He seems to want to love at times, but then he'll completely shun it: glorifying it at one moment and then spitting upon it the next.
Yet, he shows dashes of deep understanding of it, and so you think he can't be right about that (himself not being able to love)… but, wouldn't he know? Is he bullshitting? Maybe he’s serious, but just wrong about himself: perhaps he's capable of love but hasn’t yet, perhaps because nobody has ever loved him. He seems to be incapable of love, and even says so. I wonder how much of his pathological condition is “fixable". I wonder how much of his inner turmoil and unhappiness is caused by not being chemically stable. I wonder how successful would he would be if his chemical imbalance where fixed (I guess it would have to be through pills) and he saw a good shrink. How can such a smart man be such a poor decision maker? Our narrator even wavered or made stupid decisions when faced with simple situations – common sense scenarios that 99% of the population would respond to in a better fashion than the ridiculous, silly ways that he did. In regards to making difficult decisions, Yogi Berra once said, "When you come to the fork in the road, take it!" Sometimes, most - or even all - of the options available are better than not taking any, or changing your mind midway through. He had trouble making up his mind and once having made a decision, he'd change it. He uses his intelligence and intuition in all the wrong ways, bringing others down, including himself (or often, just himself) through his actions. If anything, the world would be a better place without this guy.
What a shame it is that someone who has the capability of making great impact - such as this man - ends up being so insignificant. Is he, or is he not, physically dangerous? The narrator is an angry man with strongly violent speech, reveries, and threats. And don’t feel like you need to read them maybe one or two to get the main thinkin’ point: Those of you who read the book will probably disagree with some of them, and trust me, I don’t claim to be good with literary analysis, so you could probably convince me against some… after all they’re just thoughts.
Below I’ve listed out some of the random-ass thoughts I had while reading, just to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. New thoughts must be earned, but the opportunities are plenty. It doesn't offer any easy answers or an obvious paradigm. He is a contrarian against everything, even himself.Īs previously mentioned, the beauty of this novel comes from the many various thoughts it can give birth to. You want to hate him, because he is hateful and a burden on humanity.
#NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND FULL#
You want to feel sorry for him, because he's pitiful and full of pain. He lives in great poverty he has manic spurts, dreams, and visions of megalomania. He is an individual, unaffected by people, choosing to live by himself - He is hypersensitive to what others think, to the point of being paranoid. At the next moment, wavering doubt and uncertainty. At one moment he has what seems to be great conviction and inner strength. He stands for great unequivocal moral virtue, then cowers further in his morally rotten state. He is emotionally tough, then emotionally sensitive and fragile. He is an educated and intelligent man.īoth his thoughts and actions are paradoxical. A paranoid, ridiculous, introspective, analytical, abrasive, laughable, vengeful, antisocial, extreme, hypersensitive, pathological, delicate, hilarious, bottom-dwelling, pathetic, indecisive, crazy, loner of a man. The second half, humiliating stories from when he was 24 (he is now 40). The first half, his ramblings, thoughts and philosophies of life, via monologue. It's narrated by a guy living underground, in poverty. I have "should" italicized in that first sentence for a reason: If you don't give yourself time to think - if just skim through the book quickly - then you won't get anything out of it. And not about trivial shit either, but about big, important conditions of life and how best to view and react to them. More than anything, this book should make you think.
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