2009/12/04

crime, punishment

where is it i've read that someone condemned to death says or think, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! only to live, to live and live! life, whatever it may be! (crime and punishment, fyodor dostoyevsky)




2 comments:

Willow said...

nah... I don't think anyone would endure all that hardship on just a square yard of space, and strive to live even for a few years.. he is bluffing right? Or perhaps I wasn't supposed to take it too literally ..

>rambling

arcibaldo said...

hehehe considering how rodyon seem to have suffered in mind in the book, i suppose i don't blame the author for conceiving such an idea (and it does seem terrible come to think of it literally). then again, if one is just too full of hope and promises, he won't mind staying there even if it takes forever.

and if it happens to be me... if i do go nuts, then i won't be able to think clearly and rationally anymore about such a pitiful situation.