Disease
in Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky pulls art out of
his own diseased inner organs. So many of his works are replete with physical
and mental illness—their very spirit is diseased. The malaise of the works
communicates itself to the reader, so that in reading Dostoevsky, you experience
a spiritual, and sometimes even a physical indisposition.
While imprisoned in the Peter
and Paul Fortress in 1849, awaiting trial for sedition, Dostoevsky “suffered
from grotesque nightmares and a visceral sensation of the floor heaving like a
ship at sea.” But he made use of his emotions, working feverishly on his
writing. As he said in a letter to his brother Michael, “When such a nervous
time came over me formerly, I used it for writing. In such a condition you
always write better and more, but now I restrain myself, so as not to do myself
in altogether.”
[excerpted from the book by U.R. Bowie, Here We Be. Where Be We?]
No comments:
Post a Comment