Fyodor Mihayloviç Dostoyevskinin SUÇ VE CEZAsı belki de bugüne kadar yazılmış en özgün cinayet romanı. Üstelik bu türün ilk örneklerinden biri. Yalnızca yapabildiğini kanıtlamak için yaşlı, pinti bir tefeciyi acımasızca öldüren meteliksiz öğrenci Raskolnikovun, sıcaktan kavrulan Petersburgun dayanılmayacak kadar sıkıntılı yazında geçen hikâyesi.
Dostoyevskinin bu romanı, çoğu zaman kendine özgü bir deliliğin ve bireysel kefaret ödemenin öyküsü olarak yorumlanır. Ama böylesi bir okuma, itkiden tamamen yoksun bir cinayetin işlevsiz toplumsal bağlamını görmezden gelmek demektir. İnanılmaz ölçüdeki zenginlikle aşırı yoksulluk arasında Raskolnikovun baltası kadar keskin bir ayrımın olduğu dünyada, deliliğin konumunu kim belirleyebilir? St. Petersburg sokaklarını arşınlayan dinci fanatiklerle toplumca istenmeyenlerin içinde olduğu bir tımarhane haline gelmiş toplumun portresidir bu; Çarın bürokrat güruhunun kapalı kapılar ardında rüşvete, yolsuzluğa battığı; sıradan halkınsa kimsenin umurunda olmadığı bir toplumun portresi.
Ve biz, ailesine ve arkadaşlarına yabancılaşmış, yozlaşmış toplumdan makasla kesilip çıkarılmışçasına kopmuş, daha sonra polisle kedi-fare oyunu karabasanına dönüşecek olan bir Büyük Düşüncenin acısını çeken, dışlanmış, entelektüel bir katilin çılgın zihnine ve dünyasına gireriz.
Gaz-Putin kuşağının grotesk insanlarıyla dolu modern St. Petersburga David Zane Mairowitz tarafından cesurca ve canlı bir anlatımla uyarlanan, ressam Alain Korkos tarafından çizilen bu tersine kurgulu katil-kim polisiyesi; kendisinden hiç kuşkulanılmayan katilin kendini ihbar etmesiyle sona erer. Ama ruhu selamete erebilecek midir?
Mairowitz is a writer who studied English Literature and Philosophy at Hunter College, New York, and Drama at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is the author of the plays "The Law Circus" (1969 and "Flash Gordon and the Angels" (1971). Other works include "BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1965-70," "The Radical Soap Opera: Roots of Failure in the American Left," "Kafka for Beginners" and "Introducing Camus."
Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite books of all time, language rich, full of internal monologue and angst and despair. I am not sure what you get from this 120 page graphic adaptation of a more than 600 page epic story. This pares the story down to bare bones, but without poetry. It feels a little insulting, the very worst thing you can do to a classic, to dumb it down in the way elites have always feared comics adaptations would do to great works! If you are going to do a short adaptation of a long work, do something unique with it, adapt it in an altogether new way!
Okay, Mairowitz says he is "modernizing" it by setting it in the late twentieth century, or is this century. How do we know this? We see a Sex Pistols poster, and a "Scream" print. What other evidence is there for it's being modernized?! What purpose would it serve to modernize it, were it actually modernized? We get no clear answers from the text.
I love this story, I mean the plot, which we do get a minimal sense of from this text, but I don't think it gets us interested in reading it if we haven't already read it, I am guessing. It just looks like a cat and mouse murder story, nothing unique about it. But I'll say, I give it two stars: one half star just because of the story, as truncated as it is, because it reminded me of the actual novel and it's nice to be reminded of its greatness, and another one and a half stars just because I liked the artwork quite a bit, and found it sometimes an interesting visualization of the characters. A talented artist shapes this story.
But overall, it's a disappointment. Hitchcock said the ideal text length to adapt to a full length movie is a short story. To take a 600 page novel of remarkable complexity and depth and make it into a 120 page comic without doing anything unique to it artistically is an insult to Dostoevsky, to novelists, and to comics. So there.
Can't quite rate this any higher because I haven't read the actual book and I can't compare it. I love that the classics are done in graphic novel format. It's a fabulous way to read them as a supplemental (never as a replacement of the actual novel) and also a great way to introduce someone to the classics. At least I would hope people would want to read the book after reading the graphic novel. This is a great story and has made me want to read some more of Dotoevsky's novels. The graphic novel paints a depressing and stark setting for the story about a young man in despair who is grappling with the decision to commit murder and the perfect crime. It's the kind of story that always makes me want to jump inside the author's head and see how their creative juices flow. How did they come up with the story? Is there any part of it that is true to the author's life, even if it is a spectator or something he may have heard from someone? I want more of these classics in graphic format. I always seem to land on them merely by accident.
I am preparing for a re-read of Crime and Punishment. I have read this book as a lead up to the re-read. More informative than a summary, and less troubling than the long version.
The art is dramatic. This pure tonal representation and lack of color inform the sharpness of the story. Despite the hesitancy of the main character Rodyon Rasholnikov to admit his truth, his action remain definite (delineation of black and white) and self-limiting (only tones, no color). So the palette serves well.
A necessarily simplified version of Dostoevsky's classic, this was a good adaptation within the confines of a graphic novel. Mairowitz and Korkos set the action in modern Russia to draw parallels between the corruption and inequality of Tzarist Russia and Putin's Russia. Worth an hour of most people's time, I think.
3.5 stars, on balance rounded down rather than up.
Hasta ahora es el peor libro que he leído en todo el año, la novela gira en torno a la violencia todo el tiempo. Es un libro machista, oscuro, sexista y que habla del maltrato animal en una de sus páginas. Creo que es una novela gráfica demasiado gráfica, veía ya hasta el final sólo SEXO! Y es muy fuerte la historia el abuso a los pobres y la degradación de la mujer para humillaria y ver como una prostituta. Es horrible!!! 1 estrella me parece demasiado para calificar este libro con una pésima historia.
"A black tormented feeling of solitude and alienation came over Raskolnikov. It was new and strange to him. Suddenly it was no longer possible to speak to these policeman."
This is my first introduction to the story of Crime and Punishment. Korkos and Mairowitz say in the introduction that Dostoevsky's novel "is generally interpreted as a story of private madness and individual redemption. Such a reading, however, is to ignore the dysfunctional social context of this virtually motiveless murder. In a world sharply divided... between the super-rich and the destitute, who is to say where the madness lies? This is a portrait of a society as a lunatic asylum, where... the general population is left to go hang." During reading the graphic novel, I found some of the imagery and plots disturbing and I was tempted to cast the protagonist as mad and without ethics. But the words from the introduction kept coming to me, and I was easily reminded that in a world going mad and creating an unhealthy environment, it is easier for its global citizens to mirror the environment and ethics of the world. For example, we live in a world that is increasingly busy, and put at the periphery the importance of close community connection and of the value of simply being with loved ones. We always have to do, and in an increasingly capitalistic society, that doing is often encumbered with the perception that we are doing to meet our own needs. This mindset can make us go mad with the lack of inner peace it leaves us. Another global trend that can question our propensity for madness and our moral fibre is the strong meat eating culture that we exhibit where the perception and treatment of non human animal flesh is considered of far less value and easily dispensible. For a child or adult human to know of the killing and mistreatment of these animals, is to make it easier to lower the value of life and therefore to create violence towards any form of life. Therefore the madness sets in further to individuals in our society. Madness that is perpetuated by the society. As I was reading this book, I wondered why Dostoevsky choose to write this original work, as the content is so bleak and grim. I can easily understand, as I think of the culture and society he was living in. This outlook is, however, just as relevant today as it was then, as I have eluded to above. But then I wonder why choose the title of Crime and Punishment for his would be classic? That tends to highlight whether the protagonist can evade punishment for his crime rather than my reading of the content which is to highlight the effects of a mad world on its individual citizens.
Deze graphic novel vertelt het verhaal van een jonge student genaamd Raskolnikov, die het financieel moeilijk heeft en zijn studie's niet af kan maken. Hij vermoord een oude huisbazin en gelooft dat hij hierdoor de wereld een dienst mee heeft bewezen, en dat deze gewetenloze daad daarom gerechtvaardigd is . De politie leert Raskolnikov kennen en ze spelen een kat en muis spel tot hij zichzelf aangeeft vanwege zijn zelfgecreëerde nachtmerries die niet willen eindigen. Zijn moeder, zus, haar verloofde, de huisbazin, haar zus, de inspecteur en nog een man die hij leerde kennen in een bar zijn de meest voorkomende personages. Ze zijn niet zo veel voorkomend, je ziet vooral Raskolnikov en de ellende die hij continu met zich meedraagt, toch zijn ze cruciaal in het verhaal.
De reputatie die het originele boek heeft legt de lat voor deze strip enorm hoog. Zelf heb ik het jammergenoeg nog niet kunnen lezen waardoor het schrijven van een recensie voor deze aangepaste getekende versie moeilijker is aangezien ik het niet kan vergelijken. Ik twijfel niet aan het feit dat het origineel een absoluut meesterwerk is maar het stripverhaal opzichzelfstaande is interessant en er zijn prachtige illustratie's, de sfeer die het creëert is geweldig. De scene waar Raskolnikov zijn zus haar smekende verloofde in het hoofd schiet is mijn absoluut favoriete scene! Als je last hebt van concentratie of als het origineel te ingewikkeld is, is dit een interessante vervanger. Het was een vlotte lezer maar het was geen hersendood boek met weinig plot die slecht is geschreven. Ik ben toch benieuwd de originele Dostojevski te lezen maar dit was geen tijdsverspilling.
I was skeptical about a graphic novel adaptation of Crime and Punishment--one of my favorite novels--but I saw it on the shelf at the public library and the black and white illustrations grabbed my attention, so I checked it out. Now that I've read it, I see that I was right to be skeptical. The adaptation doesn't really work on any level. The primary difficulty is that Crime and Punishment is a very internal novel. Words, and especially the words of people's thoughts, are much more important than actions or visuals (though those are of course a big part of the novel as well). Dostoevsky's novel is a delight for a logophile like me. Translating that into graphic novel panels just loses too much. The visuals cannot convey everything that was in the words, and so the result is that this adaptation feels slight and confusing. With no knowledge of the original novel, I don't know how anyone would be able to understand what's happening in the graphic novel.
A minor annoyance in this adaptation is the present-day Russia setting. I see no reason for this, and it adds nothing to the story. It allows the illustrator to put generic "emo" artwork (movie poster for Scream??) on people's apartment walls, and that is about all.
The black and white illustrations are okay. They looked striking as I first flipped through the book, but on closer reading there's nothing really special about them. It would have been more interesting to use occasional colors--red blood, or other colors marking out places or people--but it wasn't done here. There may be a possibility of a better graphic novel adaptation of Crime and Punishment (I'd like to see Bill Sienkiewicz try it), but ultimately I think it's a tough project from the start and should probably be left alone. There is little to recommend in this attempt by Mairowitz and Korkos.
I haven't read the original version of Crime and Punishment yet, but I am familiar with other Dostoevsky works, and combined with the excellent quality of this book, I am pretty sure it is an excellent adaptation and remains true to the story and its themes. The artwork seems to capture the depressing-reality nature of Dostoevsky's Russia, and is timely and important. This version really seems to sum up Crime and Punishment without the hundreds of pages which can sometimes be tedious and oh too depressing to read. On the other hand, certain no doubt important scenes are quickly skipped through by the GN, which only ensures that I will someday read the original to get the full message and experience. The images and philosophy of Crime and Punishment are just as relevant today, and in any place in the world, as they were in Dostoevsky's time; particularly the ethical/societal questions surrounding the right to and morality of killing, and the morality of actions in a world where morals are simply unnatural constructs.
Es una buena novela grafica, ya que tiene mucho de misterio, temor, desesperación, angustia y de igual saber que el protagonista tenia sentimientos en todo lo que había hecho, ya que por lo que ocurrido sintió culpa de todo lo sucedido, también en la novela se ve reflejado todo lo ocurrido en cada parte de donde el sale, con esta versión de gráficos, de igual cabe a destacar que sus gráficos dan mas sentido a cada parte en donde el habla y también donde salen otros personaje, ya que esto da mas a conocer todo lo sucedido y en tener mas interés a la novela, con esto da mucho de que hablar por los aspectos en como se ve, y en que tipos de ambientes tiene, y a como se ven los hechos de lo que pasó.
It must be hard to distil a 600 page novel into a fairly short graphic work, and this book is a fair indication of that. Needlessly updating the story to modern Russia (nothing is gained from this, the work is just as relevant today in its original setting), this book works on a superficial level but cannot gain the depth of the source material. Illustratively, the artwork is adequate, and assists the novel in moving at a fast pace; but ultimately it is the pace which undoes it. Crime And Punishment is a work to be savoured, not quickly ingested, disgested, and ejected within the hour. For those who haven't read the source material, it is that book which is highly recommended.
La novela es buena, las ilustraciones estan de acuerdo al desarrollo de la novela, no es tan extensa lo cual hace que las personas deseen leerlo, En cuanto al personaje principal esta bien, en la parte donde relatan el asesinato le pudieron poner mas acciones en el acto (especificar mas a detalle como fue que la asesino). Me gustó la idea de haber pequeñas historias secundarias como el de marmeladov y el de su hermana Dunia.El titulo va de acuerdo al desarrollo, el crimen fue haber asesinado a alguien pero su castigo fue el remordimiento y la culpa que sentia cada dia por haber hecho semejante acto, lo cual lleva a ser una novela psicologica.
En spennende fortelling om en morders sinn og dårlige samvittighet. Boken kan tolkes på mange måter. Hovedpersonens handlinger kan forklares ut fra sosioøkonomiske forhold i russland i det 19. århundre, men tegneserien viser hvordan situasjonen er tilsvarende i dag.
Ellers sliter tegneseriens medium med å få frem logikken i de sosiale interaksjonene. Handlingen føles staccato og regissert. Men jeg fikk lyst til å lese originalen.
The chief virtue of this synopsis for me, as somebody who recently read the full-text version, is demonstrating by contrast how richly detailed and complex Dostoyevsky's novel really is. Boiling it down to 119 pages of text and image, Korkos and Mairowitz barely have room to get the plot outlined, let alone the nuances.
sorry but i'm not going to write a full length review for this. i finished the real crime and punishment like 4? 5 hours ago? that review took considerable thought and, let's be real, i don't really have the brainpower for any of that with this.
i think maybe this might ease people into dostoevsky / the world of crime and punishment if they struggle to read classics (aka long and/or old books), and i can certainly think of a few people off the top of my head who, regardless of what they might think of the original, would probably really quite like this. i myself quite like it - it felt a little weird at first with the transposition into the 1970s (?) but i think that was actually a pretty nice touch with all the more recent cultural references instead of trying to make the clothing (and all the other little features) more accurate to the 1860s.
i also had a lot of fun looking through and seeing the artist's interpretation of what all the characters looked like - raskolnikov was VERY accurate to the picture i had in my head, alongside svidrigailov (or the image i had of svidrigailov before we meet him in the original), and zosimov was pretty close too. some characters got an upgrade (nastasya and sonya, looking at you), whilst some felt WAY off (why did porfiry look straight out of a men in black movie, yet he was the most whimsical of all the characters in the original? felt a little strange, but with the snippets of dialogue they chose for him, it kind of worked in the end, i guess?)
overall, fun short read. probably won't reread it but will absolutely press this into the hands of all my graphic designer / digital artist friends who even have the most remote interest in philosophical fiction. nice one, guys.
I have to agree with several other reviewers here and say that this graphic novel adaptation of Dostojevskij's classic simply isn't up to snuff.
It is far too short to do any kind of justice to Raskolnikov's long, gruelling psychological deterioration, and everything ends up feeling incredibly rushed.
In the book, you sympathise with Raskolnikov, feeling with him and for him even when his actions are reprehensible or driven by madness. In this adaptation I'm left completely outside of him, his motivations seeming at times utterly incomprehensible.
Additionally, Mairowitz has, for some unfathomable reason, chosen to modernise the setting - a choice that works very poorly, as elements of the story don't make a lot of sense when you take them out of their original historical context (nothing has been done to remedy this either - it's as if Mairowitz thought that he could simply pick the entire story up and plop it down into the 21st century without this having any effect on setting, coherence, characters, or general believability).
The art work is blunt and slightly grotesque, and I see that this is an attempt at translating some of Raskolnikov's confusion, feelings of otherness, and misanthropy to the graphic medium, but this didn't work very well either. All it did was make everything look ugly - and whereas, in the book, this ugliness is seen through Raskolnikov's eyes, eyes we know to be biased, and thus unreliable, the art work in the adaptation doesn't feel as open to interpretation.
Anyway, I promised a short review, so I'll just conclude that I wouldn't recommend this.
Nossa, eu to muito decepcionada. Crime e Castigo não é só meu livro preferido do Dosta, como a minha leitura favorita e essa adaptação prometia ser bem interessante: adaptar o enredo para o contexto da Rússia do século XXI, com um estilo de arte contemporâneo, provando o quanto essa história é atemporal. Mas essa proposta promissora foi muito mal executada: os personagens mal se expressam direito através das feições do rosto, tudo parece muito artificial e sem emoção, toda a profundidade do romance foi perdida a ponto de nenhuma das inúmeras discussões psicológicas, filosóficas ou sociais ser sequer abordada com o mínimo de desenvolvimento e análise crítica. Uma das únicas decisões acertadas foi apostar na dramaticidade do preto e do branco, que combina bastante com as histórias do Dosta.
As someone who has not read the original text, this was my first foray into Crime and Punishment and I felt that this adaption made sense and kept my interest for the entirety of the read. The story itself I can see could have a lot more detail, especially in the characters, and this was lacking in this graphic version but if you just want to be introdyced to Dostoevsky, then this is the perfect vehicle and the art style fits the dark nature of the tale really well.
I love the original Crime and Punishment novel so when I found a graphic novel version, as a comic book fan, I was excited.
I have to admit that while I loved the tonal darkness of the art itself, the writing let the story down. They attempted to modernise it but the only thing they seemed to do to show that was mention The Sex Pistols and punk in general. So much was cut out of the story that it lost a lot of the emotional impact.
3/10 it was awful. If you didn't read the original book you what understand anything. I feel like the comic was to short to capture the complexity of the book. The drawing style wasn't anything special, you couldn't see much emotion. Also I feel like putting the plot in modern times was completely unnecessary.
haven't read the original crime and punishment yet, so I can't really compare. I'm kinda on the fence with this. never loved it yet never hated it. its a middle for me. hopefully my attitude towards this adaptation will alter once I get my hands on the original. but for now, there's not much to say.