Crime and Punishment
This book is very dark, very grey throughout, until the last 2 pages—-suddenly the sun peaked through the thick clouds. It reminds me of the movie Schindler’s list and that red dress little girl at the end. I feel I have misunderstood Dostoevsky for long, and he has so much hope in his heart!
Reading this book requires some persistence. Let me start by talking about what I hate about this book. First, Russian names are so long. I read the Chinese translation of this book. Sometimes, the half line is just somebody’s name. Second, the same person has a few completely irrelevant names depending on who is calling him/her (I heard that is the Russian book thing?!). “what the hell, who is this person?” I consistently curse like that. Third, being in STEM, I enjoy efficiency. But literature authors sometimes add stuffs not very to the point, which often drive me crazy. For example, Les Miserable has this super lengthy descriptions of Paris sewer system. This book also has annoying lengthy conversations that are not very to the point of the story.
In this book, everybody lives a miserable life, mostly because of the poverty, which then caused them some mental problems. You wonder why this is the case?
Raskolnikov (the main character) published a paper about a novel utopia, where there are ordinary people and superior people. The superior people are like Napoleon. Killing is a path to make new laws. The crime in this book is Raskolnikov’s experiment about his theory, and he wanted to know if he could also be Napolean. He believes that if he kills this nasty, old, mean woman who did not make any contributions to this world, and then use her money to help the people in need, he is building a better world. You wonder if his theory makes some sense; you will start reflecting history and maybe also the darkness periods you had gone through (e.g., in the past three years of covid life). Dostoevsky did not give explicit conclusions, but had given some comments from other characters’ conversations.
Raskolnikov never had a good day of life after he committed the crime. He is not in jail but he got the most severe punishment. Dostoevsky here wrote what is suffering and people at the edge. If you had gone through mental struggling in the past, this might bring back your memory; if you never had gone through, you might be able to know what it is like in the hell.
Some love stories are written like digital circuits that have only 0s and 1s. “I love you” “get married” happy ending! some love stories are a little more complicated like analog circuits, and maybe the values are somewhat between loveish and unloveish. Dostoevsky wrote a love story like quantum circuits. You are not quite sure what’s going on. There are different states, entanglement, uncertainty … love is not intentional and it is a surprise. Sofya and Raskolnikov for the most of the time, they are talking about the crime, and they are struggling about other things. Then there is this feeling of power and new life, and the sudden understandings between the two without any words. In many dramas I grow up with, often love is the main theme, and it is very loud, “cry” “shout” “lots of verbal conversations”. I wonder whether this is the difference between a man author and a female author wrote about love.