Re: Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

Irina Rempt wrote:
>
> On Thu, 12 Oct 2000, jesse stephen bangs wrote:
>
> (and someone else wrote:)
>
> > > I actually really like Dostoyevsky, but damn it's dense.
>
> > I *loved* _The Brothers Karamazov_, although it was certainly one of the
> > most difficult books I've ever read.
>
> People keep telling me that I'm bound to love Dostoyevsky because of
> other things I read, things I write, things I say, things I think,
> etcetera. I've tried four or five times and I just *don't* like it.
> Not because it's too hard (perhaps it is, but so were dozens of other
> books that I kept reading anyway because I was interested; even _The
> Lord of the Rings_ at nine or ten), but because it's steeped in
> Russian culture, and despite the fact that I go to the Orthodox
> church and have a Slavic name (my choice) I don't feel at home in
> Russian culture.
That could be something to turn people off of it.  Dostoyevsky is a
great writer IMHO, but if someone don't feel at home in Russian culture
then books very much so about Russian culture, amonst other things, just
won't be too interesting to them. Completely understandable.

_Notes from the Underground_ is a book by Dostoyevsky that I'm in the
middle of right now, and it (or at least what I've read of it) isn't as
involved with Russian culture as _The Brothers Karamazov_, but it's also
more of a long rambling essay about human nature than a novel, per se.
It's really a character study of sorts, it's quite fascinating. The kind
of book I've always wanted to write - but alas, I'm not much of a writer
at all.

--
Robert