“And I proclaim,” Stepan Trofimovich shrieked, in the last extremity of passion, “and I proclaim that Shakespeare and Raphael are higher than the emancipation of the serfs, higher than nationality, higher than socialism, higher than the younger generation… ”
With this outburst at a provincial fête, Stepan Verkhovensky — one of the main characters of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Demons — seals his fate as the enemy of political progress, in the eyes of a movement he’s loved all his life. It’s one of a list of comic twists in a critical portion of the novel, which Brad Pearce and I will be back discussing today. Join us at 4:30 PM ET at:
You can also find us on X, @mtaibbi or @waywardrabbler. See you soon!
Brad - I appreciate your intelligent and well considered insights.
But, please stop interrupting. You will have a chance to say what you need to say and we will all be listening!
Matt, you know I'm a supporter. I will read you until the day I die. I also think that Get Lit and Brad Pearce are a wonderful addition to Racket News, but...
Dostoyevsky's Demons, again? I'm game for these tombs of literature, but imo 2 or 3 shows max on each work. I can't tune in, man! Even though I want to see both of you take on literature like you do, I'm spent on Demons. I'd light a copy on fire right now if I wasn't so lazy!
EDIT: I just looked up "tombs of literature" to see if I chose the correct form of "tombs", and it turns out that in my sentence, I could've use either "tombs" or "tomes". However, I concede that "tomes" would've been more appropriate. Question: What if my words were translated by a surviving nomad human colony ten, twenty, thousand years from now? How would they translate my use of "tombs" or "tomes"? This is my pet peeve with translation of old texts, especially biblical scripture. What a whole bunch of freakin guesswork! I think there is a lot to be learned from old scripture, but it's still profoundly vulnerable to bias through translation.