Post by donq on Jul 26, 2014 6:13:38 GMT
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man was the last (short) work of Fyodor Dostoevsky. He wrote it 4 years before he passed away. Two videos below are from animation work of A. Petrov. Though he did a great job, I feel that his interpretation of Dostoevsky’s work was focused too much on the dark side. I believe there is also a very bright side in it, too, at least when we read it. I used to to read the paragraph of “The caressing sea, green as emerald, splashed softly upon the shore and kissed it with manifest, almost conscious love.” so many times in my life and it really was soothing me. :-)
The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man (A. Petrov) - part 1 - English subtitles
clip posted by woodgeor v
The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man (A. Petrov) - part 2 - English subtitles
P.S. I loved this story a lot and even translated it into my language. I’ll try to brief its story here so that it’s not too long to read. And if you would like to read the whole story, it’s easy to search it online by Constance Garnett’s translation etc.
“I am a ridiculous person. Now they call me a madman. That would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as before. But now I do not resent it, they are all dear to me now, even when they laugh at me - and, indeed, it is just then that they are particularly dear to me. I could join in their laughter - not exactly at myself, but through affection for them, if I did not feel so sad as I look at them…
“In old days I used to be miserable at seeming ridiculous. Not seeming, but being. I have always been ridiculous, and I have known it, perhaps, from the hour I was born. Perhaps from the time I was seven years old I knew I was ridiculous. Afterwards I went to school, studied at the university, and, do you know, the more I learned, the more thoroughly I understood that I was ridiculous. So that it seemed in the end as though all the sciences I studied at the university existed only to prove and make evident to me as I went more deeply into them that I was ridiculous…”
One night, as he slept while he was going to kill himself, he dreamt that he shot himself in the heart. He died but he was still aware of his surroundings. After a very long time in his cold grave, water began to drip down onto his eyelids. Suddenly his grave was opened by an unknown and shadowy figure. This figure pulled him up from his grave, and then the two soared through the sky and into space. After flying through space for a long time, he came to a planet:
“I suddenly, quite without noticing how, found myself on this other earth, in the bright light of a sunny day, fair as paradise. I believe I was standing on one of the islands that make up on our globe the Greek archipelago, or on the coast of the mainland facing that archipelago. Oh, everything was exactly as it is with us, only everything seemed to have a festive radiance, the splendour of some great, holy triumph attained at last. The caressing sea, green as emerald, splashed softly upon the shore and kissed it with manifest, almost conscious love. The tall, lovely trees stood in all the glory of their blossom, and their innumerable leaves greeted me, I am certain, with their soft, caressing rustle and seemed to articulate words of love. The grass glowed with bright and fragrant flowers. Birds were flying in flocks in the air, and perched fearlessly on my shoulders and arms and joyfully struck me with their darling, fluttering wings. And at last I saw and knew the people of this happy land. That came to me of themselves, they surrounded me, kissed me. The children of the sun, the children of their sun - oh, how beautiful they were! Never had I seen on our own earth such beauty in mankind. Only perhaps in our children, in their earliest years, one might find, some remote faint reflection of this beauty. The eyes of these happy people shone with a clear brightness. Their faces were radiant with the light of reason and fullness of a serenity that comes of perfect understanding, but those faces were gay; in their words and voices there was a note of childlike joy…”
He lived in this utopia for many years, all the while amazed at the goodness around him. One day he accidentally taught the inhabitants how to lie. This began the corruption of the utopia. The lies engendered pride, and pride engendered a deluge of other sins. Soon the first murder occurred. Factions were made, wars were waged. Science supplanted emotion, and the members of the former utopia were incapable of remembering their former happiness. He pleaded with the people to return to their former state, or at least to kill him for his role in their Fall, but they would not allow it. Then he woke up…
He was a changed man, thoroughly thankful for life and convinced of man's basic goodness and potential for incredible love. He dedicated his life to teaching the promise of a Golden Era, a time on earth where everyone loved his brother as he loved himself.
“And yet, you know, all are making for the same goal, all are striving in the same direction anyway, from the sage to the lowest robber, only by different roads. It is an old truth, but this is what is new: I cannot go far wrong. For I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind…
“But how establish paradise - I don't know, because I do not know how to put it into words. After my dream I lost command of words. All the chief words, anyway, the most necessary ones. But never mind, I shall go and I shall keep talking, I won't leave off, for anyway I have seen it with my own eyes, though I cannot describe what I saw. But the scoffers do not understand that. It was a dream, they say, delirium, hallucination. Oh! As though that meant so much! And they are so proud! A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted - you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times - but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness - that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once…”
The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man (A. Petrov) - part 1 - English subtitles
clip posted by woodgeor v
The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man (A. Petrov) - part 2 - English subtitles
P.S. I loved this story a lot and even translated it into my language. I’ll try to brief its story here so that it’s not too long to read. And if you would like to read the whole story, it’s easy to search it online by Constance Garnett’s translation etc.
“I am a ridiculous person. Now they call me a madman. That would be a promotion if it were not that I remain as ridiculous in their eyes as before. But now I do not resent it, they are all dear to me now, even when they laugh at me - and, indeed, it is just then that they are particularly dear to me. I could join in their laughter - not exactly at myself, but through affection for them, if I did not feel so sad as I look at them…
“In old days I used to be miserable at seeming ridiculous. Not seeming, but being. I have always been ridiculous, and I have known it, perhaps, from the hour I was born. Perhaps from the time I was seven years old I knew I was ridiculous. Afterwards I went to school, studied at the university, and, do you know, the more I learned, the more thoroughly I understood that I was ridiculous. So that it seemed in the end as though all the sciences I studied at the university existed only to prove and make evident to me as I went more deeply into them that I was ridiculous…”
One night, as he slept while he was going to kill himself, he dreamt that he shot himself in the heart. He died but he was still aware of his surroundings. After a very long time in his cold grave, water began to drip down onto his eyelids. Suddenly his grave was opened by an unknown and shadowy figure. This figure pulled him up from his grave, and then the two soared through the sky and into space. After flying through space for a long time, he came to a planet:
“I suddenly, quite without noticing how, found myself on this other earth, in the bright light of a sunny day, fair as paradise. I believe I was standing on one of the islands that make up on our globe the Greek archipelago, or on the coast of the mainland facing that archipelago. Oh, everything was exactly as it is with us, only everything seemed to have a festive radiance, the splendour of some great, holy triumph attained at last. The caressing sea, green as emerald, splashed softly upon the shore and kissed it with manifest, almost conscious love. The tall, lovely trees stood in all the glory of their blossom, and their innumerable leaves greeted me, I am certain, with their soft, caressing rustle and seemed to articulate words of love. The grass glowed with bright and fragrant flowers. Birds were flying in flocks in the air, and perched fearlessly on my shoulders and arms and joyfully struck me with their darling, fluttering wings. And at last I saw and knew the people of this happy land. That came to me of themselves, they surrounded me, kissed me. The children of the sun, the children of their sun - oh, how beautiful they were! Never had I seen on our own earth such beauty in mankind. Only perhaps in our children, in their earliest years, one might find, some remote faint reflection of this beauty. The eyes of these happy people shone with a clear brightness. Their faces were radiant with the light of reason and fullness of a serenity that comes of perfect understanding, but those faces were gay; in their words and voices there was a note of childlike joy…”
He lived in this utopia for many years, all the while amazed at the goodness around him. One day he accidentally taught the inhabitants how to lie. This began the corruption of the utopia. The lies engendered pride, and pride engendered a deluge of other sins. Soon the first murder occurred. Factions were made, wars were waged. Science supplanted emotion, and the members of the former utopia were incapable of remembering their former happiness. He pleaded with the people to return to their former state, or at least to kill him for his role in their Fall, but they would not allow it. Then he woke up…
He was a changed man, thoroughly thankful for life and convinced of man's basic goodness and potential for incredible love. He dedicated his life to teaching the promise of a Golden Era, a time on earth where everyone loved his brother as he loved himself.
“And yet, you know, all are making for the same goal, all are striving in the same direction anyway, from the sage to the lowest robber, only by different roads. It is an old truth, but this is what is new: I cannot go far wrong. For I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind…
“But how establish paradise - I don't know, because I do not know how to put it into words. After my dream I lost command of words. All the chief words, anyway, the most necessary ones. But never mind, I shall go and I shall keep talking, I won't leave off, for anyway I have seen it with my own eyes, though I cannot describe what I saw. But the scoffers do not understand that. It was a dream, they say, delirium, hallucination. Oh! As though that meant so much! And they are so proud! A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted - you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times - but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness - that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once…”
