Josh Murphy’s Reviews > The Idiot > Status Update

Still thinking about the moment at the end of part 1 where the prince tells the "kept woman" that she's not to blame for what's happened to her. It's very contemporary, intersecting with the Epstein Files stuff of recent months. A contrast to the Files apologists who call the 15 year old children who were abused, "Underaged Women," and blaming them for choosing to enter the "kept" situation. Fyodor is progressive? :P

200-Haven't I dreamed about you? You're right, I did, a long time ago, in the house on his estate...I used to dream and dream-and always imagining someone like you, kind, honest, good and a bit stupid, that you would suddenly arrive and say: "You bear no guilt, Nastasya Filippovna, and I adore you!"...And then that man over there would arrive: he would stay... to disgrace, outrage, infuriate, deprave, and leave

Thoughts so far: The Idiot is an observer: generous, open, humble, maybe naïve. He pities a girl who was seduced, abandoned, and reviled by the town, and his kindness inspires the local children to care for her. He’s accused of corrupting the youth (Plato reference?). Dostoevsky seems to ask whether goodness always looks like foolishness to the worldly. The women in this story feel strikingly vivid and 3-dimensional.