parresia

props for the author

Props for The Author

It is always a thrill for me to come across others who share the same passion and appreciation, some might say we share the same "awe," of the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Read the influencial German Philosopher:

Dostoyevsky, the only psychologist, by the way, from whom I had anything to learn: he is one of the happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of Stendhal. This profound human being, who was ten times justified in despising the superficial Germans, found the Siberian convicts in whose midst he lived for a long time, nothing but the worst criminals for whom no return to society was possible, very different from what he himself had expected-- he found them to be carved out of about the best, hardest and most valuable timber growing anywhere on Russian soil.

Later Nietzsche writes:

One has to regret that no Dostoyevsky lived [during Christ's time]; I mean someone who could feel the thrilling fascination of such a combination of the sublime, the sick and the childish.

Indeed, Dostoyevsky's writing is truly profound, full of so much insight into the human character: sinner before God, condemned and suffering, yet aware of immense Grace all around.

Posted by at July 22, 2002 08:11 PM