October 2008 Archives

A group of Upper School students is taking on a challenge and reading one of those often-maligned gigantic Russian novels.  This one is considered by many to be one of the best novels ever written in any language. 

We've read Books 1 and 2 (about 80 pages) and plan to meet again tomorrow, over pizza, to finish discussing the first part of the book.   

We decided today that the characters seem like a 21st-century dysfunctional family, and that we could see how the 19th-century political climate led to the Russian revolution.  We also talked a little about the Eastern Orthodox churches and how they differ from the Catholic Church, how 19th-century Russians liked to show off their status by speaking French, and how Dostoevsky had already been through prison, narrowly missed being executed, and experienced the loss of a 3-year-old son.

Update:

We met on the next day and finished talking about Book 2, where the father embarrasses the entire family in front of the spiritual guru, elderly Father Zossima.  Zossima gently tells the father to be sure not to lie to himself, and he gives this same advice to another visitor later.  He seems to have a healing effect on the people who come to him, but he insists that he doesn't perform miracles.

A crime is predicted at the end of Book 2.  The next meeting will be on November 20, and we'll discuss Books 3 and 4.