Big, Blue $43.8 million Newman “Zip” Painting On the 8 th of October, a lift technician at a museum in the Netherlands mistakenly threw away a piece of artwork made to look like two empty beer cans. Last year, the infamous artwork consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall was eaten by a hungry visitor to a gallery in Seoul, South Korea. Last month, I went to an art gallery and convulsed my face in disdain at the random blobs of paint that covered the canvases on the high walls. Modern art can be quite the sore spot for us connoisseurs. The painful abstract paintings, novels of base vocabulary, CGI drowned movies and music made on one beats app with auto-tune or nonsense lyrics physically hurt. I know I sound like your grandmother here, but bear with me when I ask you; how do you feel when you see a plain canvas covered entirely in blue paint? What emotions does a blue rectangle evoke? To me, none. But what if I told you that rectangle sold for almost $44 million? You’d probably a
And sometimes we are devils to ourselves
When we will tempt the frailty of our powers,
Presuming on their changeful potency.
-Troilus and Cressida
I have just finished another work by Fyodor Dostoevsky and am tempted to write about it. His work is like a gift that keeps on giving. Those who know the feeling of it crawl and linger in the recesses of the mind may understand. I am persuaded to love and respect Dostoevsky more and more each day. I have felt so since I first read Notes from the Underground, then Crime and Punishment and now Devils. Each of his works influenced me so appreciably that I fail to recollect the state of my mind and thought before I read them.
I have found Devils to be different from his previous works. Another fact is that I positively took my time to read it. Thus, I had the opportunity to not only devour it, but to savour it to the fullest extent.
In this novel, Dostoevsky exhibits his remarkable abilities as a master storyteller, psychologist and even prophet. All characters are given their way, voice and stance. The grandeur of having them all so fully developed is that this does not feel like a mere fiction story. I feel that Dostoevsky has studied humanity so minutely, so intricately that he deciphered the code by which it was created. He knows every fibre, every thread of thought in the people's minds which he develops into his characters as though knitting. This is his secret recipe and why even in their most dramatic and delirious moments his characters are deeply, most innocently human.
The story is based in a fictitious town in Russia after the emancipation of the serfs, that is the 1860s. A socialistic secret society tries to orchestrate a bloody revolution through anarchy and destruction, leading people desperate for a guiding light, then to appear as saviours and seize control. It has about 30 characters, from drunkards to aristocrats, midwives to ex-serfs, and is narrated as a record by one of them. The book has five primary ideological characters. Through their philosophies, Dostoyevsky describes the political chaos in 19th century Russia.
Devils is a story of the power of ideology. One conflict has always persisted since the beginning of time - the conflict of generations. One generation has to usurp the predecessor, bring reform and freshness to life. If they are held back by ignorance or tradition, the frustration boils over and they create ideas to live for. Dostoevsky shows how the 'great ideas’ are manipulated exuberantly and how far people will go for them. You only have to offer temptation.
I have felt that Dostoevsky enjoyed pouring out his soul into its pages. Especially the character Ivan Shatov; a Slavophile, partly Christian and nationalist who quits the secret society. Shatov's traits are similar to the dear writer himself and might represent so. A friend of Shatov's, Alexey Kirillov lives like a hermit, thinks too much and deliriously. He is suicidal but with an ideology – that he will 'sacrifice’ himself for the redemption of humanity. This fascinating character is my favourite and deserves to be discussed in a different essay. He may represent the thinker in Dostoevsky. Shatov and Kirillov are not on the best terms with each other. It is plausible for an orthodox Russian traditionalist and a thinker wandering to nihilism and godlessness to represent the two sides of an inner conflict.
Many Biblical references are propounded. Almost everyone struggles with their faith – as Russia in the 1860s. The book of Apocalypse is referenced multiple times to make very interesting points. The verses of Luke 8:32-37 are set as the motto.
"A herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them.
Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.
Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
And they were afraid. "
Devils plucks all hints to redemption and revolution from life, looking for an answer – is there salvation for humanity? To end agony, we have to be saved from devils. The mirror is shown to us in the pages – the devils are inside ourselves. What if humanity was freed from its devils? Dostoyevsky's novels imply that utopias are unrealistic and unobtainable. Multiple characters attempt to controvert, decorating the book with immense philosophical depth.
Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky offers you abundant food for thought but the conclusion is up to you. It is for you to recognise your devils and what to do with them.
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