our author is one who believes he is intelligent, and by all means could be, yet is in truth very spiteful because of the emptiness of his existence.
very many elements absolutely opposite to that.
What elements would be opposite to spite? Positive humanistic feelings. Good grace, care for your fellow man, a desire for upwards striving. Being a man of character.
Yet he denounces "men of character" in the very next paragraph. He finds them morally reprehensible.
Why did he "purposely not let them come out" even in his youth? Why do they sicken him?
spleen
"bad temper; spite" not the organ
pay out
Clarification: does he mean he can't hurt the doctors by not seeing them?
That you probably will not understand
Not a pretentious remark but instead a qualification. The author is aware he exists at the fringe, and he does us the courtesy of explicating this idea of spite.
I am a sick man.
Noteworthy to me that the author begins with these lines. I am sick. I am spiteful. I am unattractive.
While journaling you start with your current thoughts and proceed from there. In my experience at least.
It's possible the author is just in an irritated state of mind before penning this first entry, and what follows is not representative of who he normally is.
He is one of the representatives of a generation still living
I wonder if this is still the case. I also wonder if Dostoyevsky intended to say that this line would always be true when he wrote this in the 1860s.
As we proceed I want to get a better idea of 1. What kind of person the author of this diary is. 2. If that kind of person still exists in 2022 and to what degree. 3. What conditions of society create such an individual.
NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND
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