Today is the last day of our semestral break for this year. Because my days of being able to read freely were dwindling, I sought to read as much as I could the previous week (thus the lack of updates). It has become a ritual during the past years; I don’t think anything is bad with attempting to expound the horizons of one’s mind, however.

One wishes there really were a book like that.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great Russian author, has four major novels that are recognized (even until today) to be among the greatest in literature. To date, the most popular novel among these four is Crime and Punishment. One of his other novels, although lesser-known than C&P, is Demons.

Demons was partially inspired by Sergei Nechayev, one of the leaders of the Nihilist movement, who was so single-minded in his goal of revolution that he disregarded morality: he did not mind political violence and murder. He was so single-minded that he alienated even his friends and family. Read the rest of this entry »