Read it because its here.

Okay not a movie, but a miniseries and not Skoto, but the Brothers Karamazov. I just liked the way Skoto the Movie sounded. Anyways there are two major things I like about what I've seen so far. I like the guy they have playing Grigory. I didn't think so at first, but when he is dealing with Smerdy and then when he was just standing there saying, "He was insolent to me," referring to Dmitry, I thought he made a perfet Grigory. I also like Anatoliy Belyy as Ivan. I think he shows Ivan as the odd one out as he was in the novel. Physically he is different with a different build and darker looks. Even though he is the full brother of Alyosha it was almost as if he were thought of as the half brother. Not by Alyosha of course, but by Fyodor mostly.

Of course there were a lot of discrpencies from the beginning with the boys being together as children. I didn't really like this as that would have allowed all three brothers to bond as children as that just seems like it would have changed the brotherly dynamics from the book. Fyodor in the beginning looked too clean and put toegther; not how I imagined him I must say. He is growing on me though as the chracter I picture as we go along. To be honest If I hadn't read the book and knew the story I think I would be confused with what was going on. It is a little choppy. That's to be expected I suppose if you don't want the miniseries to be 12837697 hours. (ha! I just converted that to days just to see and it's 534904 days)

So far I like the actresses playing Katya and Grushenka. Smerdyakov is slimy from the beginning and we are told right away that he is the illegitimate son of Fyodor and that he has epilepsy. Does not leave much guessing to do, but with the multitude of plots in this story I suppose there could be some taken out for times sake.

Oh and Bratya Karamazovy is available on youtube for anyone that wants to watch it if we can't finish it in class.

Only the Epilogue left. I don't really know how I feel about the whole thing up till now. Dmitry is not guilty.  I don't think he is anyways. That always bothers me whether it's in a book, a movie, or on the news. I imagine if that was me and I was innocent, but the system failed me and put me in jail. I hate that it happens. But okay back to Skotoprigonyevsk. By the way, it was weird seeing the narrator use the towns name again.

Someone in class asked about who the narrator is. I've never thought about it. I guess it never occurred to me that it would be someone that we were introduced to in the novel. I guess it could be Alyosha though I don't think so. Maybe Kolya when he grows up. Personally if I had to guess I would say Rakitin. He seems to know everything anyways and goes and talks to everyone getting the inside scoop. He already fancies himself a writer in the story. Although he is the type of person I think that if he was going to write something he would write himself in a more favorable light. I just prefer to not think one of the characters is narrating.

Ivan is so changed from when we first met him in the story. Well most of the characters are, but him in particular. He seemed to be more of a reserved person, high in his ideals, and very set in his ways. Now he has completely lost it and is busting up in court. If you would have thought anyone would keep his senses it would be Ivan. I guess it was Dostoyevsky's way of a curveball.

Oh and I loved how said Fyodor's name in this book : Retired titular councillor, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov. Seems very official for someone who made his life of being a clown.

I was glad to get back to the Karamazovs and there happenings in the exciting town of Skotoprigonyevsk although I confess that I was wondering if we were going to get another visit from Kolya or was his purpose simply to wrap up the other little story lines from earlier on in the book? As for the name of the town (it took me ten or so tries before I could memorize it just for it not to be on the quiz) that was a shock for him just to throw it out like that with a confession that he withheld it pretty much on purpose the whole time. I knew it was going to happen sometime, because Isham said it would be coming up, but it was almost, "so oh yeah the town is Skotoprigonyevsk. tried to hide it from ya, but there ya go and yes I know it's a mouth full!" I tried to look up its meaning and got something about cattle or it's from the word skotoprigony, meaning stockyard.

Lise... She's just gone. Either that or maybe bipolar? The ups and down are just so extreme it would seem and the indecisiveness is also an indicator. I wouldn't be surprised as Dostoyevsky seems to have characters that are affected with mental illness. It also goes along with the "affect" everyone is trying to say Dmitry was under. I gotta hand it to Alysoha though I can see why he is the hero, though write now an almost unspoken one. He is loyal. He stands by his brother and is the one saying, "Actually no Dmitry didn't kill our father and I truly believe that. I will not believe you saying otherwise." It's like nowadays when just to get a case over with someone would plead to maybe a lesser charge so they won't go to court and risk something bad happening. I know, in Dmitry's case, I couldn't say I did it either. Alyosha is saving him. With his mind, he needs at least someone to believe him or otherwise he would start to convince himself that maybe everyone else was right.

Smerdyakov... Never liked him. He's like the butler you suspect from the beginning of the play. He wasn't quite right and not because he was epileptic either. I think I suspected him because of the cats. I know someone said in class about they looked up about psychopaths and it said something about torturing animals, wetting the bed, and something else. I don't know about that, but I know people like that start out with the most helpless and work their way up. They start with animals, go on the children and then the elderly and then they are confident to just go at it. The animals, manipulating Ilyusha, the murder of Fyodor. It all fits. This put is turning out to be the ultimate whodunit!

Oh and personally I think Smerdyakov is trying to get Ivan to feel the blame, because Smerdyakov used to like him, but Ivan never really considered him to be really intellectual enough. He is simply playing on the emotions of a son. Smerdyakov has always had too much power.

(On a semi funny note: I went home after class thursday so I am sitting at home writing this and I like to listen to music while I am working and what I was listening to finished, so my mother took it upon herself to put in more music. All of a sudden, Love train by the O' Jays comes on. I thought that is an hilarious soundtrack for the Karamazovs.)

At least that is what he thinks. When I read this originally I just thought it was too fantastical. The language he uses is just too advanced. I've read books before where the character is supposed to be a kid or teenager, but they would never talk like that. But the more we talked in the class the more and more he made sense. He's just a kid that doesn't want people to know he is one. The problem is he is one and people are quite aware of that. That is pretty typical. I know when I was fourteen I didn't want to be called kid.

Every time I go to write one of these blog posts I'm stuck on repeat. I almost feel bad for anyone that reads these. I;m sure they are thinking, "Oh, now there she goes again about the same damn things." But it's just how I feel about the writing and every time a couple days go by without reading it I somehow forget what was so frustrating about it, so when I go to read again I'm frustrated all over again. Although, it does come with the territory seeing as I am just an easily annoyed person. I will give you an entirely different reason for my frustration though. This time it wasn't how her wrote it or the teasing Dostoyevsky does about future events, this time it was actually what he wrote.