#darya pavlovna shatov

[rotatiffantome]

so many gay people here call it a pride parade

[catcoffeeenjoyer]

The main Demons six, as always lmao

But this time it’s me attempting a new style

[plutorine]

Thoughts on Demons (2014)

this was originally going to be part of my demons (2014) thread on my twitter, but i'll just be dumping my thoughts about the series here on tumblr. i'll continue where i left off from where i closed the thread.

spoilers below the cut. there will be triggering content as well (suicide, mention of blood). don't expect this to be coherent. also i haven't read the book yet (oooh when i tell you about how desperate i am in getting a copy here in the PH), so yeah.

long read ahead.

okay. the last scene i watched last night was liza nikolaevna (and mavriky) getting beaten by the townspeople after the death of the lebyadkins due to her connection to stavrogin (and stavrogin being the main suspect of the siblings' death). did they really have to beat the poor girl? why must a woman (yet again) suffer from the misdeeds of a man HGKJDGFJGHDK

also pyotr,,, maniacally dancing in the pig pen....

man. the whole thing about shatov finally getting the chance to be a father and live with a family of his own only to be shot in the head by pyotr is just. :((( my jaw was on the floor i tell you. i was devastated and utterly wrecked.

the thing with demons (2014) is that it's on a different level of insanity than, say, c&p. c&p is depressing. demons wrecked me from start to finish. i cannot stress how many times the hairs on the back of my head stood up whenever pyotr would manipulate and rope in stavrogin in his plans.

it has the vibes of like,, trying so desperately to wash off blood from your hands but the blood just "magically" keeps on getting redder and redder and it doesn't really come off

also what the fuck was that pyotr??? mans just shot shatov in point-blank range and has the audacity to eat chicken (without washing his hands, to boot)??? like OH you going to HELL hell.

this scene with kirillov's lines:

i mentioned in the thread that i had to brush up on russian history before i read/watch demons because otherwise, it would just completely fly over my head

it was pretty interesting watching how this movement that pyotr was trying to mobilize fit the existing narrative then within the context of 19th century russian politics; demons was essentially dostoevsky "warning" of what could possibly be if people who thought like verkhovensky would get the upper hand in deciding the course of the russia's future

i admit i can't really speak about this because well, i'm not russian, but i deeply appreciate the how dostoevsky was able to weave all of this in his novel in such a way that leaves even me, a foreigner, in deep thought about what the implications of such an ideology would have on a wider context outside its country of origin

ok kirillov wtf HAHAHAHAHA ang gago niya XD

stavrogin's confession.

VILE. stavrogin you VILE, VILE, MAN. i don't have any words for it at all. raskolnikov ends up looking like a saint when i put him next to stavrogin.

on another note maksim matveev's teary-eyed face in that scene is so fucking beautiful i almost cried along with him

i seriously want to ask dostoevsky why he insists on making beautiful the characters that we're supposed to dislike/critique

heck even that notion warrants much introspection

like he's about to k-word himself but he still looks so hot? okay i need to stfu

i like the bit here with tikhon talking about revolutions and such:

this reminds me very much of my country's very own EDSA Revolution (there's EDSA Uno and Dos, but I'm talking more about EDSA Uno here because it's probably more relevant to the political state of my country rn). i won't go into depth about it, but you can check the wiki of it to get an idea of what i mean.

(they can be *gets shot*)

the ending scene. okay.

i talked about this w my twt moot and according to her, the most accepted theory is that the kid there (with dasha) is stavrogin's, and verkhovensky's reaction to seeing them there was like him getting the idea to continue his failed twisted plan, but with the kid in the place of his father. just. what the fuck man. leave that kid alone.

i was also told that this scene wasn't really in the book? yeah. so there's that.

concluding thoughts:

at this point i'm quite used to ruslit plots wrecking my mental state and subjecting me to emotions that make me want to stare at a wall, so this experience with watching demons (2014) was not as jarring as i feared it to be XD as expected, there were really some scenes that left me like "huh??? 🤨🤨", but really that's because i haven't read the book. what i plan to do is once i get the book, i'm gonna read it as i revisit the series.

also maksim matveev? yeah. that man is HOT hot. i could stare at his stavrogin all day if i could.

that's it for me! thank you to everyone who engaged with the thread, it made the experience of watching demons (2014) more enjoyable.

my next target watch on the dostoevsky adaptation list is the italian tbk film!! that or the 1968 russian one. will definitely make a live commentary thread about either on twitter as well.

[twostarsinonesphere]

ideal ending to demons: how about darya pavlovna and varvara petrovna find stavrogin just in time to stop him from killing himself and he's brought to trial for the lebyadkins' murder and also forced to face the consequences for every woman and girl he's abused and manipulated and psychologically destroyed and given the public humiliation that he had avoided for his entire life. how about that huh

[humanoid-lovers]

it is spelled out by his portrayal of different characters and made convincing by how the reader identifies with and understands A very thought provoking portrait of combating and extreme personalities. As in all Dostoevsky's works, there is a very clear message; it is spelled out by his portrayal of different characters and made convincing by how the reader identifies with and understands both the evil and good present in the characters. Go to Amazon

Doestoevky's Demons are still around Demons was more difficult to follow than Dostoevsky's other works. There are numerous characters that make minor appearances that come and go in the first half of the novel. Once you get the characters straightened out, the novel becomes engrossing. Dostoevsky is a master of plot structure and characterization. The intricacy and unfolding of the plot are well worth the time it takes to organize who's who. The main character, Stavrogin, presents a mysterious influence over the other characters and throughout the novel. Pyotr Stepanovich is the most relatable to today because of his overt hatred and nihilism. Dostoevsky's prescience and understanding of evil are unparalleled when comparing his stories to the actual history that occurred after his time. Go to Amazon

You must read Russian Warning--this is the Russian edition of Dostoevsky's master work written in 1871-72. It is a combination political plot revolutionary terrorism and characters who test their rational free will and another who wishes to replace Christ with himself. It is one of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, written after The Idiot and before "The Raw Youth," which was followed by the Brothers Karamazov. Go to Amazon

Fyodor haz teh Psych Chops Most of my life I have dealt with families distorted by addiction or personality disorders. While I entirely understand and appreciate that there is FAR more to this and to "The Brothers K." than psychology, yet I am dazzled at the accuracy of Dostoyevsky's depiction of such things and his weaving them into wonderful stories. Go to Amazon

Dostoyevsky's Demons Clarified When I read previous translations of Demons, the titles always were The Possessed, so in each case the translators obscured the novel's meaning. Now, I think, after reading Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation, I have been set straight. The demons, in part, are Puskin's goblins and witches, but in a much greater sense they are the lies (rationalism, materialism, anarchism, nihilism, atheism) that enter a man and woman's soul, and like the demons that came out of the man and entered the swine in Luke's Gospel, they drive the man or woman to destruction. Dostoyevsky connects the liberal idealists and freethinkers of 1840's Russia (they are the fathers and mothers) with the Nihilist Revolutionaries of the 1860's. He predicted the Bolshevik Revolution forty years before it happened, because he understood the essence of the revolutionary movement was not social Christianity but Nihilist destruction, from "unlimited freedom it would turn into unlimited despotism." Nikolai Stavrogin stands at the center of the novel, a sensualist, both good and evil, but more evil than good, because evil gives more pleasure. His demon is the thrill some find in danger, sadism, and moral depravity. Stavrogin is strikingly handsome and a taciturn aristocrat, so he is not without glamor. He is mentor to Ivan Shatov, a reformed Nihilist revolutionary, to Pyotr Verkhovensky, the Nihilist revolutionary leader, and to Kirillov, the man-godhead. The novel begins with Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky's story, he a liberal of the `40's who continues his rant under the sponsorship of Varvara Petrovna, Stravogin's mother, in a Russian provincial town, where Pyotr Verkhovensky, Stepan Trofimovich's abandoned son, decides to test his Nihilist theories. I never paid much attention to Stepan Trofimovich's story before, but I did this time, as I did to the point of view of the novel's narrator-chronicler, a settler in the provincial town. I read the novel as a coherent whole, not a shipshod piece like before. Memorable female characters include Marya Ignatievna, a cripple half-wit, married to Stravogin on a whim, Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushin, infatuated with Stavrogin, and Darya Pavlovna (Dasha) Shatov, devoted to Stavrogin. The Foreward and End Notes to the novel are excellent. Humor comes from such unexpected people as Fedka the Convict, an evil soul Dostoyevsky knew well, having spent ten years in a Siberian prison and in exile for his "revolutionary activities." Demons affected me tremendously. Its intellectual power enveloped me in realization after realization Go to Amazon

Nice quality! ... attention as the Brothers K and this is the best translation. In fact Four Stars The Dangers of Nihilism This is an absorbing novel, full of extreme and ... It’s a book! Marvelous Dostoevsky! Five Stars Five Stars Five Stars

[catcoffeeenjoyer]

Almost forgor to post

[catcoffeeenjoyer]

Also while on the topic- I made refs for the main guys

I’ll do more later but wahoo

[catcoffeeenjoyer]

I nevee forgot, anywhoo chapter four 😎