Very realistic and powerful
‘In other words, you’ve never seen life, you know nothing about it and are acquainted with reality only in theory. But you despise suffering and are surprised at nothing for one very simple reason: your philosophy of vanity of vanities, the external and internal, contempt for life, suffering and death, understanding the meaning of life, the True Good – that kind of philosophy’s best suited to a Russian layabout.
For instance, you see a peasant beating his wife. Why interfere? Let him beat her! They’ll both die sooner or later anyway. Besides, it’s the person who does the beating who injures himself, not his victim. Getting drunk is stupid and indecent, but you’ll die whether you drink or not. A peasant woman comes to you with toothache. What of it? Pain is only our idea of pain and besides, in this world you can’t expect to get away without illness, all of us must die. So, away with you woman and don’t interfere with my thoughts or my vodka! A young man comes for advice: what should he do, how should he live? Someone else would have stopped to think before replying, but you’re always ready with an answer: aspire to discover the meaning of life or the True Good. But what is this fantastic “True Good”? There’s no answer, of course.
Here we are imprisoned behind bars, left to rot, tortured, but all that’s beautiful and rational, because there’s absolutely no difference between this ward and a warm comfortable study! A very convenient philosophy – just do nothing, your conscience is clear and you can consider yourself a very wise man… No, my dear sir, that’s not philosophy or reflection or breadth of vision, but idleness, mortification of the flesh and stupefaction… ‘Yes!’ Gromov declared, losing his temper again. ‘You despise suffering, but just catch your finger in the door and you’ll bawl your head off!’”
-Anton Chekhov
For instance, you see a peasant beating his wife. Why interfere? Let him beat her! They’ll both die sooner or later anyway. Besides, it’s the person who does the beating who injures himself, not his victim. Getting drunk is stupid and indecent, but you’ll die whether you drink or not. A peasant woman comes to you with toothache. What of it? Pain is only our idea of pain and besides, in this world you can’t expect to get away without illness, all of us must die. So, away with you woman and don’t interfere with my thoughts or my vodka! A young man comes for advice: what should he do, how should he live? Someone else would have stopped to think before replying, but you’re always ready with an answer: aspire to discover the meaning of life or the True Good. But what is this fantastic “True Good”? There’s no answer, of course.
Here we are imprisoned behind bars, left to rot, tortured, but all that’s beautiful and rational, because there’s absolutely no difference between this ward and a warm comfortable study! A very convenient philosophy – just do nothing, your conscience is clear and you can consider yourself a very wise man… No, my dear sir, that’s not philosophy or reflection or breadth of vision, but idleness, mortification of the flesh and stupefaction… ‘Yes!’ Gromov declared, losing his temper again. ‘You despise suffering, but just catch your finger in the door and you’ll bawl your head off!’”
-Anton Chekhov
22-25, F
