
Dostoevsky’s Empathy - lermontov
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/11/11/dostoevskys-empathy/
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keiferski
One of my favorite character studies is a brief section in Dostoyevsky's _The
House of the Dead_. The man truly understood people.

 _He was a man with a terrible strength of will and a proud awareness of his
strength . . . [He] . . . was not really quite an ordinary mortal. . . . I can
say unequivocally that never in my life have I met a man of stronger, more
adamantine character. . . . This was truly a case of total victory over the
flesh. It was evident that this man had a boundless self-mastery, that he had
nothing but contempt for any kind of torture and punishment, and that he was
not afraid of anything under the sun. All that could be seen in him was an
infinite energy, a thirst for activity, for revenge, and for the attainment of
the goal he had set himself. I was also struck by his strange arrogance. He
looked at everything in an incredibly haughty manner. . . . I do not think
that there was any being in the world that could have influenced him by its
authority alone._

~~~
ianai
I need to reread that book. I remember being profoundly moved by it but I
can't quite put it to words well. He captured the heart of the impoverished
and especially the criminal.

~~~
allisthemoist
Reminds me of Dickens' portrayal of Sydney Carton in Tale of Two Cities.
Dickens' ability to peer into the soul of Carton moved me in ways no longer
work has before.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far,
far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

------
du_bing
"As if you suddenly sense the whole of nature and suddenly say: yes … this is
not tenderheartedness, but simply joy … what’s most frightening is that it’s
so terribly clear, and there’s such joy. If it were to last longer than five
seconds—the soul could not endure it and would vanish."

This is quite true, I have epilepsy myself, I can feel what he feels, the
seconds when brain is purely clear about the world around, incredible. I love
all his books, and his biography.

He had 102 seizures during 1860-1881, that's about one seizure every 2-3
months, this is the frequency I have seizure too, it's all grand mal seizure.
It have been big problem from early centuries, and now, it's still a big
problem in modern society.

I want to help those people with epilepsy someday with some kinds of
technology somehow, I know they are all leading a hard life in this world,
inclulding myself.

