#notes from the underground

[silent-words]

Next time anyone tells me "Dostoevsky is a boring classic", I'll point them to the whole Tumblr fandom that actually exists. His works are close to 200 years old, by the way, and still amazing.

[haly-reads]

may 17, '25: this book screams my thoughts while in the shower.

[mournfulroses]

Fyodor Dostoevsky, from his novel titled "Notes from the Underground," published in 1864

[macrolit]

I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground

[diabolicalrat]

I lied I don’t like sex. Put your clothes back on. Let’s discuss Dostoevsky.

[kratomqueen]

[swan-of-saraswati]

I’m like Dostoevsky without the writing skill or intelligence but with seven hours of screen time instead

[moxogeni]

never before have i heard my own thoughts in text than reading Dostoevsky.

[cryptidspaghetti]

Review of Notes from underground: ★★★★★

one can generally trust me to not be terribly moved by a book. regardless of the quality of a novel, I am simply not a particularly effected person.

so when I tell you that I sobbed while reading Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, I mean it with my full chest.

This novel is about a strange old man with a terrible problem, he is so bloody anxious that he cannot properly connect with his peers. this leads to strange obsessions with being seen and respected by others, as well an internal refusal to every allow himself to be accepted.

our nameless narrator would led us to believe that all he associates with are terrible bastards, but they are simply regular people - his old classmates, his servant, his coworkers. In order to avoid the possibility of admitting of social vulnerability, or perhaps because he feels he does not deserve kindess - our man pushes all away.

this cycle is cold, and you can do nothing by turn the page as he burns down each new relationship. this is what broke me - never have I felt so seen within a character - and to have it be someone created by an old man from 18th C russia. oh dear me, I couldn't handle it.

The prose is beautiful and simplistic. our narrator is an intelligent and literary man, and within the first-person narration, he speaks too us directly. I believe that this would be a fantastic place to start with Dos, or Russian lit in general, as the language is not difficult - at least not in my translation, by Andrew R MacAndrews. (please do tell me if there are preferred translations I should seek out!).

It's a little over 100 pages, but packed with action, emotion, and that Dostoyevsky magic. (how I love him). Underground also allows Dostoyevsky to examine his impressive understanding of female characters - something you see less in this era. There is an understanding of mutual melancholia between sexes.

"Love is a divine mystery and must be hidden from the eyes of the world, as must whatever takes place between lovers. They have respect, for each takes place between lovers."

This narrative was not made to comfort you. perhaps it is a cautionary tale, perhaps it is just one man screaming out, trying to find companionship. Perhaps it is like the narrator tells us, at the end, "We're still born and for a long time we've been brought into the world by parents who are dead themselves; and we like it better and better. we're developing a taste for it, so to speak. soon we'll invent a way to be begotten by ideas all together."

there is a reason I can only manage a few Dostoyevsky a year.

[createmesanity]

Today’s Knitting and Reading at the Same Time Because I Can ™

I’m rereading Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (again) and knitting the Mini Mock Neck Tank by Jessie Mae

[aloverandaleavergirl]

I'm just a girl (Dostoevsky version):

"Some women get up quarrels with their husbands just because they love them."

- Notes from Underground

[silverfoxstole]

Another entry for the 'Paul wearing his own clothes on screen' list: this camel coat, previously spotted by @know-it-all-freak in 2013's A Little Place off the Edgware Road, also features in the previous year's Notes from the Underground. Notes is deliberately grainy but I can see enough detail to be sure it's the same coat, which Paul wore ten years before for the photos taken during the recording of Big Finish's version of Shada.

Speaking of Edgware Road, they're not seen on screen but I recognise the boots Paul is wearing (along with the aforementioned coat) in a couple of behind the scenes photos:

The same boots were worn throughout The Petrol Age, and also made an appearance in Brakes, which brings me onto this denim jacket:

From the shape of the pockets and the white topstitching it looks like the same one. And they’re only just visible in the right hand photo but those might even be the same trousers!

(Paul’s trusty bag has been mentioned before; seen here in Brakes it’s also made an appearance in Perplexed Music, alongside more of his wardrobe and his car!)

[moreandmoreivy]

when he say "I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness - a real thorough-going illness" i really felt that

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[diabolicalrat]

Babe you’re so delusional you belong in a Dostoevsky novel

[cupidandcherubs]

What do you do when you accidentally relate to a middle aged Victorian russian dude (btw I'm finishing the requests I swear)