November 04, 2018 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Camus and Dostoevsky
With this sort of introduction to this
chapter Camus explores three works of the legendary Russian philosophical
writer Fyodor Dostoevsky:
(1.) A Writer’s Diary – this is not a
single book of fiction unlike the other two but a collection of essays that
were written by Dostoevsky from 1873 to 1881.
It is now available in two volumes.
(2.) Demons (1871-72) – is one among the
four masterpieces of Dostoevsky that include ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ (1880),
‘Crime and Punishment’ (1866) and ‘The Idiot’ (1869).
It is a social and political satires based
on the prevailing politician unrest prevailing in the Russia of 1860s led by
students that were profoundly impacted by the liberal, socialist and
revolutionary ideas prevailing in West Europe particularly in France.
The fundamental question that bothered
Dostoevsky and which has been deep and underlying theme in many of his works is
probably the problem of Absurd.
This is what Dostoevsky wrote to his friend
regarding the theme of this novel, “the very one over which, consciously and
unconsciously, I have been tormented all my life: it is the existence of God.”
Strangely enough he saw atheism as the
chief cause of social problems and strife that existed in Russia.
Dostoevsky somewhat along the lines of
Camus came to the conclusion that without lack of belief in some kind of
supernatural god an individual will end up with political and moral nihilism.
This means to say that without supernatural
gods there will exist no inherent morality and any morality that is prevalent
in the society will lose its relevance.
Dostoevsky’s works was the product of those
times which many of us today may not be able to relate to.
The Russian nihilistic movement that
started in 1860s for moral or ideological reasons through spread of ideas from Europe
became political denying and rejecting any sort of authority.
More moral and then to political it finally
became violent taking the life of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 which imparted this
movement a negative impression all over Europe.
The state tried to suppress this movement
but anarchism became widespread presenting itself with bombings and
assassinations of both the government officials and the ruling class.
Considering all these facts and the
political turmoil that was happening all around him it is very understandable
for Dostoevsky to consider Russian man to be possessed by demons who needs a
Jesus to be healed.
Russia of that time was also witnessing an
ever increasing number of suicides and this too was an integral part of this
work.
In Demons Dostoevsky shows a strong link
between self-destruction and loss of faith or atheism and treats a man with
lack of belief as a man possessed.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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