Sunday, August 5, 2007

Notes From Underground, revisited.


It's come to my attention that the link to the Wikipedia entry for Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground (at the right) is extremely unhelpful. Also, when asked what Notes From Underground is, I'm always telling people, "Well, there's this guy, and he's in hell..." which is actually the premise of No Exit. Sartre, Dostoevsky, pish posh. Dad probably read No Exit at the dinner table as well, hellbent as he was on instilling us with a healthy sense of futility, so it's probably not that strange that I tend to conflate the two. Anyhoo, I've decided to offer an updated summary of NoFUn (ha!) using more contemporary, uh, vocabulary. The novel is divided into three sections but it goes pretty much like this:
"I am a douche. I am not a douche. Yes I am. No I'm not. I'm sick of thinking about what a douche I am. Everyone else is a douche. There is no escape from douchery. Wait, scratch all that. Being a douche is ok. GOD I WISH I WASN'T SUCH A DOUCHE! Haha, just kidding. I love it. When I was young I kicked someone's ass to prove I wasn't a douche, but this just made me more douchey. My friends hate me. It's all my fault. No it's not. Yes it is. Then I slept with a prostitute, who I loved/hated/loved/hated/etc. I'm a douche." The end.

Make sense? Great.

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