Everything interesting I learned in my first year as a literature student
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- Опубликовано: 29 июл 2024
- In this video I'm talking about everything I enjoyed learning in my first year at uni as a comparative literature student. Enjoy! :-)
Sorry for the messed up audio sync in the middle, I'm not sure how it happened and I saw it too late to fix it.
Consider supporting the channel financially. I appreciate it! ❤️
ko-fi.com/strangelucidity
contact: strange.lucidity0@gmail.com
Time stamps:
00:00 Intro
02:40 The 12 courses I took
03:38 Support the channel :-)
04:03 Philosophy of language
07:14 How to talk about books I haven’t read, Musil
11:20 Translation: Irony & Double Meaning + Link cards
13:42 Flaubert on Literature + The value of information about books
16:50 How to craft a solid argument
20:04 The concept of TIME in literature
22:34 Being in a system without accepting
24:12 Platon and Aristotle on literature - Truth or Katharsis?
26:06 Learning a language is messy
28:36 Myths as metaphors
30:39 The limits of language
32:10 Novels to navigate individuality
33:52 How to love a book
36:00 Paris as the literary capital
36:46 Making peace with postmodern literature
39:55 Kafka on power
42:33 Thomas Bernhards influence
43:52 The origins of language & the sense of time
Thank you all for being here!
Wow, y'all I can't keep up with the flood of comments this video is bringing in ❤ I had no idea this would reach so many people. I usually try to respond to everyone personally but I'll have to give up on this one. I want you to know though that I do read and appreciate every single on of them. I'm incredibly touched and humbled by your comments and so glad that the video resonates. Thanks for the support, the kindness you show me and the boost of motivation. I truly have the best audience ever. More coming soon! Sending much love to all of you!
One of the most interesting videos I have seen on literature on RUclips! I am 73 and just started reading classical literature, poetry, and philosophy. I really wish I had started at your age. Thank you for your insights. I just subscribed to your channel. 💕🌷🌷
🙏🏻
never too late to start
@SLP8041, given your wealth of life experiences, you have a unique perspective that can deeply connect with the text. This will make for an enriching experience that few others can enjoy. You can still thoroughly enjoy literature!
Found this so compelling I decided to return to an English literature degree with the Open University I'd abandoned 15 years ago, so thank you for that.
Can't remember a more enjoyable/perplexing hour spent online. I'm currently working on a novel (not too post-modernist, I hope) and you have me completely intimidated. I think I'll take today off and go for a long walk.
Your comment totally made my day!
Thanks for the video, I'm a male in my 50s and have a love of literature. Most of friends read almost nothing. So, it is nice to listen to someone like yourself with a passion for good books. I wish I had more time to read and think about it. This was a nice overview -and distraction!
I’d happily watch a 1 hour video for each “lesson” you listed on this video. Very excited to keep learning more about your studies!
Thanks again Maria for letting us take part in your studies in such a detailled way. I wish you all the best for your move to Paris and am looking very much forward to your videos from there!
Thank you so much for your support all the time 🙏🏻
My favourite video! I was looking for something like that.
My eternal longing and unfulfilled ambition to study literature has been satisfied. Thank you!
Maria, I love knowing that there is someone who is as passionate about literature as you are, as I am. Watching you going through your observations during your first year in Vienna, discussing topics such as Flaubert and parallel editing I found to be totally fascinating. Discussions on time, language and perspective really hit the mark for me too. No wonder I’ve fallen in love with you!😊👍🙏
Everything about this video is fantastic. From the pace to the narrative style, absolutely in love. New to ur channel and I'm so gappy to have found it
Wow, this was such an insightful and soothing watch! I especially enjoyed your comments about not having to have read everything to join a conversation-I think that‘s so helpful for any humanities student to hear:) keep on making videos, this was awesome!
Loved every bit of this video! Thanks Maria!!
Thank you for the effort you put into this video. These type of discussions make me feel like I should be quiet and let the intelligent people talk, but in the end I can still get something valuable or interesting or thought provoking out of it. In this case, I liked the part about the reader's limitations and how one can picture a recipe for miscommunication between the, say, shortcommings between the two sides. Anyways, I hope your voice gets better!
OK, say, can we just take a moment to coalesce in our collective witnessing Maria take things to a whole new level of accomplishment in this video. Thank you Maria
You should take a drop of water when lecturing for that long my dear!
Oh, thank you so much ❤
This is the second video on your channel that I've watched this day, and again I want to write a comment to support the channel and say thanks for an interesting video!
So kind! I appreciate it a lot 🙏🏻
Thank you Maria for sharing & creating this super informative video. I love hearing all about your literature studies, it’s so interesting, I have taken lots of notes. Have a wonderful day 🤍☕️🫖🕊️
Aw it means a lot to me that you're writing all this. Sending you a big hug 🙏🏻✨
It is a blessing to have your videos
Thank you for that extremely thoughtful video, Maria! It has given me a ton of food for thought. It must be a pleasure for your professors to have such a perceptive student to teach.
🙏🏻Such a kind comment. That means a lot to me!
When I watched this the first time there were under 10K subscribers. Now as I write a few days later...11.8K! The way you eloquently covered so many interesting angles of your year, of literature. I took careful notes. I learned. I was inspired. I can't wait for the next one!
This is very beautiful. I am a Journalism student in Brazil and reading is my favourite thing, so I'm really interested in literature as well. I watched this while taking notes. I'm yet to watch your other videos, but I hope you do more in this format. Thank you for the amazing insights!
You quickly became one of my favourite channels on this platform. I found you thanks to your videos about Faust (I hope soon we can go further with the next parts of the book!) and I just had to stay. This video was absolutely delightful and made me so happy - really. Thank you for this!
This is what I needed❤❤❤ thank you. Love your love for language and literature
So interesting and well explained! Thank you ❤
Ååå du får meg til å savne litteraturstudiene. 🥺Takk for nydelig video. Jeg satte stor pris på alle dine refleksjoner. Så fint at professoren din ga deg slike gode råd, det er det ikke all som får. Jeg tror mange studenter kjenner på alt de ikke kan, selv om de er på universitetet nettopp for å lære. Gleder meg til å se flere av videoene dine! ❤
Subbed. This is the kind of stuff I’ve been looking for on this platform. Your points are well-presented and interesting (nice speaking voice), and your enthusiasm is apparent without being performative.
In another life I would have loved to stay in academia and pursue lit studies, and now that I’m in my 40s I’m finding myself wanting to rekindle that spark, seek some greater meaning or solace in this increasingly weird world. Your comments about Virginia Woolf inspired me to go back to her and dig deeper into her work, as someone who is kind of (neurotically) obsessed with time.
Great video, looking forward to more.
This was beautiful to watch! I learned so much from you!
Thank you so much for creating this video
Thank you for the effort, time and passion you put to your work. I enjoyed very much listening your thoughts about literature while working in the office.
Wish you the best on your career!
Amazing video, thanks for sharing it with us💕
This is such a helpful video and it also inspired me to reflect deeply on what I’ve learned in Uni because I did reflect on each year at the time so I feel like I missed a crucial step to actually getting a deeper understanding of what I learned and studied
I say this with all the appreciation/compassion in the world, but your love and interest in the small intricacies of literature convinced me not to get a degree in literature. I love writing! I so enjoy talking about books! But I got about 10 minutes into this video and I realized I understood what you were saying, that it was so valuable, and yet for me personally I could not picture myself spending years of my life studying stuff like this because I was already bored. Thank you for sharing! Your energy is so uplifting, and I appreciate you saving me from another grad school application season.
i love this video so much. im in the final year of my literature degree and the fact that ill no longer be a student next year is so haunting. watching you talk about bits of everything you've learnt makes me want to back to my notes and journals and cherish the time i have left here and all look forward to all the years that can be spent learning afterwards. bless u
Aw that's incredible! Thanks for sharing and I'm sending you a big hug!
I genuinely would love to keep listening to you all my life talking about literature :)
I loved watching this! ❤
Maria, you are a tower of inspiration for all of us who adore and celebrate art in every form. Your insights on comparative literature are like rare gems for the mind's eye .
I hope that one day, you might consider writing a book about literature so that everyone regardless of their specialty or expertise, would be able to catch a glimpse of the vastness and vision in this field.
Thankyou.
Thank you so much for saying all this. It means the world 🙏🏻
That was very inspiring! Thank you so much ❤
Engaging with books has significantly elevated my perspective on investing. True wealth isn't built through mere savings; financial freedom stems from strategic investments. I've learned that accumulating wealth hinges on making prudent investment decisions|
Embarking on the investment journey at 40, I envision a triumphant testimony of significant success by the age of 55.
Books have also changed my perspective on investing. Understanding that real wealth is built through strategic investments rather than mere savings is crucial. Working with an adviser has pointed me in the right direction.
'Angela Lynn Schilling’ maintains an online presence. Just make a simple search for her name online.
I am not a financial advisor.
Personally, I have zero investments. I only watch RUclips a lot, and here are my current thoughts:
There are three kinds of philosophies toward investing, in my opinion:
One:
“The goal of investment is to find situations where it is safe not to diversify.” - Charlie Munger
* Otherwise, the common wisdom of our time is to invest in low-cost index funds.
(However, in life, the 'common truths' of finance often told to the common people may not age well. Tellers may have conflicts of interest. :))
Two:
The Dave Ramsey method:
- Get out of debt.
- Pay off your mortgage.
- Save in your 401K (that means retirement fund).
Three:
Find ways to maximize your income streams.
P.S.
Finally, Charlie Munger predicted that the foreseeable future might be much tougher financially than the past leading up to the present. Predicting the next winning horse might be complicated; some might buy American index funds, some Indian index funds, and some Vietnamese index funds - aiming to get a slightly above-average return.
---
I hope this helps!
I am not a financial advisor.
Personally, I have zero investments. I only watch RUclips a lot, and here are my current thoughts:
There are three kinds of philosophies toward investing, in my opinion:
One:
“The goal of investment is to find situations where it is safe not to diversify.” - Charlie Munger
* Otherwise, the common wisdom of our time is to invest in low-cost index funds.
(However, in life, the 'common truths' of finance often told to the common people may not age well. Tellers may have conflicts of interest. :))
Two:
The Dave Ramsey method:
- Get out of debt.
- Pay off your mortgage.
- Save in your 401K (that means retirement fund).
Three:
Find ways to maximize your income streams.
P.S.
Finally, Charlie Munger predicted that the foreseeable future might be much tougher financially than the past leading up to the present. Predicting the next winning horse might be complicated; some might buy American index funds, some Indian index funds, and some Vietnamese index funds - aiming to get a slightly above-average return.
---
I hope this helps!
That's so cool! Just subscribed
I began searching for contents about literature, and i have found some interesting channels, some about books of classical literature and others nowadays literature, pretty cool channels and now your channel came in, i subscribed your Channel, very good channel, by the way, the name of your channel, Strange Lucidity, is very interesting, make us think, i am from Brasil, and want to speak english, you speak in a kind way that i can follow you, i speak portuguese, so you speak so cool i can understand, thanks for sharing with us that channel, when i watch your channel it makes me want to read more lierature, books, i am learning english, thank you for improve my english and learn about literature. 💯🇧🇷 new subscribed from Brasil.
Amazing content, thank you! I am a literature student as well and I enjoyed coming across some common insights we both have gotten from the courses (besides the ones that are new to me, of course!).
Thank you so much! I really enjoy this video!
Can you eventually make a list of
- books mentionned in the video
-books you read this year for uni
- books of theory/philosophy for student/beginner that you recommended?
Sorry for my poor english, i’m French ;)
Your Channel is a true treasure in RUclips, thank you so much ❤❤❤
How welcomed your pace of narrative was. I felt I was sitting next to you having a conversation, cause even some of the subjects you mentioned are common to things tha struck me. I also couldn't see myself NOT taking that course on literature and time 🗿
Also, what a nice idea of a video! Can't wait to watch the rest of the channel :P
Really interesting the chess metaphor. also, such a delightful uni wrap-up :)
This a wonderful video! Thank you!
Wow wow wow..just discovered your channel and this is what I've been dreaming of..literature 101..your presentation is fantastic..it enhances my understanding of the written word..wow
I discovered your channel through this video. Happy Reading! 😎📚👍
I like that part from Virginia Woolf that basically lists the months to get to the next year. It reminded me tangentially of the movie 'Down By Law' by Jim Jarmusch, where they say 'let's break out' (they're in prison), and the next shot is them running away from the prison. None of the long, complex, clever planning and implementing and nearly getting caught of so many other prison escape stories. This then reminds me of some nice punk rock guitar solos, e.g. 'Boredom' by the Buzzcocks, or 'Party With Me Punker' by the Minutemen: basically two notes instead of all the frilly nonsense, all the wasteful, distracting froth, of those 'guitar heros'. Clean and to the point and somehow inviting a beautifully direct kind of engagement and perception.
I think we would be good friends
Thank you for this video ❤️ Wow!
Beautiful video! ❤ Im so happy that I found your channel.
Love the joke about "Pierre Menard". Hugs from Argentina!
Ah, I went off to uni in my early 30s as well. Such a wonderful and enriching adventure. I have no doubt that those classes and tutorials, not to mention the pastoral setting of the campus, resonated more at that relatively advanced age than had I meandered into a degree program in my late teens and early twenties. Best of luck!
I love your videos, keep going!
We needn't define our existence as merely a series of 'metaphors', nor perceive and unwittingly limit our life as strictly self-proclaimed 'readers'. There's a deeper reason why I highly recommend your site.
First and foremost, one's qualitative rapport with the whole of Life leads us on to openly express what liberates the dignity of each individual.
I strongly suspect that through simple acts of kindness -- as with your willingness to share a myriad of insights -- that you will have arrived amist such profundity as to reflect the esoteric immediacy of All This on a broader stage.
I'd love to hear more on The Magic Mountain! I've had it on my shelves for 10 years. Started it once but didn't get far.
Very happy to have found your channel. 🖤
I enjoyed that. You made me nostalgic for university and made me feel intellectual again. I loved your comment that the battle between fiction and non-fiction lies within you. So, in me. And your musings about postmodernism--well said!
🙏🏻
Hello Maria, good morning! This video is very cool. It's very pedagogical. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your main takeaways of your first year literature studies! I'm so pleased to have found your channel some months ago, your videos truly re-energized my desire to read again (in this case you were one of the main sources of inspiration for me to gather the courage needed to take on Faust!). There's one question on my mind though after having followed your channel for quite some time now: have you ever taken up the challenge of writing a novel yourself by any chance? I would be very much interested knowing more about that process and how you approached the entire project😊
Congrats 🎉🎉🎉 this has been an amazing look into literature , continue to learn teach enjoy the work that literature gives, kind regards Mr Robinson...
In the beginning of this year i realize how much i love literature and love reading, and one of my dreams now is studying literature, Thank for this beautiful video it's really beautiful to see someone talk passionately about literature in this way
I am a mid 30's woman, from the other side of the world, english is not even my mother language, and I happen to randomly click on your video because of how beautiful the cover picture was. I did not expect to enjoy my time this much watching 45 minutes video! The topics you covered, the quotes, your voice, the whole atmosphere brought me to a whole other level of ecstacy! I'm so thankful for the coincidence that brought me here, and very happy to subscribe to you! Thank you ❤
One of my favourite Authors, particularly with it being descriptive of the 19th century is Charles Dickens. I find myself going back to different historical contexts for the roots and Earth of our present context and dispositions, this gives me goosebumps in knowing the prolifacy of periods. French Revolutionary stuff grips me tightly too. I find readings rooted in the here and now, or even the nearly now, leave me disoriented because I can't distance myself from the immediate survey of our present time sufficiently enough to not be permanently questioning the very definition and substance of our now without wanting to argue the definition on offer in whatever writing. We all sound now now in our own light, but a prior epoch or era has a certain narrative for our concepts and internalisation already agreed upon, a compass bearing with noted and understood circumstances. An essay I received full marks for in my final year of Secondary school was a comparative essay discussing Great Expectations without, far from it, finishing reading it all & contrasting this book with an offering from Laurie Lee called Cider with Rosie, a very milky, pale offering indeed, and a contribution that I spurned reading it at all. So, getting such a high grade made me feel it was OK to not finish these huge tomes without the World crashing in upon us, when we are able to respond beautifully to both the bits we have read but also the comparative connective tissues between renowned works of literature, provided you have a response worthy of being read by other readers of those books
I loved this video!!! Thank you! Hugs from Argentina 💕
I love this, thank you
amazing video!!
great video, thanks for sharing 🙂
Maria your introduction to literature was awesome. Your articulation on the subject is fascinating. You can make people fall in love with literature. I feel you must become a lecturer or professor of literature.. im a masters degree holdee in literature and and i learnt somethings from your engaging talk. More power to you. Keep dpong more videos.thank you for enlightenment
Thank you so much 🙏🏻
What a coincidence, i got your video on my newsfeed and tomorrow i am going to finish my master in English literature. I can't describe this weird feeling, i feel like i became what i read, what i have experienced through that literature is literally shaping my personality like before, but i was never much conscious about that. But studying literature gave me variations of new perspectives to look into things. And i am sure to say that if someone doesn't study literature will never know what they are going to miss in life.
the story you told about the man and the librarian is genius!
i didn't get that story unfortunately ... was the librarian reading synopses?
@@user-cv8nj7dh3q yes and no, I assume he has other review sources.
Hi Maria! I hope you are enjoying your summer in Vienna. Not just the voluminous books you're diving into on the deep end of things, but, the lit outdoors where the sun is monarch of all. I am familiar with the University of Vienna because Thomas Higham, a distinguished archaeological scientist and author of the book, "The World Before US" is now based there at your school's Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, after having been Oxford University's former director of the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (we can thank Brexit for that and the now ousted conservatives). Yes, I am familiar with Ferdinand de Saussure, how he basically considered language as a system in flux arranged around the concepts signs and signification. I read about it in my introductory English Cultural Studies courses at McGill University. But I don't think he has the final word on that particular subject, philosophy of language. Academic philosophers I suspect hold a more complex, sophisticated understanding of language, one less essentialist. I would caution those looking at the video to exercise caution when choosing to discuss a book that is unread, the equivalent of talking at length about a movie you have not watched in the cinema. You can potentially end up in muddy waters when in conversation with connoisseurs of literature, literature buffs (nerds), even BookTubers who review and discuss books because they get paid to do so. Try reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon (1994) without having tackled any of the canonical books he discusses. It can be painfully difficult to follow, very awkward, and cumbersome, especially when coming across unfamiliar jargon and literary terms. That's what the experience would be like without having a conversation with someone.
Marvelous darling!!!❤
I totally get what you were saying about learning languages that are close to the one you know - I'm Icelandic and learned Danish in school as a kid and teenager but today I'm never really certain if a word I'm thinking of is actually Danish or just my creation of an Icelandic word that I make to sound like Danish.
Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics is a wonderful book, so glad you mentioned it.
I’ve never heard someone talk so long and see the process of their voice fading away, LOL thanks for that experience. Furthermore, thank you for your insights! I enjoyed listening to you while baking banana pancakes. I also am motivated to continue learning more languages now :) Easter eggs if you will ;)
Thanks you for your sharing your view of this topics , i feel i can begin loving english language💖💖💖☺️
Wow ❤ you’re a super star ⭐️so elated to have found your content thank you 🙏 😊
Literally I stopped the video on 5:49 because I realize I should take some notes about this. Like I just saw 5 minutes of it and made me think so hard
5:42 I have a lot of "ideas" in my mind for which I have no words. Those are non-verbal ideas, such as most aesthetic ideas (there are no words for purely musical ideas) or the whole spectrum of emotional ideas.
Wonderful I so enjoyed your totally engaging talk.. I note your love of language studies..refreshing.. I am sure many other's feel charged by your love of the subject..your ability to communicate clearly with such a joyful and natural persona is like gold.. I wonder (as you referenced him once in the talk towards the end) if you have any more thoughts on Derrida ? as I am quite intrigued by him but I find his modus operandi very convoluted and difficult to make actual sense out of by any practical means, he seems, to me at least reduce everything down to nothing.. I have tried reading On Gramatology but was left adrift in a sea I could not seem to understand in any practical sense..but am still fascinated in his general attitude towards language..
Can you share something about the magic mountain and what one should know before reading it?
Your passion is infectious :)
I gotta say that in Poland he (Thomas Bernhardt) recently became huge and has a huge influence on younger prose writers. I like the most his novel called Woodcutters, it feels like a more radical version of Gombrowicz’s writing.
I love studying linguistics and language, but I ended up being a psychologist and psychoanalyst haha. Loved the video 💞
I’d love to see you make a video showing us your notes
I might do that one day :D
thank you for thoses wonderful information would you please do a video about essays and writings in university and how to have good grades
💞
39:19 Very self reflective. I never thought about not liking post modern stuff that way. I always thought its way of writing (valid way) that doesn't appeal to me like there are genre that doesn't appeal to me.
From the video title to the end of words ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Aloha Maria~
I am also a former English literature student for four years at my local university. Greetings from Indonesia!
Thanks for this video really liked it never studied literature but would love to now some time
Would you like to share your life philosophy if you have one and why :P
I reject structuralism as you describe it. I don't think our conception of reality can be bound by the words we have available. If that were the case, how would we be able to name new things or conceive of new ideas? How would a child be able to divide the world into discrete objects and ask what they are?
The example of having multiple words for rain isn't convincing. I can still see differences between types of rain without having words for them, but I might be tempted to invent new words to label them.
I think it's true, though, that we need words to think about things as clearly as possible.
Your voice sounds amazing.
Maria, indeed a wonderful video. I now have become your most ardent fan. Even though I am retired, I will make a donation to the channel for its sustainability next month when I receive my monthly cheque. I too am an Emily Dickinson fan. Would love to see a dedicated video to Emily Dickinson in the future to augment my knowledge of her intriguing universe. I have been reading along with Ben McEvoy’s Hardcore Literature Book Club for the past two years. Through the Book Club, I derive vicarious enjoyment, but being a student of Comparative Literature at Vienna is absolutely envious to me. How interesting must be your life at 30. At 65, it is difficult for me to pursue university studies due family and health issues. Look forward to you forthcoming videos. All my blessings and good wishes to you.🌹🌹🌹
Wow this is such a kind comment. Thank you, I appreciate it a lot!
I am 17 and I love to walk in libraries because those places always make me realize how short my life is because I am never able to read all the great works of human beings before I die.
Thank you for the video, it inspired me to think about the social or, more precisely, cultural aspects of popularization of literature (let's call it that, being indulgent to egocentric bloggers who want to build an image of a young intellectual).
Sitting in this super-fashionable interior, creating a beautiful picture as a frame for the flow of speech, you share with us your insights from the introductory courses on literary studies, presenting it as if you were an ancient Israelite prophet, and yet your thoughts allow for quite a few confusing inaccuracies (like with structuralism and the description of the essence of modernism). No matter how much you and similar bloggers talk about books, you hinder reading much more than you contribute simply by the very fact of filling the information space with your video content. No matter how much you talk about the beauty of books and reading, you, much more than your ignorant, delighted, fooled viewers, are pandering to the society of consumerism and the death of culture, its total dissolution in mass and pop culture. So the best way to inspire people to read is to refuse to create video content of dubious quality and sit on a bench in the park with a nice book, showing yourself to others and inspiring them in this way.
Thanks for giving me some valuable insight. Any opinions on 1st person vs. 3rd person novels?
Knowing Russian, I started learning Ukrainian, and I have a similar experience to you, in some serious confusion between the languages. You get to a point of understanding much more quickly, but speaking coherently is a whole different thing.
Ukraine is a fake country
To be fair to Plato, those might not be his opinions so much as the opinions of a character in his literature...
Good stuff by the way 🥳
Hello! Very lovely video, you speak very eloquently so its nice to listen to you :) a bit off the topic question, if you wouldn’t mind…But how long have you lived in Vienna? What do you think about this city? I’m an art student of five years and have moved around quite a bit… I’m considering moving to Vienna for both work and life. Just wanted to hear your thoughts about the atmosphere and life of the city. 🤔☀️ thank you in advance!
i have to ask, what's the name of the last myth you mention? 43:58 i'd like to know more about it :)
great video, i truly enjoyed listening to your insights (as a mathematics major, i could never study philology but i am more and more attracted by the lessons i've still to come across within writing and reading). so thanks!
Dibutade 🙂And thanks for the kind comment!
do u have any advice or tips for the retention of whatever you study and learn? like do u take elaborate notes that u can revisit whenever u want and how do u keep those notes sorted etc etc.
Thanks ❤
Bravo! 🙂
In re: Bernhard, I think if you try Auslöschung you will perhaps begin to catch the bug. It has all of the narrative proximity of Dostoievski, but it flips registers so often, and is so meandering, allusive, spry, and jocoserious, that it avoids the crazed claustrophobia that comes from feeling Raskolnikov's breath on your fingers as you turn the pages of Crime and Punishment.