8/30/12 - Trials, Tribulations, and Dostoyevsky

Hey Internet, it's me again. Things have been going pretty swimmingly for me this week. Schools really starting to ramp up again, and goodness gracious it's pounding down on me. Why did I ever think taking four AP classes as a Senior was a good idea? Is some deeply buried masochistic side of me trying to break to the surface? Who knows. On a much lighter note, I'm having a very productive time when I'm not being an academic. I've recently done some noodling on my synthesizers and recorded it via MIDI converter. I may just post it here in the near future.

Recently, after finally getting to read Faust - Part One of the Tragedy, I did a bit of looking around for a book for my AP Literature independent reading. I think I've finally settled on Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I had actually started reading the first chapter or two briefly last week while skimming through the novel. I had gone to the library and not exactly knowing where to start with the list, searched for a couple of the books. Crime and Punishment was one that particularly caught my attention. With an cool name like Fyodor, how could one argue? I finally settled on this one for two reasons: my father highly recommended it and the premise really caught me. This guy feels like he's destined to kill this old lady, and then proceeds to AXE-MURDER HER. Oh my giddy aunt. That is truly grim. That's also when it hit me. I realized that I was already familiar with an adaptation of the novel. Two years ago, I read parts of a manga called Tsumi To Batsu, by the great Osamu Tezuka. If you're not familiar with him, he created many long time favorites, such as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He's basically considered the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney.

So with this book selected, I begin my required reading for the time being. It is a bit of a bulky book, so I might hold out on reading anything else. Once I complete it, I'll probably read Catch-22, because that's a book I've been meaning to read for years. Maybe I'll finally read Journey to the West, with a bit of Heinlein or Philip K. Dick on the side. We'll see how these books I can actually get to. I would be nice if some other classic books [LIKE FAUST] could be used for independent reading.  


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Literature I'm reading:

• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Stuff I want to read:

• Journey to the West (abridged, also known as Monkey King) by Wu Cheng'en 

                - One of these days, I'll get to it! I swear!

• Revolt in 2100 by Robert Heinlein
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick