Thursday, January 13, 2005

More of What I'm Reading

In addition to The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, I'm also working my way through The Idiot by Dostoevsky (I can't seem to read only one thing at a time). So far it's been a good read with the usual Dostoevsky cast of radicals, fallen women, minor civil servants, and the like. Having read a few of his books, I've grown accustomed to the ebb and flow of Dostoevsky's work. In his case this is probably an asset, as his work can seem bizarre at times. I remember the appendix to Demons (the deleted chapter, "At Tikhon's") was a real surprise for the degree to which it was disturbing. (This even for what was arguably Dostoevsky's most disturbing novel.) Now as for The Idiot, from what I've read, it asks the question, what if Christ was just a man? At the point I'm at in the book, it's not clear how this theme will fully reveal itself, but it's one of the things that twigged my interest in this book when I picked it up.