When I first read Crime and Punishment, Dosto became my best friend. The man was teaching me everything one needs to know to write something worth reading. There are many other friends of equal value, but Dosto took my heart.
If you want to learn how to master the basics of the interior monologue, Crime and Punishment is your manual. Narration, dialogue and interior monologues, or thoughts, are clearly distinguished with exquisite use of punctuation, rhythm and pace. It all becomes natural to the reader, who becomes involved in the all turmoil of emotion while remaining perfectly safe and guarded by the doctrinal narrator, as it happens in the best classics. This was written before the mesh up of voices that branded the modernists (which I adore), and constitutes their base. You could say Dosto is for the modern writer what Bach is for the classic musician, or Beethoven for the romantics.
As for the plot, it is masterly delivered. I’m not revealing a thing. People avoid reading stories when knowing the plot, as if the plot was everything. Let me digress a little to tell you one thing. All plots are already written or told. Plots are just a path to keep things going. The combination and mix of forms you use to tell the events is the construct that mysteriously tickles the reader’s heart. So, you better get yours ready. Dosto is not for cardiacs.
Thursday, 3rd September 2021
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