Roundup Post #2 for November 1: Nicky

Throughout Chapter 6, we see Raskolnikov come to terms with his nihilism (albeit somewhat unsteadily). He is increasingly willing to upend the social expectation that he value self-preservation, as we see him heavily implicate himself as the murderer in front of Zamyotov. However, Dostoyevsky makes an important distinction regarding Raskolnikov's apparent disregard for his own life when Raskolnikov witnesses a woman's attempted suicide at --------sky Bridge.
     Dostoyevsky first notes the woman's disconnectedness from everyone: "She was looking straight at [Raskolnikov], but obviously saw nothing and recognized no one" (Dostoyevsky 169). This woman, who is about to attempt suicide, seems to share Raskolnikov's alienation from the rest of humanity, as she is "looking straight at" Raskolnikov but nonetheless "sees nothing." Raskolnikov, because he doubts his own perception of reality, also "sees nothing" in others and fiercely desires to be left alone, separated from what he cannot accept as true with complete confidence.
     However, despite this seeming similarity between the woman and Raskolnikov, he regards the woman's suicide attempt with "a strange feeling of indifference and detachment. [The woman's suicide attempt] was disgusting to him" (Dostoyevsky 170). What Dostoyevsky indicates with Raskolnikov's aversion to the woman's actions is a clear articulation of Raskolnikov's existential form of nihilism. Raskolnikov sees the actions of the woman as "disgusting" because, although it is an expression of disdain for the value of human life (that is, by being willing to extinguish it), he wants to meet with death on his own terms. Raskolnikov's firm belief in only what he can consider as an individual creates his reaction of "indifference and attachment" to the thoughts and expressions of another individual, however nihilistic they may be.
     To be clear, Raskolnikov does not reject the woman's actions because he sees inherent value in life, but rather because he wants to die in a different manner; by turning himself in to the police, he can receive full condemnation from society. He articulates this individually inspired plan of action when he says to himself, "'Nothing will come of it' … 'no point in waiting. What's that - the police station?" (Dostoyevsky 170). Thus, Raskolnikov indicates that he does not see inherent meaning in anything, but still makes it clear that he values his own individual choice to end his own life through his rejection of society at large (putting his beliefs more in line with existential nihilism).

Roundup Post #1 for November 1: Maddy

Up until the end of chapter 5, Raskolnikov has remained a passive character, only thinking for himself in a state of near-unconsciousness or while he is not doing anything per se, and only taking action (e.g. killing the two women) in a state of mechanical mental passivity. During his feeble state in Part 2, while his various friends and other miscellaneous characters tend to him, it seems Raskolnikov is restricted by his medical predicament to his peers. When his future brother-in-law appears, Raskolnikov attempts to engage with him and manages to start an argument with some sort of lucidity and coherence, but ultimately finishes it in the same form of dialogue we have seen before. Towards the end, though, Raskolnikov successfully offends Pyotr Petrovich and kicks out his friends spitefully, feigning illness once again. It is here that Raskolnikov, for the first time in the novel, takes agency, and leaves his apartment. While he ends up wandering around for the first part, when he sees Zamyatov, he purposefully engages, manages to argue with Zamyatov, and take control of his actions. In fact his magnanimity only increases, and as we reach the climax of part 2, it seems the battle he was fighting toward the beginning of part 2 is finally won over, as Raskolnikov renounces money, and gives his time and money to the family of the drunkard we met in part 1, Marmaledov. This represents his finding his place in nihilism, making his philosophy concrete. He is able to argue his place, take action, and interact with the rest of humanity.

Roundup Post for October 25: Tolstoy, Consciousness, and Murder

"Raskolnikov's real life did not take place when he was killing the old woman or her sister. When he was killing the first old woman and still more her sister, he was not living his real life; rather, he was acting like a machine, he was doing something that he was not capable of doing: he was firing a charge which had been loaded inside him a long time before. One old woman had been killed, the other stood there in front of him, the axe was in his hand.
"Raskolnikov's real life took place not when he was facing the old woman's sister, but before he had killed either old woman, when he had not yet stood in a strange apartment in order to murder, when he had not yet held an axe in his hand, and did not have a loop in the overcoat on which he hung the axe--it took place before he had even thought of the old woman, when he was lying at home on his sofa, not thinking at all about the old woman or even about whether one could, on the basis of an individual's decision, wipe another human being, a superfluous and harmful being, off the face of the earth. His real life took place when he was thinking about whether or not he ought to live in Petersburg, whether or not he should accept money from his mother, about questions which had nothing to do with the old woman. The decision whether or not he would kill the old woman was made then, in that animal sphere of life completely independent of reality. Those decisions were not made when he stood in front of the other woman with an axe in his hand, but rather when he was not yet acting but only thinking, when only his consciousness was active, when barely perceptible changes were taking place in that consciousness. It is then that the greatest possible lucidity of thought is particularly important for the correct solution of the question which arises, and it is then that one glass of beer, one smoked cigarette can impair the solution to the problem, hinder its solution, deafen the voice of the consequence, and cause the question to be decided in favor of one's lower animal nature, as it was with Raskolnikov."
--Leo Tolstoy, from "Why Do Men Stupify Themselves?"

Writing Schedule (Due at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday)

November 1: Nicky, Maddy
November 8: Lisa, Lev
November 15: Tristen
November 22: Charlie, Gabo
December 2: Annalise

Facilitation Schedule

November 1: Natalie, Evan
November 8: Sam, Shannon
November 15: Spencer, Emily
November 22: Juliet
December 2: Henry, Rachel

(Note: all responses must be posted by 9:00 p.m. on Thursday)