holy smokes

I AM JUST LIKE RASKOLNIKOV.

I haven't killed anyone but my brain works just like his. I think too much and when I screw up it takes me a long time to figure out (again) that I'm going to screw up just as much as everyone else no matter how much I think about it.

I am so far behind on my reading...

Camp life

So far in "Memoirs" we're dealing with Alexander Petrovich's initial impressions of life in the camp, and the people he encounters (up to "First Impressions III"). The way I see it, Dostoevsky is trying to illustrate an atmosphere of spiritual deadness (hence the title, I suppose). The tone of voice seems more matter-of-fact than shocking, despite the kind of people being described (for instance, a criminal who really enjoys killing little children). Is it supposed to convey a deeper message, or is this just Fyodor's own catharsis at work?

Dr. Jackson says "Memoirs" is nothing like the rest of Dostoevsky's work--being rather unfamiliar with it, I'm interested to see where this goes. 

The thing I'm having trouble with is the setting. I've read a lot of concentration camp narratives, but this seems like in entirely different kettle of fish. I've gotten, kind of, a better idea of what daily life in the camp was like from reading about the life of Father Arseny (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Arseny), but as that's a good eighty years away, I'm still trying to find common ground. I might need to read up on the life and times, so to speak. 

Anyone else started this yet? Thoughts?

Raskolnikov

Why did he kill them?

ok I understand that Dostoevsky wants to show that Luzhin's ideas (and their implications) are completely wrong, that you can't just kill people to do the rest of the world a favor. But I don't really buy that Raskolnikov believes this, or that he really believes that the broker is evil. It seems like he didn't know what to do with his life and just wanted to test the theory, sort of on a whim. Would you really kill someone on a whim? Really?

template

I'm having fun (i.e. I'm wasting time) messing around with settings and things. If the settings allow (they should) feel free to mess with settings and things as well. If you find something you really like, keep it. Then tell me so I don't mess with it after.

books

I can't find them anywhere! So I'm getting them from Amazon on Thursday when my mom gets the gift cards (school fundraiser, she's a teacher). In the meantime I'm reading the wrong translation of Crime and Punishment that I have leftover from freshman great books.