Dostoevsky is the Dante of modernity: his Siberian inferno is man-made and must be endured in this life, not the next. Dostoevsky’s hell is a forge in whose fire the human character, if willing, is purified and transformed before, not after, its earthly demise. It's less about punishment than it is about redemption, which Dante's damned are denied forever.
The peace and freedom attained in braving this kind of suffering is beautifully imagined in the ‘Isle of the Dead’ by Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin. It may serve as a stark visual complement to Dostoevsky’s ‘House of the Dead’.
You may like this post. It's an interview with a prisoner who has spent 39 years in prison in the UK for a crime he did not do but continues to fight for freedom against an unfair and broken justice system. https://substack.com/home/post/p-154270643
Dostoevsky is the Dante of modernity: his Siberian inferno is man-made and must be endured in this life, not the next. Dostoevsky’s hell is a forge in whose fire the human character, if willing, is purified and transformed before, not after, its earthly demise. It's less about punishment than it is about redemption, which Dante's damned are denied forever.
The peace and freedom attained in braving this kind of suffering is beautifully imagined in the ‘Isle of the Dead’ by Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin. It may serve as a stark visual complement to Dostoevsky’s ‘House of the Dead’.
Wow! Great connection to Dante's Inferno.
You may like this post. It's an interview with a prisoner who has spent 39 years in prison in the UK for a crime he did not do but continues to fight for freedom against an unfair and broken justice system. https://substack.com/home/post/p-154270643