Posts Tagged ‘dostoevsky’
silent . observer
December 4th, 2008
silent . observer, originally uploaded by s t e r n f a h r e r.
silent . observer, originally uploaded by s t e r n f a h r e r.
“In a morbid condition of the brain, dreams often have a singular actuality, vividness, and extraordinary semblance of reality. At times monstrous images are created, but the setting and the whole picture are so truth-like and filled with details so delicate, so unexpectedly, but so artistically consistent, that the dreamer, were he an artist like Pushkin or Turgenev even, could never have invented them in the waking state. Such sick dreams always remain long in the memory and make a powerful impression on the overwrought and deranged nervous system.”
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Tags: art, dostoevsky, dreams, nightmares, reality, through the looking glass
Posted in Photoblog, Politics/Ideas | Comments (0)
free . to . choose
November 30th, 2008
free . to . choose, originally uploaded by s t e r n f a h r e r.
free . to . choose, originally uploaded by s t e r n f a h r e r.
There’s a hum in the air. I’m sure I can hear it. I can feel it. It’s so loud, it hurts my mind. I’m numb, I can’t take my mind off it, I don’t know what to do about it. No one can help me. No one else can even hear it. I’m writing this down. In the middle of nowhere, in the middle of notime, with no thought in my head. Only the humming in the air around me, and footsteps approaching.
Who is it? I can’t see. It’s dark. “Who is it!?”, I shout. The darkness laughs back in silence. Am I awake, or is this a dream? What does it mean, to be awake, if this is being awake? What does it mean to be dreaming, if this is a dream? If this is a dream, whose dream is it? It can’t be mine. It must be someone else’s dream. But how can that be? Can you be awake, can you be aware, in someone else’s dream?
The mind shudders to accept what should not be.
A light approaches. No. It’s not approaching. It’s fading away. Should I follow? I’m afraid. Being in the darkness for so long I now fear the light. Do I stay here and wait? Do I follow the light?
I move towards it. The hum grows stronger. Am I doing the right thing? The hum reverberates in my head. The light dancing on my eyes breathes new horror with each flicker. But it’s all in my mind. I’m sure I have to follow this light. I walk.
There’s a door, made of blinding light. I walk through. It’s light everywhere. Bright, white, blinding light. I keep walking. I look around, I look back. There’s nothing there. It’s all light now. Only a speck of darkness in all of it. The dark door from which I emerged.
The humming starts again. It dawns on me then. I am lost.
Tags: dostoevsky, existentialism, Friedman, ideas, life, Lovecraft, nature of choice, Nietzsche, philosophy
Posted in Politics/Ideas, reflections | Comments (4)
a . m o m e n t . o f . d o u b t April 8th, 2008
on . the . other . side . of . madness
Originally uploaded by sesquipedalophobic
‘I don’t believe in a future life,’ said Raskolnikov
Svidrigailov sat lost in thought.
‘And what if there are only spiders there, or something of that sort?’ he said suddenly.
He is a madman, thought Raskolnikov
‘We always imagine eternity as something beyond our conception, something vast, vast! But why must it be vast? Instead of that, what if it’s one little room, like a bathhouse in the country, black and grimy and spiders in every corner, and that’s all eternity is? I sometimes fancy it like that.’
‘Can it be you can imagine nothing juster and more comforting than that?’ Raskolnikov cried, with a feeling of anguish.
‘Juster. And how can we tell, perhaps that is just, and do you know it’s what I would certainly have made it,’ answered Svidrigailov, with a vague smile.
This horrible answer sent a cold chill through Raskolnikov.
Svidrigailov raised his head, looked at him, and suddenly began laughing.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
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Tags: dostoevsky, flickr, Photoblog
Posted in Books, Photography | Comments (0)
