Journey through Faerieland

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky! One of the best books ever<3 I relate best to Katerina and Alyosha. Sometimes I relate to the crazy girlfriend of Alyosha, Lise, when I'm feeling really mentally unstable.

( 365 Day Meme )

I wish there were a personality quiz out there based on this book, but I have yet to find one. I would make one myself if I were better at that sort of thing.

The Brother's Karamazov is my favorite book; the characters (or at least a number of them) actually make sense to me. Their emotions and behaviors and thoughts more closely reflect my own than almost any more recent books I have read. Craziness is just a part of existence. Of course, a lot of the characters are opposite of me in personality, but that also is more easy for me to understand, and I run into internal conflicts with these kinds of people all the time. I first read this book seven years ago, and Alexei is still my favorite literary character ever, I think; I really like people who remind me of him. I have always felt really driven to possess more of Alexei's characteristics. However, I have always felt I'm more like Katerina, especially in my less virtuous traits. In my most crazy moments I even felt like I must be like Liza, but most of the time I relate much more to Katerina. I first identified with Katerina when I was seventeen and in the years that have passed since then my behavior has only mirrored Katerina's behaviors even more (though that was not done consciously!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov
http://www.novelguide.com/TheBrothersKaramazov/characterprofiles.html
http://www.novelguide.com/TheBrothersKaramazov/themeanalysis.html

It seems now like strong emotions are discouraged. People can seem so jaded or try to handle feelings and emotions in such a distant and pragmatic way that emotions and feelings get washed out of existence. I usually try to analyze my thoughts/feelings/emotions/behaviors in order to make myself calmer or to act in more reasonable ways, but it doesn't work for me. I've just read a ton of times that somehow reasoning is supposed to help. Analysis can sometimes keep me from doing really crazy stuff, but usually I can think myself into anything. I'm an extremely emotional person and my emotions largely dominate my perspective in one way or another. Often I do wish I could somehow numb my emotions so I could be more productive, but at other times I'm actually proud of them, even if they do seem crazy. I relate much more to Dostoevsky's characters than most real-life people.