Review of Notes from Underground (1864)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (writer).
Read in 2021.
A thorough examination of a realistic psychological type. As a work of philosophical fiction on irrationality, it makes more sense than Dostoevsky’s proper novels, echoing powerfully in the marginal philosophies of the Internet 150 years later. Black-pilled “incels” revelling in hate and pain as if they enjoyed them, addicted to hopeless inaction, are Underground Men. The scenes with Lisa are very good even from a literary perspective, but with only one proper character, the rest of the novella is dry.
References here: God Emperor of Dune (1981), “Spider Rose” (1982).