The intro to Crime and Punishment

From the start, here, we're warned this won't be quite like other books we've read, in that we didn't buy it while waiting for a flight to Chicago. No, it didn't say that, but probably because they hadn't quite gotten into commercial air travel, or anyone wanting to go to Chicago other than meat packers and mobsters, at the time the book was written. Rather, they point out books written by a Russian aren't like books written by English or Americans, because Russians, or at least Dostoevsky, has characters he doesn't think of as unlikable or weird, but we do. Sort of like Mad Men in reverse. He also uses the word, "analysands," which I would swear was made up if I didn't suspect it died somewhere around the same time "loan" became a verb. In further describing the characters, the introduction states: "They do not, like us, see life as progressive movement. No one is interested in what anyone else does, or wants to do, or in what his social or financial position may be. They have no careers." Somewhere in here, there's a basic description of Facebook/Twitter/blogging, 50 years before they really existed. And mind you this is just the introduction, written by some genius to explain the genius that is Dostoevsky. By the end of this book, there'll both be hidden insight into why the U.S has a space program and why anyone cares about Britney Spears. Maybe in the same sentence. We're also warned one of the main characters won't appear until three-fourths of the way through, but with no "spoiler alert." Though I guess it isn't technically a spoiler if you're still reading the introduction. Well, maybe. There need to be rules about these things. The introduction compares the author to other geniuses with unique insight into the human condition, such as Jesus, Buddha, and someone named Blake. Went to high school with a Blake. Could it be the same guy? He was pretty smart, not the least of which was represented in him always having a sandwich to eat in class about the time you'd mentally moved past the bowl of marshmallow cereal and onto the cold thing you were eating for lunch, great white shark-like. He didn't share, which was also pretty smart, because that would've resulted in bloodshed. There's also apparently a lot of Freud-before-Freud in this book, and the intro writer says we can find thousands of examples. Maybe, but it better be obvious to make this blog, involving both a cigar and Vienna. And maybe a cool beard. What do you mean, I don't know psychology? I took plenty of psychology classes in college, with professors and lots of damaged female students and everything. They were a pleasant to diversion to "History of Fonts" in the journalism major. More intro stuff next time. And maybe, some of, you know, the actual novel.