Alana in Canada Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 This is for myself. I've started reading it--and I'm beginning to think I need some background first! I have a philospical background--so I know there's something going on in the discussion of Church and State--but what? As I was reeling from that, the author immediately launched into another philosophical discussion: the idea that without the concept of immortality, all ethics and sense of right and wrong would be tossed out the window. I need to puit this into historical perspective. Is this before or after Nietzsche? What would Mr. D. have read, what were the intellectual "problems" of the time? And is it cheating to "prepare" to read a book? Anyone have a resource for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MommyThrice Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/brothersk/ These are usually helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 Thank you. I tend to find that if I read about a book--I don't enjoy reading the book! However, it occurred to me that I just picked this up off the shelf in a fit of "I'd better get reading for the kids' Highschool" without any plan at all. Perhaps I ought to back up and start like I would with them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genie Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Thank you. I tend to find that if I read about a book--I don't enjoy reading the book! However, it occurred to me that I just picked this up off the shelf in a fit of "I'd better get reading for the kids' Highschool" without any plan at all. Perhaps I ought to back up and start like I would with them! Funny you say this! I'm the same way. I want to know as little about a book (or movie) as possible before I read (or see) it. I'm struggling with the exact same issue, and even the exact same book! I have a set of Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, and slowly my daughter is gaining interest in them. (She's only 11, we have time.) But one night she really wanted me to read to her from one of them, so I grabbed The Brothers. Not sure what I was thinking. We haven't gone back to it, although she enjoyed what we did read that night and found it humorous. But I didn't go any farther because I didn't want to read about it first, but I wasn't sure if I'd catch enough if I didn't read about it first, and I certainly didn't want to have to read it twice. So I have no advice. Just sympathy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 I studied Russian language and history in college and oh! how I wish the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations had been available to me at that time. They're so readable and make these Russian literary masterpieces more accessible to the masses. Pevear's introductions are helpful, too. Beyond that, I wouldn't hesitate to familiarize beforehand yourself with the topics of the day being discussed in the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 I studied Russian language and history in college and oh! how I wish the Pevear/Volokhonsky translations had been available to me at that time. They're so readable and make these Russian literary masterpieces more accessible to the masses. Pevear's introductions are helpful, too. Beyond that, I wouldn't hesitate to familiarize beforehand yourself with the topics of the day being discussed in the book.I agree. I tried to get through Brothers I don't know how many times before I found their translation. They also have some nice Gogol translations, another author I was unable to read in other translations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 I'm impressed--our library has several copies of this translation available--thanks for heads up! Perhaps it will be a bit smoother! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 This is for myself. I've started reading it--and I'm beginning to think I need some background first! I have a philospical background--so I know there's something going on in the discussion of Church and State--but what? As I was reeling from that, the author immediately launched into another philosophical discussion: the idea that without the concept of immortality, all ethics and sense of right and wrong would be tossed out the window. I need to puit this into historical perspective. Is this before or after Nietzsche? What would Mr. D. have read, what were the intellectual "problems" of the time? And is it cheating to "prepare" to read a book? Anyone have a resource for me? I wrote out a longer post but then lost it. So, here's an abreviated version. D pre-dated and inspired Nietzsche. When writing Brothers he was being ironic/funny. He thought the modern question of the day (Does God exist?) was silly, that it could not be answered by pure reason. He thought that man was born with a divinely inspired instinct for God creation. That this instinct could lead him to immortality (via the Christ), but men were complicity in their own guilt. They desired not to know god. He used a rather wonderful device in the narrator, who was not all-knowing. The narrator offers subjective interpretations of the characters and actions. In using the narrator thus, D is trying to illustrate how difficult it is to know Truth through the prism of our own psyci. A forest for the trees kind of argument. Not much help, I know. Keep in mind all of the brothers sorta represent a differing state in relationship to how they acknowledge God creation. Their differing levels of complicty in their fathers death parrells how much responsibility they take for their own God, or lack their of. Sorry, but it's one of the most difficult books to talk about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 When writing Brothers he was being ironic/funny. [snip] Sorry, but it's one of the most difficult books to talk about. It is. It was James Morrow's musings on The Brothers Karamazov in his Godhead trilogy -- IIRC most intensely in Blameless in Abaddon -- that made me try one last time. With Pevear/Volokhonsky made I was able to see the humour that was missing (at least for me) with other translations, and this was exactly what I needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 Thanks about the heads up with the narrator. I was just thinking about him last night. He seems to be the "omniscient third" but he is definitely a first person narrator. I was just confused--and wondering, in the back of my mind, why he's been set up this way. I'm glad to know it IS deliberate (and meaningful). The death hasn't happened yet. He predates N? That's particularily interesting! (Sorry, I could have looked that up, but I was just typing out my thoughts this morning after reading last night.) This is a difficult book to discuss? --Oh good, that gives me hope, actually! If I'm struggling, then it is because there is something to struggle with--it isn't just that I've lost all my brain cells with 11+ years of washing dishes, doing laundry and drilling math facts. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacy in NJ Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Like Lolita, not only difficult to discuss, but difficult to read and understand. I've read it several times, and find I have a little better understanding each time I take a crack at it, but it's still a bit of a mystery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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