Thoughts Provoked

 

Somehow amidst the crazy days that these weeks have contained, I have been reading a lot. I think it is my way of recharging after very busy days, and over the weekends. Reading and escaping into another story is fun, imaginative, and creates thought-provoking insights that stay with me for weeks after I finish. 

The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
First Published 1869

For the month of November I joined a re-along hosted by an Instagram friend, @amerestory, her blog is HERE, whose favourite author is Dostoyevsky and she has many insights to share on his writing. She digs into the themes he presents in social situations of the Russian high society, and it was really enjoyable to follow along with her. I had not read this book before, so it was completely new to me, and I enjoyed it but it is also the kind of book that needs some discussion as many of the characters open up a deeper study of humanity.

The book follows a young man, Prince Myshkin, who returns (after recovering from illness in Switzerland) to St. Petersburg and comes to find out the realities of the social and family scenes of Russia. He has a naïve soul, innocent and honest. He is mocked for his childlikeness, yet he is turned to by the various characters because he is open and thoughtful. He gets things wrong, but is meant to be an image of a "wholly virtuous man". Through the course of his arrival into Russian, he becomes entangled with two different women, and the interactions that take place amongst the families and gatherings is full of drama with pieces of deeper meanings. With each conversation the reader gets to see some aspect of the many characters unfold and then begin to see the truth coming out about them.

The Hopkins Manuscript
R.C. Sherriff
First Published 1939

This is a science fiction novel published during WWII, with warnings to future generations. While the science of it is not a warning, the undertones of all the human decisions are, and it's interesting to me how much of the early science fiction novels aimed toward warning the future (ie. us) of possible effects of humanity's choices. 

The premise of the story is that the moon somehow loses its orbit and begins to fall toward earth, eventually falling into the Atlantic Ocean, causing devastating effects upon England, the perspective from where the story takes place, and the decisions made after the event that change the course of the entire earthly history. 'The Hopkins Manuscript' becomes a historical artifact of the past, and is written by Edgar Hopkins, who wrote all his experience through the tragic event and afterwards. He hid his manuscript in a thermos in a fireplace, which was found hundreds of years later in the ruins of London, which is one of the only written pieces of history left behind. Even if you do not like science fiction, this was a good, engrossing read, that was fascinating study of human choice after disaster.