On to something different. I recently ran across this paper by M. P. Frank, which is a nice introduction to the limits of computability. I had run across the works of W. D. Smith previously (and pecuilarly, on a rare random bookstore trip, ran into the book of Tipler's that he reviews there), but I found Frank's description much more readable (not ( Read more... )

Razumihin, in his youthful ardour, had firmly resolved to lay the foundations at least of a secure livelihood during the next three or four years, and saving up a certain sum, to emigrate to Siberia, a country rich in every natural resource and in need of workers, active men, and capital. [Epilogue]

"It was I who killed the old pawnbroker woman and her sister Lizaveta with an axe and robbed them ( Read more... )

"You spoke of outrage just now, Avdoyta Romanovna. In that case you may be sure I've taken measures. Sofya Semyonovna is not at home. The Kapernaumovs are far away --- there are five locked rooms between. I am at least twice as strong as you are and I have nothing to fear, besides. For you could not complain afterwards... Besides, no one would ( Read more... )

"But if you are convinced that one mustn't listen at doors, but one may murder old women at one's pleasure, you'd better be off to America and make haste." [Part VI, Chapter V]

"It is my own personal conviction that this is the normal condition of women... In our present society it is not altogether normal, because it is compulsory, but in the future society it will be perfectly normal, because it will be voluntary. Even as it is, she was quite right; she was suffering and that was her asset, so to speak, her capital ( Read more... )

Regarding Raskolnikov's article claiming that an "extraordinary man" (this is 17 years prior to the uebermensch of Zarathustra) has an inner right to decide in his conscience to overstep certain obstacles:
"...what is really original in all this, ... is that you sanction bloodshed in the name of conscience... [it] is to my mind more terrible than ( Read more... )

"Science now tells us, love yourself before all men, for everything in the world rests on self-interest. You love yourself and manage your own affairs properly and your coat remains whole. Economic truth adds that the better private affairs are organised in society ... the firmer are its foundations and the better is the common welfare organised ( Read more... )

"If there is any great literature being written, no one is reading it."

I would rather read a good book a second time than peruse much of the modern drivel. I am going to post some topical blurbs from Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. I don't claim to agree/disagree with any of the opinions that will be expounded.

"Well, it's a blog."
"Yes, but what does it do?"