Demons

Many of Dostoevsky’s works zoom in on the individual’s psychology, like Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground. Demons departs from zooming in on the individual and instead looks at society’s political and psychological tendencies, mainly the rise of nihilism as well as the politics of revolution. The “Demons” in the novel are ideas that come to possess certain characters: the main antihero, the charming and aristocratic Nikolai Stavrogin, is possessed with ideological nihilism, while another, the philosophical engineer Alexei Kirillov, is possessed by the more bizarre but provocative idea that a person can become God when he asserts the ultimate self-will to suicide. Dostoevsky sometimes uses absurdity and farcical dialogues to caricature the popular ideas of his time, but out of historical context, this sometimes made the text feel dry. Despite some dryness and the slow-moving plot in the first half of the book, there are sprinkled nuggets of dark, cutting, and taboo ideas which represent Dostoevsky’s best.

I found the character of Alexei Kirillov to be the most nuanced and interesting character. His whole idea is that God cannot exist in a modern, scientific age, and that people should fill that vacuum of faith by trying to self-determine who they are in an attempt to become a god over themselves, ultimately leading him to conclude that suicide is the final and highest form of self-will. This line of reasoning is similar to Nietzsche’s view (but before Nietzsche wrote his ideas down), and I had dismissed Kirillov’s view as just that early on in the story. However, later in the story, Kirillov reveals that he fervently admires Christ, and that Jesus represents the highest aspiration; yet, the world has metaphorically killed religion with science, and therefore cold science has metaphorically killed the world’s most perfect, aspirational being in Jesus. His idea of suicide comes from complete despair at this tragedy, and as such Kirillov is a complete nihilist, as he is so certain in his disbelief of religion that he wagers his life on his belief. I would admire and even want to be someone who has Kirillov’s zeal, but instead of letting it lapse into nihilistic depression, channeled it into genuine, earthly faith in something else, like their own self or their friends – such a character would be more in line with the late Nietzschean idea of the strong person who overcomes.