demons

(cw 4 suicide)

this is very much a work in progress. i will work on this more once i reread it because my memory sucks.

behold!

a shrine (an actual neocities shrine not just a miscellanous directory) of my favorite piece of literature ever! demons (also called "the posessed" or "devils" depending on the translation) by fyodor dostoyevsky. (fun fact the original name of the original english translation by constance garnett "the posessed" is inaccurate because the tite in russian (Бесы) means the ones who are doing the posessing.) its a critique (and satire) of russian nhilism based on the murder of ivan ivanovich ivanov in 1860 (or 1861 i forgot) by a bunch of utopian socialist revolutionaries.

"erm i thought you are a socialist why do you like the book critiquing socialism" cuz i can like books not exacty corresponding to my political views. i dont even like utopian socialism. nuance is a thing yknow. (this is just a weirdly worded disclaimer. and its me arguing with strawmen in my head. because i can.)

(thats my crusty kinda falling apart copy. i have a copy of tbk that literally broke in half while i was reading it lol. it smells like undried glue and it better get that yummy book smell eventually.) for character images ill be using the ones from the 2014 miniseries because those are the ones ive seen the most. (ive never watched the miniseries. i might in a few years if i remember.) i might as well summarize the whole plot (or what i can remember of the whole plot because my memory sucks.)

so theres this old french dude (hes not actually french hes russian but just speaks french alot to sound pretentious or something idk ill probaby elaborate on him after i get this out of the way) named stephan trofimovich verkhovensky and he has a friend named varvara petrovna stavrogin whos late husband was a general or something. they have this club of a bunch of randos who meet and discuss liberalism and atheism and stuff. (theyre pretentious i dont really like them) varvara has a son named nikolai vseldovovich or something who was tutored by stephan and spent a few years going around europe and drinking a bunch and whatever happens in his confession (more on that later.) stephan has a son named pyotr stephanovich who was raised by varvara petrovna or something. he leads this revolutionary group of 5 (its called that cuz it has five people mostly from the pretentious liberalism club. also there are a bunch more of them across russia but more on that later.) theres this weird dude named shatov whos in the liberalism club (no one really likes him) and he used to be in the group of 5 but he left (against the will of pyotr stephanovich i might add. (those who know.)) and he had a printing press idk. he lives with this dude called kirillov (i love kirillov more on him later). turns out im too lazy to actually summarize the whole plot. so theres a meeting in varvara petrovna's house where some annoying girl faints, a bunch of high society rumors, a lot of politics, a gala, a lot of insanity, and a bunch of murders. (i shant spoil it all because that wouldnt be very nice.)(but i might in later sections who knows.)

characters

pyotr stephanovich verkhovensky

nikolai vseldovovich stavrogin

(funni image)

shigaylovism

somewhere in the book the group of 5 host a secret meeting with a bunch of other revolutionaries. (theyre not very revolutionary thought; they just argue.)(see the last cover in the critiquing demons covers sidebar as of 9/27/05.)