Book Review: Notes from Underground By Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

First published in 1964, this novel is considered as one of Dostoyevsky’s most famous novels. Notes from Underground narrates the story of an unmade narrator who had gone underground as a protest against social utopia. This self-opposing account examines the moral and intellectual fluctuations of the narrator and man’s inherent illogical nature.

Some of the dialogues in the novel are as follows:

·     .- ‘I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness- a real thorough-going illness’ (p. 10).

·      - Man is so ungrateful that you could not find another like him in all creation (p. 29).

·       -Reason satisfies only the rational side of man’s nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life (p.32).

·       -Narrating about his office environment he mentions about the officials in his office who ‘talked about excise duty; about business in the senate, about salaries, about promotions, about His Excellency, and the best means of pleasing him, and so on’ (p. 64).

This novel has a very different writing style and plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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Book Review: An Appeal to the Toiling, Oppressed and Exhausted Peoples of Europe By Leon Trotsky

 

Speeches of Leon Trotsky are compiled in this book.  Some the themes which are covered include critique of capitalism, the need for revolution, his opposition to Stalin, and the political developments of his time. Trotsky wants the working class to recover itself and fight for peace. Criticizing the propertied classes, he says that for them the monarchy is the most reliable ally in their struggle against the revolutionary offensive of the proletariat. The Soviet leader gave three percepts. One, trust not the bourgeoisie. Two, control our own leaders and third, have confidence in our own revolutionary strength (p.24).

The author condemns secret diplomacy during negotiations. In a speech delivered in Moscow on April 14 1918, Trotsky says that ‘All those phrases about ‘democarcy’, ‘the fate of small nationalities’, ‘justice’, God’s commands’ – all these are but words, phrases used for the purpose of cheating the common people; in reality the powers are only looking out for unprotected booty in order to pocket it. This I say is the essence of imperialist policy’ (p.60).

Trotsky mentions that the genuine bourgeois thinks that nature itself has destined him to dominate. He warns that if the revolution did not spread to other countries, then it would be crushed by European capitalism (p.70). He further stresses on the intellectual development of women. Criticizing the anarchist communists Trotsky states that there is a need for state apparatus when a country as big as Russia plans to organize its economic system whereas the anarchist believed that the working class did not need state power as it was a bourgeoisie machine (p.82).

Trotsky praises Lenin’s personality and his efforts for the cause. According to him Lenin is the ‘fusion of a courageous, unwavering mind and a steeled and inflexible will’ (p. 100). He also condemns the assassination attempt on his life.  For Marx, he says that he was ‘the greatest of all fighters and thinkers who anticipated and pointed out the paths to a new history (p.97).

The author heavily criticizes the bureaucracy as he considers is an ‘embodiment of monstrous inequality. The revolution destroyed the nobility. The bureaucracy creates a new gentry. The revolution destroyed titles and decorations. The new aristocracy produces marshals and generals. The new aristocracy absorbs an enormous part of the national income. Its position before the people is deceitful and false. Its leaders are forced to hide the reality, to deceive the masses, to cloak themselves, calling black white. The whole policy of the new aristocracy is a frame-up. The new constitution is nothing but a frame-up’ (p125).

Trotsky believes that socialism is only possible when independent activity of the masses and the flourishing of the human personality takes place. Furthermore, he strongly believes in a communist future and wants the future generations to cleanse life of all evil, oppression and violence.

 

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Book Review: Civil Society by Michael Edwards

 

In this book the idea of civil society is presented by Michael Edwards. Edwards provides the theoretical and practical importance of civil society. He presents it as a basis for action. Civil society means different things to different people, plays different roles at different times and constitutes both problem and solution. Much deeper action is required in politics, economics and social life if civil society is to be effective vehicle for change.

The principal ingredient in volunteering is enthusiasm not necessarily an activism driven by a particular social vision. Voluntary associations are arenas for personal ambition and power as well as for sacrifice and service (p.44). The author says that avoiding debate is never the sign of a robust civic culture (p. 68).

Associational life that ignores power structures or substitutes for state responsibilities is unlikely to contribute very much. An inclusive and well-articulated associational ecosystem can be the driving force of the good society, but the achievements of the good society are what make possible the independence and level playing field that underpin a democratic associational life (p. 91).

The author says that increase in participation is welcome, since we learn to be citizens not through books or training but through experience and action (p. 102). The author states that in the West voluntary associations are less vulnerable to the whims of aid agencies as their sources of funding diverse (p. 104). Edwards says that civil society helps us to interpret and change the world. It is what we as active citizens make it. Civil society is the force for positive social change.

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Book Review: Friedrich Nietzsche: A Biography by Curtis Cate

 

Friedrich Nietzsche was the son of a Lutheran clergyman with a modest bourgeois background. He disliked Middle-class conformity and favored ‘aristocratic radicalism’. His aphorisms and statements are quite puzzling. They can be better understood within the context of his agitated life. In this biography Cate provides the reader with an interesting account of Nietzsche’s life. It makes it easier for the reader to understand his viewpoints. This includes experiences from his early life, relationships with his family members, time spent at boarding school, education, university teaching, friendships, travels and books.

Nietzsche was fascinated by Arthur Schopenhauer. He did not read Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, nor read Karl Marx’s works, other than Communist Manifesto. Nietzsche says that the German language gives him no pleasure. What Nietzsche most disliked and despised in any human being- a smug hypocrite. Nietzsche says that ‘I live as though the centuries were nothing, and I pursue my thoughts without thinking of newspapers or the date’ (p. 301). He also condemned romantic affectivity, excessive emotionalism and spiritual hysteria (p. 306).

Nietzsche met a Russian lady named Lou Salome, whom he wanted to marry for two years. Things were not smooth between them. Nietzsche’s sister played a big role in furthering their divide. Nietzsche’s sister Elisabeth discovered that Lou had been showing around a photograph in which Lou herself was seated in a little cart by her two harnessed ‘workhorses’. One of the work horses was Nietzsche and the other one was Paul Ree. Elisabeth got really upset.

Cate quotes Ida Overbeck, who writes about Nietzsche in the following words: ‘He knew how to listen and take in, but he never revealed himself completely or clearly. To hold himself back in concealment was for him a necessity; it was not truly a distrust towards others, rather it was a distrust towards himself and the response he encountered’ (p. 331). Nietzsche himself once wrote that ‘I am only too happy to leave my plans in concealment.’ Nietzsche believed that the value of any civilization or culture depends on the number of geniuses and masterpieces it can produce. He also regarded every kind of involuntarily accepted work as a form of slavery. He disliked businessmen and industrial magnates because of their ‘swaggering self-importance’ and ‘loud-mouthed vulgarity’ (p. 361).

Nietzsche ‘conceived his mission as a thinker to be that of the herald of a new ‘dawn’ in philosophical thinking, the prophet of a new, more honest, less visionary morality, purged and purified of a vast accretion of moral, political, social and metaphysical prejudices and misconceptions which had reduced the vast majority of his contemporaries to a collective condition of sheep-like stupidity’ (p. 400). In Zarathustra’s tenth discourse he writes: ‘If you cannot be the saints of knowledge, at least be its warriors’. On page 409 the author quotes Nietzsche, who says that ‘Man should be educated for warfare, and woman for the relaxation of the warrior: everything else is folly’.

Nietzsche’s work had a lot of symbolism. He used to carry a notebook when he would go for walks. He believes that most original thoughts occurred at night. He rejects moral system because according to him this system rejects the vital need for order of rank, on which all healthy cultures of the past were based. He believes that ‘From Woman comes every mischief in the world’ (p. 532). He also considers Christianity a stupid and anti-intellectual religion.

Nietzsche lost control over his senses. He was taken to Jena. His mother looked after him. When she passed away his sister Elisabeth took the charge. Meta Von Salis agreed to buy a house where Nietzsche was to live for the rest of his life. Throughout his life Nietzsche suffered because of weak eyesight, violent headaches and bouts of nausea. He died on the 25^th of August after a heart attack.

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