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The Brothers Karamazov
I love this episode with Madame Hohlakov and the gold mines. First, it’s such a brilliant way to get rid of the inane Dmitri. Second, it’s so wonderfully Jane Austen-like. But I wonder what Dostoyevsky means by it. (I know I keep saying this.) The notion of all Dmitri’s problems being solved by wealth derived from resource exploitation. That bit about the modern, emancipated women of the future. Hohlakov actually has a point, but what does Dostoyevsky think of her point? It certainly is at variance with utopian Christianity -- and it seems to be related to the shock of Zossima’s reversal of fortune. I think Dostoyevsky actually prefers Dmitri’s (and Greshenka’s) doomed saving of each other.]
It occurs to me that Fyodor, the father, is the apotheosis of Ivan’s nihilist ideas. Ivan proclaims wild ideas but is the mildest of men. Dmitri is a creature of impulse and emotion. But Fyodor is the one without morals, who lives a completely materialistic and amoral life. He is what Zossima and Dostoyevsky see as the result of a secular world view. And what “divine” justice to have him slain by his bastard child.
And what does the similarity between Zossima and Dmitri mean? (I'm thinking here of Zossima before the duel and his becoming a monk.) Zossima doesn’t quite say it, but the reason he bows to Dmitri is that he sees, in Dmitri, himself at the time of his great awakening (or was it the Mysterious Visitor he saw. Maybe both). But Dmitri remains an impulsive oaf to the end. For all his good qualities, he is and will always be a loose canon. Katerina and Grushenka (and Dostoyevsky) are eager to accommodate and follow him, but that is because of that perplexing (to me) desire for “laceration.” Christianity either fuels this or takes advantage of this trait in people.
p476 [I’ve been skipping through sections with enough plot to cause Mann to faint in despair, but this exchange is worth noting. Andrey is the peasant driving Dmitri through the night in search of Grushenka who has gone to meet her “officer”] “Faster, Andrey! Faster” Dmitri cried again.
“May I ask you something, sir?... Only I’m afraid of making you angry, sir.”
“What is it?”
“Well, Fenya threw herself at your feet just now, and begged you not to harm her mistress... So you see, sir . . . I am taking you there . . . Forgive me sir, it’s my conscience...”
Dmitri suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders from behind.
“Are you a driver?” he asked frantically.
“Yes, sir . . .”
“Then you know that one has to make way for people. What would you say about a driver who wouldn’t make way for anyone, but would just drive on and crush people? No, a driver mustn’t run over people. One can’t run over a man. One can’t spoil people’s lives. And if you have spoiled a life -- punish yourself . . . If you’ve spoiled, if you’ve ruined anyone’s life -- punish yourself and go away.”
Dmitri is talking about himself and “making way” for the officer, Grushenka’s first love. But how in hell is poor Andrey supposed to understand this? I first read this from Andrey’s point-of-view and was completely confused.
[Dmitri to Andrey] ...“Tell me, will Dmitri Karamazav go to hell, or not? What do you think?”
...
p477 “So you see, sir, who it is hell’s for,” [“the mighty of the earth, the rulers, the chief judges, and the rich men...”] said Andrey... “But you’re like a little child . . . That’s how we look on you . . . And though you’re quick tempered, sir, yet God will forgive you for your kind heart.”
“And you, do you forgive me, Andrey?”
“What should I forgive you for, sir? You’ve never done me any harm.”
“No, for everyone, for everyone. You here alone, on the road, will you forgive me for everyone? Speak, simple peasant heart!”
“Oh, sir! I’m afraid. Your talk is so strange.”
But dmitri did not hear. He was frantically praying and muttering to himself..
“Lord, receive me, with all my lawlessness, and do not condemn me, for I have condemned myself. Do not condemn me, for I love Thee O Lord. I am a wretch, but I love Thee. If Thou sendest me to hell, I shall love Thee forever and ever. . . . But let me love to the end. . . . I love her and I can not help loving her. Thou seest my whole heart. . . . I shall gallop up, I shall fall before her and say:
You are right to pass on and leave me. Farewell and forget your victim . . . Never torment yourself about me!’ ”
Small Victories
"Falling Better"
Great title. What is life but learning to fall better. Of course you could put an interesting twist on that if you capitalized the “Fall.” The idea that religion may be man’s greatest invention is growing on me. It is no less irritating that humans will believe literally any story you can dream up, but that people choose to believe the “good” stuff about themselves and their nature -- and against all evidence to the contrary -- is at least impressive.
p231 We celebrated Good Friday that night. It's such a sad day, all loss and cruelty, and you have to go on faith that the light shines in the darkness, and nothing, not death, disease, not even the government, can overcome it. I hate that you can't prove the beliefs of my faith. If I were God, I'd have the answers at the end of the workbook, so you could check to see if you're on the right track as you go along. But nooooooo. Darkness is our context, and Easter's context: without it, you couldn't see the light. Hope is not about proving anything. It's choosing to believe this one thing, that love is bigger than any grim bleak shit anyone can throw at us.
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