The Plank

How Dostoevsky Explains American Politics

Avi Zenilman makes a great catch. Both Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton cite the Brothers Karamazov as their favorite piece of literature, but they took away completely opposite messages from it, with one reading it as an affirmation of faith and the other believing it's a testament to doubt. Any guesses as to who thought what.

COMMENTS (3)

10/16/2009 - 12:38pm EDT | iambiguous

Hell, anyone can read The Brothers Karamazov and walk away in opposite directions.

But not many can read Notes From Underground and go but one.

Can you imagine sitting down with either Bush or Clinton and charting a bruising no holds barred foray into the philosophical implications of a world in which, without God, "all things are permitted"?!

I suspect some folks cite TBK because they'll no doubt gain a new measure of respect for their, uh, intellectual curiosity?

But almost no one cites NFU.

Not even Avi Zenilman, alas.

Or maybe he just hasn't made the rounds to Michelle Obama yet.

george

10/16/2009 - 1:20pm EDT | ndmackenzie

The myriad meanings of truth.

10/16/2009 - 8:48pm EDT | iambiguous

Who gives a fuck about truth?

Far more fascinating is how the hell you managed to italicize it?

If only I wasn't so illiterate using the computer. In or out of italics as it were.

Sigh....

gw

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