Intrigued (Alexia Barrios)

I am not sure how I feel about Notes from the Underground from what I have read so far. After Mr. Shapiro mentioned how dense and challenging it would be to interpret, I opened it fearful that I would not be able to understand anything. Though it is dense and I did have to re-read some of the passage repeatedly before fully understanding what this nameless character was trying to say, it is not as incomprehensible as I originally anticipated.

So far the first 15 pages have allowed me to learn a little bit about this nameless character. First of all his manner of writing is just as you described it to be: a collection of free flowing unconscious thoughts (similar to that of Freudian free association) written down on paper. He seems to just write the first thing that comes to his mind and attempts to clarify it afterwards, which is somewhat confusing. Along with that, one of the first things I noticed about this character is how he seemed to always be contradicting himself and his indecisiveness. He claimed his “liver is diseased” (1) and he refuses to “consult a doctor from spite” (1) but he later contradicts this statement by saying that though his actions don't hurt the doctors he still won't go consult one.

From what I have read so far, Dostoyevsky’s writing style in Notes from the Underground is entirely different than in Crime and Punishment. I am intrigued to see what this nameless character is going to reveal about himself and what he has to say about certain topics.