![Midnight in Dostoevsky's works](https://www.anexcellentreader.com/images/2022/125dd2d7a3f3f2de501f97bada7fa999.jpeg)
Midnight in Dostoevsky's works
You don't have to know the whole story, you just have to be in it, just like music.
you don't have to know the context of the story, you just have to be in it, just like music.
I find myself fascinated by DeLillo recently, especially the short story I read yesterday, "Midnight by Dostoevsky" in The Angel Esmeralda. If I want to explain the beauty of the novel, I can only retell the whole story. Although I do not like to comment on works in this form, DeLillo's story is special, it is not afraid of spoilers, because it does not win by the plot, but depends on some funny concepts and wonderful language. DeLillo's novels are full of derived meanings, additional meanings, metaphors, and symbols, which are attached not only to the plot of the characters but also to the words themselves. The strange ideas of his unique writing style form a cloud so that you don't have to know the context of the story, just be in it, just like music.
the protagonists of the story are two melancholy boys in winter, "me" and Todd. They are college students who are trapped in the garden of Eden in the spiritual world. they are young, bored, and idle. They like to daydream while walking and argue endlessly about what they have imagined. They think and argue about what they see and what is boring. For example, they saw an old man walking alone in the snow in an overcoat, wrapped not only in a thick coat and hat but also in misery that we did not know, as if he had just come out of Chekhov's novel. It may be the literariness of the old man that makes the two boys start their fantasy games.
first, they argued about what coat and hat the old man wore, and because Today came out with the new word Inuit, I began to cling to it, countering what he said with the Inuit character. (sometimes we don't hesitate to sell our flaws to enjoy the freshness. For example, there is an episode in TBBT in which Sheldon invents a new Spock game of stone and paper scissors, so he and Leonard will always play Spock, and lose the game. Then they began to give the old man his identity and role, imagining him as Romanian, Croatian, or Russian, and imagining his wife, daughter, and all the trivial details of his life. The old man became their fantasy toy, and they kept throwing out the language that slipped from their lips and whipped the top of their imagination, having a lot of fun.
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in the novel, there is also the role of a university professor, teaching logic, whose name is Ilgauskas. The name is created by Dorrian for their amusement. Derrio is very obsessed with the concepts of language and name. The last novel I read was "name." in that book, one of the core ideas he put forward was that different cultures have different concepts of reality. Because there is a basic prescriptive structure; The expression of language prescribing instinct is the basic need of human beings. it not only expresses ideas but also constructs reality. In this short story, after the boy released the words "reindeer, seal and ice floe", he half summed up and half explained to the reader as the author: "sometimes act on impulse and put aside the meaning." Make language a reality. This is the essence of our walk-to express what already exists in the outside world, the scattered rhythm of all facts and events, and reconstruct it into the human voice. "
the role of a university professor here can represent language, facts, and pre-determined meaning. He made "we" not want to like him but just wanted to believe him. He challenged the reason for "we" to exist, the idea of "us", the way "we" live, and "we" to judge whether things are true or false. The truth is to imagine the cliffs of the world.
later, I had a conversation with a female classmate, mainly about the professor, and got a message from her. The female classmate said that she and the professor had a face-to-face conversation in a small restaurant. He also asked him what book he was reading and "what book was he reading?" "I," asked. The girl said that the professor's exact words were "watching Dostoevsky day and night." great. This message is not only new, but it may also be true, which excites "me". In the next brain-filling competition against Chekhov, "I" first described Chekhov as the professor's father. and then threw out this blockbuster-"there's something you don't know about Ilgoskas." "what?" Asked Todd. "he read Dostoevsky day and night." What does that mean? First, for the professor who represents the fait accompli, knowing what he is reading is almost tantamount to opening a gap in the fact, a gap in the "moment of humanity", and Dostoevsky. Is there anything more humane in the world than Dostoevsky? Second, in the fantasy competition with Todd, "I" came to a small and the best part. "I" properly embedded a charming fact into their imagination, like throwing a diamond into the quagmire. "I" is very proud of this, and this complacency overflows, infecting bored readers.
in the next ten days, "We" no longer saw the old man Chekhov and began to worry about whether he was dead. Once the old man died, the imagination game of "we" would come to a dismal end. And one night, when the old man showed up again, Todd and I were so happy that "we" pointed at each other and maintained this funny gesture of mutual approval. "We" ran excitedly to wait for the old man's way. We saw his depressed face up close, the overcoat he was wearing, and even the buttons clenched by his painful hands. "We" 's imagination was partially verified. The game won. But Todd is not satisfied, he wants more, he wants to talk to old people in the imaginary world, the attraction of facts is like the black tablet in the movie "2001 Space Odyssey." Todd may just be attracted by the facts, or he may just want to make a comeback in the game. But I strongly object, because once the imagination comes into contact with the facts, it may be dashed at any time. I don't want to be disillusioned. Imagination is the core of the story.
"I don't believe you're not curious. All we're doing is looking for parallel lives. This does not affect everything we have been talking about. " Todd said.
"It affects everything, it's a violation, it's ridiculous."
"We" got into a fight in the street. "I" wanted to hit him in the liver, but I didn't know where the liver was in the body. At last, Todd broke free, got up, and ran to the old man who was about to turn the corner. I picked up the glove I had dropped in the snow and looked at Todd, who was running desperately to the old Chekhov, and the imagination of running desperately to the truth. That's the end of the story.
this story reminds me of a friend I had when I was in college. We were bored with each other all day, farting and throwing boring words around like playing ping-pong. For example, one day I told him something he didn't know. I was a little proud, and he was very upset and said, "Why?" Because what I told him was a basic concept such as "the earth is an entity," I couldn't explain why he was immediately victorious, like picking up a good weapon, and then no matter what I said, he would use "Why?" To fight back against me, until on the way to the Internet bar, he kept teasing me, I no longer want to pay attention to him, and then he may feel that he has gone a little too far, so he took the initiative to be nice to me (initiating a topic in our game is a kind of goodwill), "Hey, that girl was also called Zhao Na in the past." His girlfriend's name is Zhao Na. I glanced at him and said, "Why?" Then he got annoyed and ignored me all day.
when we are young, our confusion about the world and ourselves grow like hormones, and no school or teacher can give us an answer. So my little friend and I found the exit of language, connected it with imagination, and became our secret channel. We talk in this channel every day, talking about entities, talking about virtual bodies, talking about memories, talking about girls talking about sex, talking about every stranger coming head-on, talking about concepts and universes we don't understand, talking about death and unknown we are afraid of. To continue, we even create some meaningless words and then use these words to open up a new world that is even more meaningless. These chaotic and indescribable words are nothing else, but our equally chaotic and indescribable spiritual world at that time. Just like there is a ball of wire in your heart, you can't untie it like a headphone wire, so you can only tear it apart and tear it open a little bit to see and breathe.