Shakespeare just doesn't do it for me. His plays seem very classical to me. Which is nice, but I don't relate to it as much. Dostoevsky's russia seems so real. I feel that he really had a grasp of mankind. He seemed to really love a lot of his characters. He had a certain faith in mankind. His villains such as Luzhin are not villains by disreguard for law but for their lack of remorse and hatred towards mankind. But even then, in the Brother's Karamazov, Rakitin is much more despisable than Smerdyakov, and Smerdyakov is a vile person that committed a heinous act.
I've always liked modern literature more I guess, and Dostoevsky is considered to be the father of it, so it sort of makes sense that I'd like Dostoevsky more. It is like comparing Wagner to the Pixies, or even Wagner to Beethoven.
OT: Anyone find it interesting that Ian Curtis was an epileptic and he hung himself just like Smerdyakov the epileptic? He was supposedly also listening to the Idiot by Iggy Pop.
|