#ITS FYODOR PAVLOVICH

[possessedbydevils]

Guess who started reading TBK!!!! Loving it so far and l had to draw some characters, l wish Dosto gave more information about them but it's fine (also: designs inspired by @gegengestalt)

[bookfirstlinetourney]

Round 1

It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.

-Mortal Engines, Phillip Reeve

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

-The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov was the third son of a landowner from our district, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, well known in his own day (and still remembered among us) because of his dark and tragic death, which happened exactly thirteen years ago and which I shall speak of in its proper place.

-The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky

[thecompanionmoth]

"Book One: A Nice Little Family" Thoughts (Brothers Karamazov)

I think having that title for this particular book is quite fitting as the entirety of it pertains to setting up the main family of the story. In regards to the actual story telling, this is strikingly different from the other two works I have read by Dostoevsky, White Nights and Crime and Punishment. Those are similar to one another, whereas Brothers Karamazov stands out; not just because of its popularity, but what makes it popular—that is something that I not only will focus on, but have to focus on when reading. Family as a motif being relayed and explained through Dostoevesky’s compelling narrative in the Brothers K is immediately, in my mind, going to leave an impression upon me. Although it has taken almost a month for me to sit down and finish the first book, I have another feeling that it will be easier to read from this point onwards. 

Now, as for the actual story of Book One, there are some things that struck me as things that could contribute to the overall tale. But before I get into that, I want to say that the first couple of chapters are quite funny. This might have something to do with something mentioned in the translator’s note (Peaver and Volokhonsky translation, Bicentennial edition). Which is that their aim was to capture Dostoevsky’s original bleak comedy of the Brothers K. And immediately that goal came true. I had to take a moment to contain myself as I was in a library, when I was ready about Fyodor’s outrageous life and personality. 

That was really the only moment in the whole book that I laughed, though, because I ended up moving on to focus on the establishment of the brothers and their lives. The two that struck me the most are Dmitri and Alyosha. The former for his difficult life and aloof disposition, the latter for his contrast between his older brothers. Alyosha’s innocence or his youthful approach to life is something I can relate to. I can also really find myself understanding Dmitri as a person and the difficult relationship he has with Fyodor. With that in mind, I can see how Ivan would fit in nicely between them. He is definitely a character that my sister (the middle between me and our younger brother) would like. 

Not only are the characters and writing style interesting, yet echo Dostoevsky’s style that I am more familiar with, the combination of the two is a wonderful one, and I’ve enjoyed reading despite my slow pace. By having the story be told by—as far as I know—a local clergyman, that is a refreshing format than just third person narration. It adds ahe book where stage directions or other things were added to be a subtle nod to theatre in that book. But with Brothers K, it honestly feels not only cinematic, but actually Homeric. Me saying that could be a bias because that is a literary style that I am intimately familiar with as I have studied it in great detail. But the way that theatrical element that makes Dostoevsky’s work here much more cinematic than theatrical, which is something that I can attribute to Crime and Punishment. There were several instances in t the elder might be somehow influential and conciliatory.”

“Fyodor Pavlovich was apparently the first to suggest, apparently as a joke, that they all get together in the elder Zosima’s cell, and, without resorting to his direct mediation, still come to some decent agreement, since the dignity and personality of the elder might be somehow influential and conciliatory.”

To me, that echoes the gathering of followers and friends at Plato’s cell when he delivered his final few dialogues. I might be stretching, but even if it was intended, such a reference is rather cool and works well in the story and the Greek reference previously mentioned. There are some other things I highlighted regarding character details, fundamental things, that I feel might come up later. If they do, I will most certainly reference them. But for now, I am going to continue reading with Book Two, An Inappropriate Gathering!

[pwlanier]

The future emperor from the collection of the Counts of Stroganov

Rokotov Fyodor Stepanovich (1730s - 1808) "Portrait of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich." Early 1780s.

Oil on canvas, 63.7×53.6 cm (oval).

The portrait depicts Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (1777-1825) (since 1801 - Emperor Alexander I) with the Orders of St. Andrew the First-Called and St. Anna. The Grand Duke is dressed in a children's suit, the style of which was specially designed for her grandchildren by Empress Catherine II.

This iconographic type of portrait of the Grand Duke, designed by Rokotov, was extremely popular with his contemporaries and was repeatedly repeated by the artist. Its author's versions are known, stored in the State Russian Museum (ories from the English Palace in Peterhof), the Novgorod Museum-Reserve (ories from the Romanov Gallery of the Winter Palace), the State Historical Museum, the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum.

It is believed that this copy comes from the collection of the Counts Stroganov, and then was stored by the Roman collector and antiquarian Baron Vasily Karlovich Lemmerman (1894-1975). In 1976, his collection was sold at Christie's auction, where Rokotov's painting in question was purchased by the Roman antiquarian Sava Raskovic. Later, the picture was published in the book by I. Bocharova and Yu. Glushkova "Italian Pushkiniana" (Moscow, 1991, p. 310).

Expert opinion of TsKHE named after I.E. Repina (S.A. Podstanitsky).

Russian painter, the largest Moscow portraitist of Russian classicism of the reign of Catherine II, the author of the textbook portrait of the latter, who also compiled a portrait gallery of the Moscow nobility of this period. Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts (since 1765).

Litfund

[dankusner]

OPINION Myths are charming lies; facts replace them This election season, we should remember those warnings from childhood In Chapter 2 of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov , Father Zosima wisely suggests to Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov not to lie to himself. Zosima explains that a lying man only listens to his own lies. He can’t tell the difference between his own truth and the truth that surrounds him. Father Zosima says simply that such a man ceases to love. Fyodor Karamazov was born in wealth, but was in need, all of his life, of the love he was not given as a child. He married poorly, and inherited a fortune. Karamazov was a buffoon of modest intelligence. The richer he got, the bolder he became, learning to avoid his inner loneliness and replace it with cynicism and sarcasm. While his vigor for life was powerful, he distrusted truth and found solace only in sensual pleasures and in his own treasured ego. Karamazov offered little to his three sons, except to give them the tools of arrogance and survival skills to repel what truly mattered. Fyodor Karamazov’s motto was Après moi le deluge , “After me the flood.” He ignored civic duty and grew into a paranoid, manipulating old man who ruled by fear. He publicly stated that the world may burn as far as he was concerned if the world did not bend to his truth, to his lies, to his ego, to his need for adulation, and to his desperate need to be loved. When I was a boy, my mother told me about a wonderful old myth created inside the rich Native American culture. She said that there were once seven girls playing on the prairie when a bear arrived. To save themselves the girls climbed on a rock, and because the gods took pity on the girls, the rock bulged up from the ground so the bear couldn’t reach the frightened children. The persistent bear tried to climb this steep rock, making long gashes with his claws on the side of the stone. Just when the bear was about to leap to the top of the stone and devour the girls, all seven jumped up into the sky and formed the cluster of stars that today we call Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters. When the mind doesn’t understand something, the mind has to come up with an explanation. My grandmother was convinced that each time an Apollo spacecraft launched through the atmosphere, the storm out her window was a consequence of the disturbance. A child who does not know what a llama is might call it a camel. When people came upon the famous Devil’s Tower in Wyoming for the first time, it was so overwhelming, and so large, that they had to come up with a way to explain its existence. So they made up the myth about the seven sisters. They filled their minds with an answer and moved on. Science kills myths. Because of geologists, we know that the Devil’s Tower is the remaining plug of a volcano. Science tells us that once the cone of the volcano eroded, the core of lava cooled and formed this column of solid rock, hence the Devil’s Tower. Ancient myths are charming lies about what people did not understand. Facts replace myths. If myths replace facts we become easily manipulated. Toward the end of The Brothers Karamazov, Father Zosima warns that a lazy man in spirit survives by sharing the devil’s words against God. T.S. Eliot’s famous poem The Hollow Men chants with power “We are the hollow men / We are the stuffed men / Leaning together / Headpieces filled with straw.” The straw man had no brain, the tin man had no heart, and the lion was a bully and a coward. Science and sages have been cautioning us for centuries to beware of hollow men, querulous leaders and big lies. In 2024, we should heed their warnings. Christopher de Vinck’s 17th book, “Things that Matter Most: Home, Friendship, and Love,” was published by Paraclete Press. He is a contributing columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Correction: A Friday op-ed about the Israel-Hamas conflict gave the incorrect date of the Egypt-Israel peace deal. That agreement was signed in 1979.

[cream-and-nourishment]

murder be thy name

[getoapologist]

i’m reading the brothers karamazov at the same time as the jjk manga and its actually hilarious how much fyodor pavlovich reminds me of toji fushiguro. like he too is a malewife gold digger that abandons his children for the sake of being hot and dramatic. may i be vastly oversimplifying this russian classic of a main character and comparing him to a character in a modern horror manga? i actually think that may have been what fyodor dostoevsky would’ve have wanted

[samanthasrussialitblog]

10 Interesting Russian Novels

1. Fyodar Dostoevsky, David McDuff (Translator) - Crime and Punishment 

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden sex worker, can offer the chance of redemption. 

2.  Fyodor Dostoevsky,  Richard Pevear (Translation),  Larissa Volokhonsky (Translation) - Notes from a Dead House 

Sentenced to death for advocating socialism in 1849, Dostoevsky served a commuted sentence of four years of hard labor. The account he wrote afterward (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead) is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom and hope, but also of the feuds and betrayals, the moments of comedy, and the acts of kindness he observed. As a nobleman and a political prisoner, Dostoevsky was despised by most of his fellow convicts, and his first-person narrator--a nobleman who has killed his wife--experiences a similar struggle to adapt. He also undergoes a transformation over the course of his ordeal, as he discovers that even among the most debased criminals there are strong and beautiful souls. Notes from a Dead House reveals the prison as a tragedy both for the inmates and for Russia. It endures as a monumental meditation on freedom. 

3. Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoevsky,  Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator),  Fernando Otero (Translator),  Marta Sánchez-Nieves (Translator) - The Brothers

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.

4. Fyodor Dostoevsky,  Richard Pevear (Translator),  Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator) - Notes from Underground

One of the most remarkable characters in literature, the unnamed narrator is a former official who has defiantly withdrawn into an underground existence. In complete retreat from society, he scrawls a passionate, obsessive, self-contradictory narrative that serves as a devastating attack on social utopianism and an assertion of man’s essentially irrational nature.

5. David Benioff - City of Thieves 

During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

6.  Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear (Translation), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translation) - War's Unwomanly Face 

This book is a confession, a document and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than 500,000 Soviet women participated on a par with men in the Second World War, the most terrible war of the 20th century. Women not only rescued and bandaged the wounded but also fired a sniper's rifle, blew up bridges, went reconnoitering and killed... They killed the enemy who, with unprecedented cruelty, had attacked their land, their homes and their children.

7.  Simon Morrison - Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today

Vodka, Tolstoy and ballet are three main stereotypical symbols of Russia. Simon Morrison decided to unveil all the mysteries behind the curtains of Russia’s main ballet stage- the Bolshoi Theater.

8. Ivan Turgenev – Fathers and Sons (1862)

Fathers and Sons did what many other Russian novels did: pit the younger generation against the old. When Bazarov, a strict nihilist, challenges the well-established mores of Provincial life, he lures the naive towards his radical ideas. But when his beliefs get challenged by the unexpected appearance of passionate love and spirituality, he suffers a crisis that will force him to rethink his entire worldview.

9. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This short, harrowing, yet strangely hopeful masterpiece tells the story of a single day in the life of an ordinary Soviet labor camp inmate, of which there were tens of millions in the Soviet Union. Based on Solzhenitsyn’s personal experience as one of those prisoners, this book is authentic, full of rich detail, and devoid of sentimentality, which intensify its powerful emotional impact.

10. The Funeral Party - Lyudmila Ulitskaya

This English-language debut of one of contemporary Russia’s most important novelists describes the bizarre and touching interactions among a colorful cast of Russian émigrés living in New York who attend the deathbed of Alik, a failed, but well-liked painter. At once quirky and trenchant, The Funeral Party explores two of the biggest “accursed questions” of Russian literature—How to live? How to die?—as they play out in a tiny, muggy Manhattan apartment in the early 1990’s.

*Note- all summaries were copied from GoodReads.

[bealight1009]

Favorite Character Post: Ivan Karamazov

Name: Ivan Fyodorvich Karamazov

Book: Brother’s Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky is one of my favorite authors)

Position: Anti-hero/Protagonist 

Age: 23/24

Family: Fyodor Karamazov (Father)

             Alyosha (younger brother –share the same mother)

             Dimitry (older brother –share a different mother)

             Smerdyakov (brother –an affair (if you could call it that) of Fyodor Karamazov)

             Katerina Ivanova (object of his affection, though she pretends to love Dmitry)

Nationality: Russian

Time Period: Mid-1900s.  

Favorite Quotes: “I am too young and loved you too much…you’ve been tormenting me so consciously that I am unable to forgive you at the moment. Later I shall forgive...” 

“And cherry preserve? They have it here.  Do you remember how you loved cherry preserve at Polenov’s when you were little? 

“No one, by the way, ever died of hysterics.”

 “Me, laughing?  I wouldn’t want to upset my little brother who has been looking at me for three months with so much expectation.”

“Though I’m terribly fond of one Russian boy named Alyoshka.” 

“My dear little brother, its not that I want to corrupt you and punish you off your foundation; perhaps I want to be healed by you.”

 “It’s not that I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I must most respectfully return him the ticket.” (245)

 “You little plagiarist!” 

Thoughts:

Ah, Ivan Karamazov, a favorite of mine. I could write a book about him, but, for your sake, readers, I will not. Ivan Karamazov is the middle brother in The Brothers Karamazov, and it seems every literary analyst has something to say about him. His epic poem “The Grand Inquisitor” is regarded as a work of geniuses, though it bears a frightening amount of totalitarianism. Throughout the book, Ivan is troubled by the suffering in the world, and a good God. Therefore, he refuses to accept God’s world. He is a great thinker, and proposes a theory that “everything is permitted,” since God does not step in for His people. However, when someone uses Ivan's ideology to commit murder, Ivan feels responsible . Ivan is racked with such guilt that he develops brain fever. He is a tortured anti-hero. He has been classified as a villain, an atheist, and a madman, yet, he is more.

Our Ivan is a middle child. His father is Fyodor Karamazov, a man who loves to give himself up to debauchery and buffoonery. Ivan lived with this man for eight years, yet his father hardly knew he existed. Having Fyodor Pavlovich would certainly not be a blessing, and I imagine that poor little Ivan suffered emotionally while watching his father bring loose women into their home and become drunk every night. As for his mother, she was abused as a young girl and married Fyodor to escape (so their relationship certainly wasn’t healthy). When Ivan was four, she had another son, Alexi (Alyosha). Around this time, she also started having mental attacks that would leave her insane and shrieking. I think the fact that both his parents would not (or could not, in the case of his mother) care for him, is often overlooked. I mean, imagine being young and watching your father humiliate your mother, who would then lose cognitive ability and shriek. This definitely impacted Ivan –he’d need to learn to be independent, which is so sad to see in young children. Perhaps he’d feel alone; there would be no one to comfort him or protect him.

Once his mother died, he and his four year old brother were taken to live with his mother’s benefactress. Though she took them in, it seemed to be not because she wanted to, but because she felt it had to be done. For example, she called them orphans, and only allotted them 1000 rubbles a piece for all their education needs –anyone who would give them more she deemed would be “wasting their money.” Ivan old enough to hear this, and being extraordinarily intelligent, would have picked up on her disinterest in him and Alyosha. I imagine this is where his “gloomy and taciturn” nature started to form, as now not only did he not have a supportive parental figure, but he was unwanted. 

However, the two brothers did have a friend, a Mr. Polenov, who, when the grouchy old woman died, took the little boys under his wing. He didn’t touch their 1,000 rubbles wanting to save it for them when they came of age. It is mentioned that Ivan realized that he would forever be indebted to this man—which might have hurt his pride a bit. One important note is, while Polenov cared for both boys, he did favor Alyosha. Ivan went off to study out of town and lived with his professors. Speaking from experience, it’s a wounding thing to know that people like your younger sibling better than you. Poor Ivan!

He did make a very successful academic career for himself at the young age of 23, which is when the Brother’s Karamazov truly starts. Ivan has returned to his father’s house to act as a mediator between the old man and Ivan’s older brother Dimitry. 

Honestly, Ivan’s relationship with his father is messy. At times, Fyodor seems to like Ivan: he calls him his Karl Moor, and at times heeds his advice. However, at other times, he despises Ivan; he insults his son going even so far as to say he hated Ivan, and encouraged Alyosha to hate Ivan as well. 

Ivan’s relationship with his younger brother, Alyosha, is precious, despite what their father may want. Alyosha obviously likes Ivan, he is willing to defend him in front of their father, and in front of the prideful Katya. Ivan tells Alyosha that “I have no friends,” but he wants to try to be friends with Alyosha. (Though brothers, the two haven’t seen each other for about nine years). Ivan and Alyosha philosophize with each other and care for one another. Ivan even remembers that his little brother likes cherry preserve, and says that while he (Ivan) doesn’t like Russian boys, he is terribly fond of one Russian boy named Alyoshka. Aww! (He uses the diminutive of Alyosha’s diminutive!!!)

This post has been a lot, but it barely scratches Ivan. He a neglected genius, overshadowed by his younger brother, and terribly lonely.  Yet, the story ends with a bit of hope; he has Alyosha, and he has Katya, who has finally admitted her love for him. Ivan’ suffering and his intelligence, not to mention the love of mankind , make him one of my favorite character.  

[francesbeau]

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Thoughts on the book as a whole:

Combination of realism and philosophical symbolism. Showcases the detrimental effects of skepticism on the human character.

Fave Characters in each book:

Ivan 

Mitya

Aloysha 

Aloysha

Lise

Aloysha

Aloysha

Aloysha

Grushenka

Kolya

Ivan

Ivan 

Character Opinion: 

Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov: Complete embodiment of obnoxious epicurean-ism. It is his inclination to such epicurean sensuality that results in the logical course of his decline in religious faith. 

Aloysha: Exudes blissful serenity 

Ivan: the cold intellectual distance immediately made him an interesting character. He reacts to his frustration with an intellectually rigorous despair that intensifies his madness. It’s interesting and worrying that it was Ivan’s intelligence that caused his decent into madness. I really connected with Ivan and watching him disallow his own happiness was upsetting.  

Dmitri: Representative of effects of action based on emotion. Completely dominated by his passions. 

Lise: Fallen in love with the abstract concept of Disorder and consisntely allows her doubts to overwhelm and consume her. 

Individual Book Analysis:

Book One: I found the haphazard and comical style of writing an amazing and surprisingly unique way to begin such a heavy book, Dostoyevsky consistently captures comedy perfectly. I found the short interlude surrounding Sonya Ivanova so poignant and I thought it an amazing way to map out the precipitating events. 

Book Two: The heavy historical context surrounding the Russian orthodox church was not something I found myself interacting with analytically and, although necessary to the characterization of Aloysha I found myself getting pretty bored at its repetitiveness. 

Book Three: Mitya’s character really flourished in this book - “I loved the depravity, I loved the shame of depravity. I love cruelty.” / “Those loftier emotions of hers are as sincere as those of a heavenly angel!” These two quotes draw an ambivalence between him, on one hand he takes part in hedonistic corruptness, but on the other he is overly perceptive and caring of women. 

Book Four: Interesting and captivating and I enjoyed the philosophical enquirer of Zosima and how faith pertains to a genial following of a truth. Not much else too analyse. 

Book Five: This is my favorite so far, I felt so happy reading it despite the fact it is quite short. Ivan’s extrapolation of religion was highly engaging and very interesting. I loved this book. 

Book Six: The quiet wisdom of this book stands in contrast to the brooding and dark tremors of Ivan in Book V. 

Book Seven: Although a lot happened in this book I felt very bored. 

Book Eight: Mitya is just so weird, I really do not like him. 

Book Nine: The question of whether Dmitri is guilty symbolically represents the greater question of whether human nature is fundamentally good or sinful, very interesting way to explore this. I actually really dislike Mitya omg. This is getting so good though, cannot put it down. 

Book Ten: The reference to Voltaire in chapter six was enjoyable. The fact Aloysha is known by the boys already introduces the motif that faith and religion can be passed down as if it were a legacy.  Kolya is so great, I hope we see more of his character within the next books. 

Book Eleven: I love Lise so much and her miserable behavior here makes her a parody of Ivan. Her self pity also showcases how she cannot reach the lofty ideals of Despair that Ivan can.  “I shall always love you dreadfully for having allowed me not to love you” / “I wish some man would torment me, deceive me and leave me”. So glad Ivan is back! -  His breakdown towards the end is a result of the collision between the psychology of doubt and the idea of moral responsibility. 

Book Twelve: Part 4 of this book is so addictive, wow. A really interesting use of an anticlimax. 

[possessedbydevils]

Pavel and his gay voice

[allbestnet]

What books do you recommend reading for college students?

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This classic work is a monumental, integrated view of man's search for an understanding of the inner reaches of the mind. In an account that is both exhaustive and exciting, the distinguished psychiatrist and author demonstrates the long chain of development,through the exorcists, magnetists, and hypnotists,that led to the fruition of dynamic psychiatry in the psychological systems of Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung.

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[buzzdixonwriter]

Literary vs Genre Fiction

On his Facebook page, David Gerrold recently posted a link to an article on how mainstream readers won’t read genre fiction as closely as they read mainstream or literary fiction.

The reaction to the article seems to be mostly misguided, thinking it accuses science fiction as a genre of being stupid.

That is a misreading:   The article describes an experiment in which non-genre readers (the genre being sci-fi in this instance) are given two virtually identical passages to read, both about coming into a room to have a meal with someone, only one was set in the contemporary world while the other was set in a sci-fi world -- at least insofar as non-essential details, such as swapping “airlock” for “door”, etc.

For the most part, the readers stopped paying close attention once they encountered genre jargon.

As well they should.

What is being described is not a reflection of sci-fi as a genre, but of genre fiction as a whole.

If one is reading a non-genre story (and we’ll get into what marks the difference in a moment), one pays close attention because one does not know when and where information important to the story will come in.

And I’m not just talking raw info dump, either.  The very manner in which two characters interact over a meal, the way others around them behave, indeed, the very setting can supply a vital but understated insight into their relationship and how they will react to the story as it unfolds.

To use an electrical engineering term, it’s signal, not noise.

But in the example cited, it’s exactly the opposite:  “Airlock” and other sci-fi terms are noise blocking the signal.

Now, this is not to say there can’t be examples of genre fiction where having a meal isn’t vital to the plot:  How do you poison someone in a crowded restaurant?  How to you feed the crew of a starship on a year long voyage?  For that matter, how do you feed a bunkhouse full of cowboys?

But in all those cases, what the genre reader is looking for is quite different from what the mainstream or literary reader is looking for.

True, every story can be shoehorned into some genre or another.  A perfect example is Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov; it is very much a whodunit:  “Who killed the brothers’ father and why?”

Standard murder mystery plot, no?  Dead father, and 3.5 brothers (read the book) who, individually and collectively, had means, motive, and opportunity to kill him.

Here we enter spoiler territory:  One of the brothers is eventually convicted of the crime.  Again, standard murder mystery plot.

But the twist is there is ample evidence that one of the other brothers committed the crime.

Once more, standard murder mystery plot.  Raymond Chandler’s private eye Philip Marlowe had more than one case unravel after the fact, revealing the pat answer he thought he had was actually based on false assumptions.

To that degree, Chandler -- much more so than most of his contemporaries -- actually wrote stories that can unabashedly be counted as literary fiction, escaping the confines of genre.

The Long Goodbye is my favorite Chandler book, and it ends on a sad, disheartening note as Marlowe realizes he has been used and abandoned by a man whom he once considered a friend, and for whom the detective was willing to go to great lengths and suffer much to clear his honor.

The movie ends with a much more concrete -- yet still excellent -- resolution than the book, but the film’s ending can be inferred from Chandler’s prose.

But here comes the crucial point:  The twist in The Long Goodbye comes after the crime has been “solved”.  Until the twist is revealed, the reader assumes along with Marlowe that the mystery has been solved correctly.

The genre aspect -- the mystery, the whodunit -- remains intact.  Even with a twist, the crime is not truly solved until the end of the story.

That’s what readers in the mystery genre expect.

But with The Brothers Karamazov, the information that there is an entirely plausible culprit other than the one on trial is presented and allowed to pass with no action taken.  The reader is given a chance to resolve the mystery in their own judgment and not rely on the plot to explain it to them.

The murder mystery, at that point, has become superfluous; it is entirely unimportant which of the 3.5 brothers actually committed the crime.  The new conundrum is:  “Why would the accused murderer accept the blame for a crime for even he is not completely convinced he committed?”

The answer, of course, is what makes The Brothers Karamazov so fascinating:  The long, complicated, complex, and contradictory relationship of Fyodor Pavlovich  Karamazov and his 3.5 sons; the characters of those sons; and why one of them would seek to explicate their sins through a conviction for a crime for which they may not be truly guilty.

There is a major weakness with genre story telling:   True, there are rousing yarns to be told, and a good writer can produce stirring pose than transcends the story it serves, but at its core, genre fiction thrives on reassuring readers, by feeding them pat answers to complex problems.  Genre fiction is populated almost entirely by battalions of Mary Sues, and while some of them can be unique and fascinating in their own right, ultimately all of them are wish fulfillments of readers’ inner fantasies.  James Bond, Modesty Blaise, John Shaft, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Philip Marlowe, these are all idealized fantasies for readers and media audiences no matter how well executed those stories or films may be.

While we may recognize aspects of ourselves in the various brothers Karamazov, none of us actually want to be them.

That is the line of demarcation between literature and genre fiction.  We approach genre fiction with a set of expectations we want fulfilled; literature presents us with a set of paradoxes we’re invited to resolve.

Nothing stops genre fiction from being good writing, nothing prevents literature from using themes and ideas found in genre fiction (MacBeth is the greatest sword and sorcery story ever penned).

There’s no judgment call here; I am as fond of my favorite genres as the next person.

Point of fact, the shelves behind me are right now are crammed with 1950s & 60s sci-fi novels, James Bond books, and a complete run of Lone Wolf And Cub.

But at my elbow are collections of Harlan Ellison’s stories and essays.  And downstairs there’s an entire shelf devoted to the works of Charles Bukowski.

The collected poems of Emily Dickinson, Allen Ginsberg, and Bertolt Brecht share shelf space with Robert Service and Shel Silverstein.

Raintree County sits next to Gone With The Wind.

Good writing makes you hungry for more.

Good genre fiction is like a tour guide who takes you to all the famous places you’ve heard about and want to visit.

Good literary fiction invites you into uncharted territory.

 © Buzz Dixon

movie poster by Jack Davis for The Long Goodbye (1973)