I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unattractive man. I think my liver hurts. However, I don't know a fig about my sickness, and I am not sure what it is that hurts me. I am not being treated and never have been, though I respect medicine and doctors. What's more, I am also superstitious in the extreme; well, at least enough to respect medicine. (I'm sufficiently educated not to be superstitious, but I am.) No, sir, I refuse to be treated out of spite. Now, you will certainly not be so good to understand this. Well, sir, but I understand it. I will not, of course, be able to explain to you precisely who is going to suffer in this case from my spite; I know perfecty well that I will in no way "muck things up" for the doctors by not taking their treatment; I know better than anyone that by all this I am harming only myself and no one else. But still, if I don't get treated, it is out of spite. My liver hurts; well, then let it hurt even worse.
- From Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3 comments:
Is the whole book like this?
If so, I'll pass.
No offense intended, Mr. Wade!
Jean,
Ha! I plan to start it later this month. I ordered the book by mistake, having meant to order his Notes From a Dead House. I recall reading at least part of the Dead House novel when I was in grade school and it was pretty interesting.
This one does seem unduly depressing but I'll give it a chance for 40 or 50 pages.
On second thought, make that 30 pages.
Michael
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