The Brothers Karamazov - 20091112

Just finished reading this 700+ pages novel. A truly masterpiece.

Russian writers are always of the image as scholar, Dostoyevsky is of no exception. Mustache together with thick beard on his face, he preferred writing to meaningless stuff as shaving. In Chinese value, his broad and high forehead equated wisdom. Dostoyevsky's eyes were hawk-sharp, and his puckered brow elevated his thinker's aura.

The novels of Dostoyevsky are as philosophical as his person. The Brothers Karamazov , his final book, should be the apex. With patricide as the main theme, the four brothers, representing different prototypes, clashed in order to search for the meaning of being. It is thus treated as one of the bibles of Existentialism.

So, in the end, neither the belief in God nor pure rationalism vanquished the other. It is rather intriguing, for rational readers to reflect throughout the reading. So, even the test of lawfulness is passed, like deliberate ignorance to wrongdoing, somehow the conscience would subsequently cast the punishment. To me, "the religion of love", as promulgated by Lee Tin Ming, is a very viable solution, as the rudimentary value to fill the hollowness.

Dostoyevsky understood human beings so profoundly. Through the love entanglement among the characters, grudge, jealous and patronization fulfilled their meaning in the absolute sense. The vulgarity of women was demonstrated, through the maintenance of a relationship not by love and affection, but on narcissism by capturing the moral high ground. None of the view was of cliche, not a bit.

Gripping it is, not in the advertisement-type dimension.