Oh, Brother(s)

Well, I finished The Brothers Karamazov. It was quite a ride. The book goes back and forth between descriptive, event-filled "action" scenes and long, philosophical, long dialogue scenes (I have it on good authority that this is typical of Dostoevsky's work).

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There's lots of good stuff in there. As I have said before (and will no doubt say again), I'm not big on literary analysis. I'm sure one or two people will come up with something lots better than I could when class time rolls around, in any case. If you really want to read some analysis, go read the Spark notes. I will touch on only one analytical thing.

As I read the book, I was constantly reminded of a certain List that a friend of mine made. As a rough estimate, approximately 97.2561% of the problems in the book are directly related to women or the stupid things men do for "love" (that is, lust) of them. Of the 42 items on the afforementioned list, at least 27 can be seen in action in BK. Reason and caution are thrown to the wind, common sense is flushed down the toilet, and chaos ensues.

Morals of the story: (WARNING: PREACHING AHEAD)
1) Think before you act!!!!
2) If you're going to fall in "love," make sure it really is love, and not lust/puppy love/infatuation/"mad passion" for your Significant Other (SO).
2a) No method is better at testing for genuine "love" than time spent with your SO getting to know queem. If you meet someone and two days later you are "burning with passion" for queem, it's probably not real, solid-relationship-building love, at least not yet. (Exceptions are out there, but not many.)
2b) Building a relationship entirely on emotions is not a good idea. Feelings are fine, and everyone has them, but feelings change. If there isn't a solid foundation (trust, respect, rational decisions) to the relationship, don't come crying to me (or anyone else) when things start going bad.
3) If you start a serious relationship with someone (especially if that someone is a woman) and you later decide to dump that someone for a new flame, DO NOT start the new relationship without working things out with your first victi..err, SO.
4) For Pete's sake, do NOT go around telling people you're going to commit murder, whether you plan on doing so or not.
5) One word: thriftiness
6) One more word: sobriety
7) Don't feed pins to dogs. Not only is this a sick thing to do, it gets you sick, too.
8) The justice system isn't perfect. Unless you plan to start a rebellion, live with it.
9) God is good.