In the News (The Telegraph, “In these Covid times, it’s Dostoevsky that is resonating with readers”): “Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote of ‘the pleasure of despair’, and book sales reveal British readers are buying into his brand of agreeable anguish.

“The Russian writer’s existentialist oeuvre is the fastest growing market for Penguin Classics, ahead of more genteel favourites like Austen and Dickens. …

“While the sudden clamour for the 19th-century author’s ‘gloom and nihilism’ remains ‘mysterious’ to publishers, experts have suggested that pessimistic modern readers have found a ‘prophet in Dostoevsky’.

“Kevin Birmingham, the author of literary biography The Sinner and The Saint, said: “I think the appeal is that Dostoevsky’s view of human nature seems more apparent now: we’re irrational, egoistic, and self-destructive.

“We spite ourselves, we crave freedom even if it leads to our detriment, and our perverse impulses are at the heart of civilisation.

“Readers of Dostoevsky’s novels wouldn’t be surprised by global affairs of the last several years. These are all Dostoevskian.

“He is currently fitting very well with the mood of readers, according to the Penguin Classics team, amid an increasing audience for angst that has seen UK sales for the author’s works increasing 177 per cent since 2016. …

 

“There is an abiding fear that there are no foundations, no ultimate sense of truth or justice, and this is something we’re grappling with these days.”

 

Question: What can we do about the fact that we live like this?

My Response: I think maybe this is why we will come to a brighter life, through such things like looking at the world through “dark glasses.”

Question: If I am wearing dark glasses, then what are my actions?

Answer: At least you have a realistic view of the world. It does not blind you.

Question: What does this reality give me?

Answer: You will want to brighten this world.

Question: Is it not that I will get depressed or something like that?

Answer: No, this is not depression. This is just a need for correction.

Question: Do you mean that because of such a view of Dostoevsky, I will want to come out into the light?

Answer: I think so, yes.

Question: Is this what you are talking about all the time: recognition of my evil, which is within me?

Answer: Precisely!
[295544]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/10/22

Related Material:
Evil Should Not Be Destroyed
What Will Become Of Us?
Evil, Hell, Love

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News | Add Comment →