Existential Book Club discussion

In April we'll be reading Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground. I've not read this one yet myself so I'm really excited to start it. Feel free to leave your thoughts/comments and discussion points down below!

I'm excited to re-read this one, I plan on picking a decent translation this time

Yeees! Dostoyevsky is my favourite author, but I have yet to read Notes from Underground! I'm so excited!

I'm only thirty pages into this but I'm in love. At the moment he's talking about being both driven by and afraid of goals. Reason dictates that we have a goal in order to measure some form of work, but we then become terrified of what we do after the goal is reached meaning there is a continuous deference. The discussions on reason versus violation are so fascinating.
I love the part especially where he talks about man being a piano keys. The natural man, he says, convinces himself he isn't a piano key played by nature - yet even if he was, he would seek out some form of distraction in which to disprove it.
And the narrators voice and wit, gah, it's brilliant. So excited to see what else everyone thinks but I'll check back in when I've read more.

Hey everyone.
I finished this a while ago but wanted to hear if anybody else had thoughts on it, but it looks like it wasn't too popular. I had a friend who started it and said that she had to put it down because "it was just an old man whining on about stuff". Don't know if that's the general consensus?
Personally I thought it was incredibly clever and witty writing. I enjoyed the first part because the discussions about goals and human nature were really interesting. In part two, the story got going and thought the characters actions and mannerisms where both tragic and comic.
Altogether, though some parts of this were difficult, I had a good time reading this and especially loved the narrative voice.

Contemporary readers often have difficulties in empathising with older texts because we live in a time more advanced for our comprehension. It just seems passe. Hermeneutics tries to relate intertextually with other writers of the period and the times in which they lived. "Outsider" characters were hardly represented in Dostoevsky's time. (This did not really take off until existentialism.) So, "an old man whining on about stuff" can be seen as the product of a historically limited perspective. I tried to re-read Crime and Punishment, not long ago. As a product of a five-minute video-clip culture, this was difficult for me. I am too impatient.

Having experienced a deep, dark nihilistic episode this year - I could relate to the feelings and thoughts of the underground man regarding 'unconscious people'. Those striving towards goals but rarely (if ever) stopping to question anything. Like Zherkov (however you spell his name). It caused me great anguish to see people around me act is if nothing was absurd about existence. I despised being conscious because I was aware I was a steaming pile of poop. I lived in a remote hut for 2 months binging on sugar and fapping away by myself because I couldn't grasp the idea of progress. So yeah. To know Dostoevsky could paint a similar picture made me feel less alone. I also enjoyed the underground man's wit.

This is without a doubt a canonical text worthy of its place in the pantheon of existential works.
I much prefer a fictional story laden with philosphical themes rather than a direct exposition of ontology or existenstialism, however 'Notes from Underground' was part of my university course material so much discussion was had.

I adore this work. It is one of those rare pieces that I wish to share amongst my friends and family, and consider it to be more than just a book - it is more of a living breathng organism created to challenge, inspire, reflect, and dialogue with.
The core message I lifted was that the essence of freedom is mankind's ability to act capriciously, or caprice itself.

The tone of the narrator in Bk I is refreshingly honest, despite his misanthropy, malice, and self loathing.
The idea that some of us enjoy indulging in suffering was revelatory and resonated.

Beyond that I don't recall much-certainly the reference to piano keys and Chernyshevsky was lost on me until explained.
One of my favourite pieces of all time.