Punk Human

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1864)

A former public servant moves underground. Now, after forty years of living in this way, the voice must share what the mind has learnt. Written in two parts, the former gives expression to the rant, whilst the latter provides practical examples. Seeking to feel something – anything – the embodied voice sets about picking fights with others. Not so much to win a contest and later revel in victory, or to even participate in the same and thereby experience an intellectual dynamism and temporary sensation, but rather, to simply shake off the lethargy and boredom of existence. To push back against a foreboding sense of futility; and to resist the indignity and humiliation that arrives in our lives due to capitalism and its inhuman demands. A likely antecedent to both Fight Club and Less than zero. Fiction. 152 pages.

Cover of 'Notes from Underground' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published by Penguin Books, featuring an orange background with white and black text and a small penguin illustration.

DETAILS:

Title: Notes from underground

Year: 1864

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Pages: 152

Text graphic featuring the phrase 'Punk Human' in bold, stylised lettering with a red and black background.

Book review by Keith Salter

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