My Second Thoughts

       The first two readings of Notes from the Underground have been extremely interesting, but also complex. In class we have discussed the narrator’s thoughts and how he appears to “ramble” at moments. In reality, however, how are the narrator’s ideas presented in any way different to the way that your thoughts are presented to yourself (if that makes any sense)? Moreover, the ideas that the narrator discusses are far from being simple which causes the audience to debate whether the work is being told by an insane man or a genius or maybe even both. The one issue that I have with this type of approach is that I know the concept of “what is normal?” is going to be reached at some point and that drives me crazy. Because the narrator is constantly analyzing the world around him and he identifies himself as strange in relation to his environment, the reader automatically tries to characterize the narrator as either strange or normal. This is not an easy task because we must first identify what normal really encompasses and there will always be endless disagreements when this idea is brought about. Overall, I have enjoyed all parts of the work thus far, but I am afraid of the controversies it may bring in the classroom.