I didn't really understand what it was trying to tell me when I first read it, the ideas just sort of ruminated. I read it when I was either 19 or 20, was completely at odds with who I was then but helped me grow as a person
The way that we think about individual agency and self-interest in modern society is at odds with what our emotional needs are. He makes this point in many of his books
The way that he describes guilt is incredibly accurate. He's very good at seeing and describing emotional conflict
I also grew up as a non-religious jew but reading him made me realize that christianity has more ideological depth than what I initially thought
I read it this year. I loved it. I think if I read it a few years earlier it would be totally lost on me.
For my self what I found interesting is the depiction of Russia in the 19th century, and the on-going transition from a peasant agrarian society into "modernity" and all the confusion it creates. I am not Russian, yet it all seemed so familiar to me. Why? Because I think this same transition is going on in my ethnic country - though 200 years later. Because the archetypes of people shown, the attitudes among former aristocrats and landowners, inefficient (and unserious) bureaucracy, conflicting ideas about religion vs secularism, inferiority complex towards "modernism", changing views of women's role in society, etc I've seen all the same things.
And of course, the book finally convinced me that I should not give into nihilism and pessimism even when everyone around me does.
I just remembered, Irvin Weil has a bunch of Dostoevsky lectures for free on YouTube. He provides a lot of good info and speaks really well. A lot of it is biographical and historical context
I didn't really understand what it was trying to tell me when I first read it, the ideas just sort of ruminated. I read it when I was either 19 or 20, was completely at odds with who I was then but helped me grow as a person
The way that we think about individual agency and self-interest in modern society is at odds with what our emotional needs are. He makes this point in many of his books
The way that he describes guilt is incredibly accurate. He's very good at seeing and describing emotional conflict
I also grew up as a non-religious jew but reading him made me realize that christianity has more ideological depth than what I initially thought