Questions for David Sklansky
 

Why did Martin Eden commit suicide at the end of the London novel?

Why did Raskalnikov kill the pawnbroker?

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

I don't know to both.

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

I'm taking a wild guess with absolutely no knowledge and purely guess lack of faith, despair at having no purpose, turning away from god, etc.

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]

I'm taking a wild guess with absolutely no knowledge and purely guess lack of faith, despair at having no purpose, turning away from god, etc.


[/ QUOTE ]

Good guess for Eden though it's more involved than that. Eden's journey from ignorant sailor to famous author sinking to the bottom of the ocean is a fascinating account and worth comparing to Wolf Larsen's in London's "The Sea Wolf" - similar philosophy, different result. Which brings us to Raski - what about him?

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I'm taking a wild guess with absolutely no knowledge and purely guess lack of faith, despair at having no purpose, turning away from god, etc.


[/ QUOTE ]

Good guess for Eden though it's more involved than that. Eden's journey from ignorant sailor to famous author sinking to the bottom of the ocean is a fascinating account and worth comparing to Wolf Larsen's in London's "The Sea Wolf" - similar philosophy, different result. Which brings us to Raski - what about him?

[/ QUOTE ]

You'll never find a cure for cancer wasting your time reading books like that notready. You must not be very smart.

PairTheBoard

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]

You'll never find a cure for cancer wasting your time reading books like that notready. You must not be very smart.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've never claimed to be smart.

Did Einstein read novels? Or poetry?

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

You'll never find a cure for cancer wasting your time reading books like that notready. You must not be very smart.


[/ QUOTE ]

I've never claimed to be smart.

Did Einstein read novels? Or poetry?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know. I think that guy who headed up the Manhaten Project did though. My advisor years ago in Commutative Algebra told me he read a lot a science fiction at one time until he decided it was holding him back and became a 7th Day Adventist instead. He was one of the top researchers in his field.

PairTheBoard

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]

he read a lot a science fiction at one time until he decided it was holding him back and became a 7th Day Adventist instead.


[/ QUOTE ]

He could become a "Duneist" and have the best of both worlds.

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

I haven't read the first novel, but I know Raskolnikov killed the pawn broken because he needed money, and that he thought of himself as a superior being because of his sheer force of will power. Thus murdering her was justified in his eyes.

Re: Questions for David Sklansky
 

[ QUOTE ]

Raskolnikov killed the pawn broken because he needed money, and that he thought of himself as a superior being because of his sheer force of will power. Thus murdering her was justified in his eyes.


[/ QUOTE ]

He did some rationalizing about the character of the pawnbroker and his need for money but his true justification comes from existentialism. As a "superman" coventional rules don't apply to him.

Even in prison he thought this way

"What surprised him most
of all was the terrible impossible gulf that lay between him and all
the rest. " (of the prisoners)

Dos bails out at the end, though -

"But that is the beginning of a new story--the story of the gradual
renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his
passing from one world into another, of his initiation into a new
unknown life. "

London has Eden bail out in a different way.

Consistent existentialism is very, very hard to do. Except maybe for Wolf Larsen.