Buddy Read of Notes from Underground

[Michael]

Hi Richard and Chris

I thought I'd start the ball rolling :-)

Firstly, the edition I'm reading is the Penguin Classics edition which also contains The Double. It's translated by Jessie Coulson, and begins:

I am a sick man... I am an angry man. I've seen the latter phrase translated with the words 'wicked' and 'spiteful' and wonder what your versions give and how that might affect an understanding of the narrator's character? I think that while he is undoubtedly angry, spiteful seems to hit closer to the mark, his spite being directed both outward at others and inwards upon himself.

I shared this quote from page 17 of my edition: To think too much is a disease., about which a friend commented that it might be argued that it's a symptom rather than a cause of disease. I will just copy and paste my reply:
" It's a sentiment spoken by his 'Underground Man', so it is the product of a mind under stress (to be somewhat euphemistic about it). The fuller passage is: I tell you solemnly that I have wanted to make an insect of myself many times. But I couldn't succeed even in that. I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease. For ordinary human life it would be more than sufficient to possess ordinary human intellectual activity, that is to say, half or a quarter as much as falls to the lot of an educated man in our unhappy nineteenth century. The way his thoughts go from racing (thinking too much) to overwhelming despair and melancholy, with a bitterness directed outwardly and inwardly at the same time, I think he might be considered bi-polar these days. That said, I'm only on page 19, so I might be jumping the gun! For me the specific quote I've given is about thinking too much at the expense of not feeling enough, which I think is unhealthy."

My thoughts on the Underground Man's mental health may well change as I get further into the book.

[Chris]

Thank you for starting the thread, Michael.

As for translation, I'm reading the old Constance Garnett. To be honest, I'm having some trouble getting into the book, which has caused me to keep putting it down. I know I can enjoy russian lit, as I have enjoyed works of Gogol (Вий, Dead Souls, The Nose, etc.) in the past, but I'm having some difficulty enjoying this read so far. Perhaps I should look into changing translations. I'm concerned, though, that I may find that it's the Dostoevsky that I am not enjoying, rather than the translation!

[Chris]

Ok, I've done some research. There are 8-ish translations available. I now have samples of 3 other translations (including Coulson) to check out. I'll read through them and see if perhaps I just don't like Garnett and get back with you guys after that.

[Michael]

I had to start Crime and Punishment five times before I got into it, then I kind of 'caught' it and whizzed through (well, for me whizzed as I'm a pretty slow reader!). This is probably the third time I've started Notes, and, again, I'm finding it's caught me more this time around.

I think the key for me has been to understand, rather than just know, that Dostoyevsky is writing a psychological account of the Underground Man, and trying to decipher that profile is part of the 'enjoyment'.

I had a little chuckle about a passage on pages 21-22 of my edition, where UM has been talking about how the man of intellect is more troubled by perceived insults than the "natural man" of action, and will brood upon slights, plotting revenges that will never be carried our or, if carried out, never noticed by the victim. "Ha, ha!", I thought, this has happened to the UM!" Then the UM says words to the effect, "I bet you think this has happened to me, don't you? Well, you can think it, but it hasn't, and I don't care if you think it has!" So, either I've been caught out by the UM, or he's in denial! Hopefully, Dostoyevsky will let us see.

[Richard]

Garnett is now notorious for not doing the best translations... but for now it's the only one I've got.

But I'm sure she got the brooding oppressive atmosphere right.

[Richard]

I've finished Notes from Underground now and I have been mulling it over. You might even say brooding on it. I have been trying to figure out if there is a mental illness involved here. I've come to the hypothesis that UM has bipolar disorder. Do you think this is a possibility?

[Michael]

Yes, that's an impression I tentatively expressed in my first post here. I've not read on far enough to come to a definite conclusion (and I'm not qualified to make a 'medical diagnosis', anyway), but I would say that UM does seem to have psychological issues which make him isolated, desirous of the good companionship of others and resentful of that companionship he witnesses of which he cannot partake. He seeks to console himself by equating his emotional pain with a greater intelligence and finer sensitivity of feeling: the ease of action of others must, in his view, because they are little more than unreflective brutes. However, his apparent self-loathing doesn't seem to allow him to take much comfort from these thoughts.