http://slow.writerscafe.org/nd1706 The original writings of author Lukas en-us Copyright 2026 WritersCafe.org 1776224522 WritersCafe.org RSS Generator 15 Probably my final, proper testament... or perhaps just something I've always wanted to put into words. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/355037/ I have no words to describe this. I'm pretty much using this site to write blindly, for the most part, so feel free to bash all you'd like. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/353103/ It's pretty much garbage, written in a minute and a half... but it's what's been on my mind, I suppose. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/351570/ I can't write poetry for the life of me, so this is pretty much my poor attempt at verse. It probably doesn't make any sense at all, nor will it have any depth, meaning, or poetic valour. My 'inspiration', if you will, is not personal, but derived out of http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/328079/  Citations Cortesi, D. E. (2005). Dostoevsky didn’t say it. In The secular web library. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/features/2000/cortesi1.html Honderich, T. (ed). (1995). The Oxford companion to philosophy. Oxford: Oxford Univ.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282821/  A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of the Russian Revolution                  The Russian Revolution was no mere rebellion of the working class—no, indeed it was something incomprehensibly mo.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282820/  A Final Comment on the Underground Our narrator—faceless, abject, and fully conscious unto his misery and suffering—mentions many times that he has been living in the ‘underground’ for forty years; this is important, considering his apparent age of forty-some.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282817/  The Crystal Palace and the Ultimate Goal of Mankind What we have determined, so far, is that as conscious human beings, we are ultimately vile creatures because we can never achieve this utopian-like perfection, or a fantastical dream of being the un-muddied hero. The reason we can .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282804/  An Attack against Rationalism The underground man takes the benefit of an entire twelve pages simply to discuss the faults of rationalism, and the true reason for humanity’s existence. Rationalism, the narrator claims, is an attempt to put all of human nature into a formula&md.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282801/  Human Inertia and the Essence of Suffering At the beginning of the underground man’s despondent and bleak look at the murky depths of the human metaphysical spirit, he explains how his over-consciousness is in fact a sickness, and that it makes him wicked. Using the term &lsqu.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282789/  The Problem of Delusions and Reality This expedition into the mind of the underground man may well begin by his various fantasies and delusions of being a ‘king of morality’.[1] Take, for example, near the beginning of part two, after giving up hope on avenging the nonch.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282785/  Existentialism from Kierkegaard through Sartre The existentialist philosopher is indeed a forlorn one, full of despair and regret at the development of his own existence. For, like the underground man, the true existentialist has reached the point of conscious inertia, whence life b.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282783/  Preamble “I am a sick man… I am a wicked man.” [1] With this famous line opens one of the nineteenth-century’s most prolific works, considered the first truly existentialist masterpiece of our time. The unnamed narrator, bitter, isolated, and utterly miserab.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282780/  Interlude: A short history of the Russian Revolutions, 1917 As already alluded to earlier, the Russian Revolution was in fact the upheaval of the aristocracy—namely the Romanov dynasty—from the throne at Petrograd, followed by the overthrow of the liberal and moderate-so.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282777/ The Crisis of Nihilism The final and most distressing duality Turgenev presents us is the ultimate divergence between Arkadii and Barazov at the end of the novel; this deviation presents us with a crisis—namely the crisis of nihilism. Consider that Barazov becomes a sort of martyr.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282771/  Nihilism and Chaos Nihilism, despite being a seemingly simple, almost anarchical view of life without meaning, actually contains much in terms of complexity and philosophical dialectic—in the sense, of course, that there is no truth in the first place. Turgenev himself, with t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282769/  Aesthetics of Humanity & the Materialism of Life Barazov, the nihilist of our tale, represents not only the jaded group of young radicals from eighteen-sixties Russia, he also represents a new—in Russia, at least—theory on the aspects of life, including emotion, reli.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282767/  The Great Generational Divide Now, then, we reach the precarious divide between the generations alluded to at the beginning of this chapter. The history of Russia before and after Turgenev wrote the novel, Fathers and Sons, is important because there is a very specific context as to.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282765/  The Histrionic Chronicle of Tsarist Russia Let us first, now, examine the loftier, more superficial—yet still of paramount importance—theme of divide, or duality, in Fathers and Sons. However, to understand well this difficult phenomenon of Russia’s past, one must .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282753/  An Introduction Perhaps there is a little bit of Evgenii Barazov residing in all of us. He sits there obscurely, deep in the core of our very hearts, waiting. He does not push or incite violence and destruction; he knows it will come. With a smile of transcendent knowledge on his om.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282750/ Introduction to the works When we find ourselves swept away by the furious tides of Russian history, it is indeed a journey we never forget. What is even more captivating is the brilliance of Russian authors at the time, authors who stood against the oppressive aristocracy and wrote about t.. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282749/ Table of Contents Introduction to the worksNotions of chaos and order in Fathers and Sons, by Ivan TurgenevIntroductionThe Histrionic Chronicle of Tsarist RussiaThe Great Generational DivideAesthetics of Humanity and the Materialism of LifeNihilism and ChaosThe Crisis of .. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282739/ This is a monumental (32 pages) essay I wrote for my grade 11 English class. The title pretty much explains it: I read 'Notes from Underground' by Dostoevsky and 'Fathers and Sons' by Turgenev, and examined them in the context of the Russian Revolution. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282730/ An exploration of the relationship between man and art, as well as how narcissism can bring man to his knees. Delusions are nothing but ideas that have become real, like a living dream-in this way, I try to connect the world of delusions and that of art. http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282721/ A complex examination of the psyche of someone who is in eternal suffering, and a look at the relationship between love, pain, and life (or death). http://slow.writerscafe.org/writing/nd1706/282711/