A Gentle Creature - And Other Stories

Fiódor Dostoiévski

Oxford University Press

1995

160 páginas

5h 20m

ISBN-10: 0192822802

In these stories, Dostoevsky explores both the figure of the dreamer divorced from reality, and also his own ambiguous attitude toward utopianism, themes central to his great novels. In White Nights, the apparent idyll of the dreamer's romantic fantasies disguises profound loneliness and estrangement from "living life." A Gentle Creature and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man show how withdrawal from reality can end in spiritual desolation as well as moral indifference, and how, in Dostoevsky's view, the tragedy of the alienated individual can only be resolved by the rediscovery of a sense of compassion and responsibility toward other people.
No other edition brings together these specific stories--which are most interesting when read alongside one another--and the new translations capture all the power and lyricism of Dostoevsky's writing at its best.

Resenhas (4)

4 (Muito bom)

“They say that people standing on high places are somehow tempted to leap down into the abyss of their own accord.”

Reading philosophy also means looking inside, and looking inside can give you many answers. Reading nonstop philosophy on moral affairs made me forget to put things into a cosmical perspective. It’s partly good because it’s a sign of mindfulness, to dive into the subject. But it’s partly bad because it’s a good exercise to reframe and reflect on the pettiness of our concerns in the great scheme of things—a universe that doesn’t care at all about our anthropocentrism.
In the middle of a great torpor where intense characters, and I quote Salvini, “Live, cry, and laugh at scene, but are vigilant of their own tears and smiles at all times,” Dostoevsky’s lyricism ignites a perspective and research technique that I am very fond of. A new movement from the early 1900s called Phenomenological Existentialism, which rather stoically fosters the optics of describing lived experiences as they are, allows me to reason up from my values and beliefs.
Luckily, here I am, returning to a cosmological perspective. Douglas Adams’ school of thought expands our scope of understanding and seeks better questions to ask. In my literary journey thus far, I’ve read about what we understand as the great structures of the cosmos, the smallest structures of the inconceivable quantum realm, the triumph of our genetic and highly adaptive evolutionary machine, and lastly, a look into psychological torments and moral affairs.
White Nights, A Gentle Creature, and The Dream of a Ridiculous Man are great introductions to Dostoevsky's style. If you like them, they’re an invitation to his denser novels. Funny how clear the threshold is in how we have related to each other throughout the centuries. In White Nights, for example, an idealistic dreamer relentlessly fosters a new romance, making early and deep promises with the girl Nastenka. Reading this narrative shows the mutation of a concept—and sadly, what sociologist Bauman attributes as an extinct concept nowadays.
As mentioned before throughout my essays, we can never be sure of human intentions. This scar, born from Dostoevsky’s past and experiences, led not only to a lack of hope in the brotherhood we so affectionately like to brag about, but also to how we overlook the depth of concepts that are not on the surface, not so easily identifiable, and in words unspoken, such as the will to power. “For when I try to grasp this self in which I anchor myself, when I try to define and summarize it, it is merely water slipping through my fingers. This heart that is mine will remain undefinable forever,” says Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus.
A Gentle Creature revolves around the inner struggle of a couple, in which the inconstant nature of the spouse contrasts with our unbending morality, and reflections on the birth of resentment commingle with the absolute nature of forgiveness. Have you ever thought about the fine line between thoughts and actions? How about the strands of essential meekness, brazen, belligerent, and obstreperous thoughts? How do we fail to consider them as certainties to take for granted rather than possibilities to entertain?
Funny how we must rest almost a third of our day. Funny how the processing of information is fragmented and so vivid to the extent of challenging our reality’s veil. Lastly, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man evokes existentialism, thoughts on dreaming, and a cosmical perspective. The dreamer intertwines his existential thoughts on our reality as a bad dream, correlating with our very controversial history as humanity. Slavery, the bloodshed in the name of the sacred, war and pride, leading to and hindering the success of one race—the human race.
“The exterior must keep in steady balance with the interior. Otherwise, in the absence of exterior phenomena, the interior will assume too dangerous an upper hand. Nerves and fantasy will occupy a very large place in one’s being.”
Link to my highlights: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KB5_ARHsTqIu_V4NQmgs37ejJ7flbo7n/view?usp=sharing