>constant memestoevsky threads are filled with political shitposting

>>9625291
Teens seeking guidance through YouTube videos and memes don't have the attention span for half the books Peterson recommends, and those that do manage to finish seven hundred pages are too mentally exhausted to actually digest it and their only real accomplishment is having "finished" the book.

nabokov was a poser, and his translations are better than his prose.

>>9625359
This is why, honestly, you shouldn't feel pressured to power through books. I've never understood the obsession /lit/ sometimes has with reading speed and finishing a backlog. If it takes you a long time to read a book, and you read slowly, that's fine, so long as you comprehend it and appreciate it. It took me months to read Moby-Dick for the first time, but when I was done it was my favorite novel.

>a certain canadian hack with hair transplants told them to

im glad i have no idea who you're talking about

I have yet to meet someone under the age of 21 who has read crime&punishment, anna karenina, war and peace, and could discuss it.

>>9625373
how about 13 heh :p

>>9625291
bely was crazy as hell. you know he went back and edited the fuck out of petersburg? he cut away hundreds of pages. i have both versions, i went through the longer of the two, which is criticized for being too loose in its translation. it was utterly spellbinding at times. the story of the son of an official and trying to assassinate him with a clock bomb seemed so simple compared to what the work really presents. so many allusions to history, and the locals, the richness reminded me of Joyce, but only in a raw sense. incomplete. probably because of the translation, maybe. anyone else read either version of petersburg? any of you human myriapod?

>>9625377
>Read, AND could discuss it.
There are no 13 year olds who have anything remotely interesting to say about any classic lit.

>>9625291
>Nabokov was absolutely right,

this is a dumb take. 'Petersburg' is itself heavily influenced by Dostoevsky. in some ways its a spiritual sequel to and synthesis of 'Demons' and 'Crime and Punishment'

maybe Bely was good, and Dosto also good? No?

>>9626238
Much agreed, Bely is my favorite author and the longer edition of Petersburg is my favorite book. It's hard to explain why I enjoy it so much, but his language even in translation is fantastic. Petersburg is the reason I am learning Russian.

>>9626303
I believe the scene With Nikolai Apollonovich and Pavel Morkovin in the cafe is a direct reference/parody of Porfiry Petrovich's confrontation with Raskolnikov in C&P. Bely definitely was a fan of Dosto

>>9626411
have you read the version he edited?

File: wacky bely.jpg (52KB, 507x823px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 507x823px

>>9626435
Yes, I've read the Maguire/Malmstad translation of one of his shorter editions of Petersburg. I definitely think that it is inferior to the original 1916 edition, so many beautiful moments were cut out. It's still great for what it is, but it feels like the highlights of the original Petersburg instead of a cohesive whole.

>>9626447
that's a bit depressing, i was worried that having read the unedited, i would feel as though the work was butchered afterwards. i guess i'll just read the edited, and if i can't bear it, i'll go back to the first. good to know there's another bely fan. did you ever read his other work, the dove or whatever it was?

>>9625373
what exactly is the point of reading like 1500 pages that Tolstoy regrets writing

if youre under 21 there are dozens of novels you should read before tolstoys

>>9626506
He's got quite an array of lesser known work. The Silver Dove is great and definitely shows his bizarre philosophy and interest in cults. Kotik Letaev and the Dramatic Symphony are amazing as well. The first volume of his Moscow trilogy was recently translated but I haven't read it yet. The same goes with the Christened Chinaman which I have yet to get my hands on.

>>9626530
i had no idea he had such an overwhelming oeuvre. i'm still flabberghasted by petersburg. i'd have to double back through my projected book list before i could even imagine immersing myself in all of that. in a way, the edited version is a godsend. i have so many other maximalist geniuses to swim through, it'll be nice to just get some highlights before pressing on.

i guess i just have mixed feelings about it.

>>9626560
I get that, Bely is a very strange author and his work can be very overwhelming, if you persevere I'm sure that whichever version of Petersburg you end up finishing will be a reading experience you won't forget. Regardless, I wish you the best!

>>9625368
Exactly. I remember when I was like an anxious 16 year old someone on this board recommended I read Kafka. So I picked up The Castle, charged through it, understood nothing. Didn't read another book for 2 or so years. Then started reading again, eventually reread The Castle, it's now one of my favourite books. There is no reason for teenagers to read books like that. You can't understand most literature until you actually know what adult life is like