Reading Crime and Punishment. Just want to talk about it.

I really want someone to talk with so just stick with me. We aren't getting along very well and you don't seem to think anything of me so if there's anyone I should be talking to maybe that should be you.

I'm not trying to come off in any sort of way. You responded and I thought 'oh hey cool, someone to talk to'. Then I talked to you. And come on, don't tell me to read the whole thing before at least trying to figure out what it means and trying to figure out what I should be paying special attention to. That's pure madness. If we're honest about how the mind works I don't think either of us would ever argue that it's weird or stupid or unnatural for a human brain to start trying to make sense out of and interpret a body of information of this size. This is not light reading. It's genuine mental work and anyone who does any sort of work very reasonably wants to know why.

I'm just trying to figure out why. What's with you that you want to insult and talk down at someone trying to put their literacy to some real work and get something out of it?

And you can say I'm only exploring the outermost dimensions of a character. You can point to how far into the book I am as being proof I shouldn't be thinking too seriously yet. But this book has just given me an insight into the mind of a guy who chooses to kill for greed and ideology and I know he's eventually going to kill just to hide his crime. If you're someone like me who's eager to understand the minds of murderers and psychopaths then this is an incredibly important timreframe and sequence of events to be paying attention to.

I have killed people directly and indirectly. Do you even know what that really means or feels like? Of course you don't. But if you try to understand my perspective can you maybe see why I might be sounding alarms, talking to others, and thinking hard at about this point? Can you see that maybe just a little?

Given how much of literature is perspective does it not even warrant talking about that a Russian book almost 200 years old might hit such strange buttons in an American vet? I mean, if I hadn't read about the author and The Extraordinary Man some then I could probably get a lot further into this book thinking that this was a story about the good in people and their ability to repent for their crimes and grow in meaningful ways from things I'd just as soon kill another living human being for.

That's fucking insane and I feel like there should be some sort of meaningful conversation likely to grow from that if only I could talk with people who'd treat me a little more respectfully and think in terms a little more plastically than you do.

To be honest, I'd really just like to have a realistic conversation about this book and explore other perspectives and converse about it. Is this really how you want to treat me for that crime?

/r/books Thread Parent