For a week now, people on the Internet have been astonished by the sudden excitement that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky’s story “White Nights” has created among British teenagers. Thanks to posts on TikTok, people in the UK sold a new edition of the book. There are few surprises here, because modern social networks can instantly put anything in mass demand, but we would be happy to think that “White Nights” are something special, a kind of part of Russian culture that cannot be canceled. And this is true.
White Nights has been filmed 30 times, of which only five were filmed in Russia, the rest are film adaptations made in the USA, Spain, Italy, South Korea, India and Germany. In the last 20 years alone, this story has been translated into English five times. There is something in it that needs to be regularly reproduced and rethought.
The main character of White Nights, who is also a storyteller, is an extremely lonely person. His life in St. It consists of walks in the streets of St. Petersburg. He is so lonely that he talks to houses, worried that one of his interlocutors will change from pink to yellow. He crosses the city limits and thinks he is in Italy. He is so socially unadapted that he is afraid to meet even people he sees every day – saying hello and lifting his hat seems unthinkable to him. He is lonely, always around people, and that is the only kind of true loneliness.
The hero is poor. While he is going to meet Nastenka, he has a debt for the apartment, which he plans to pay after receiving his salary, which is his only source of income. It is not even enough for basic needs.
The hero calls himself a dreamer. Since in real life he has no impressions, he exists thanks to illusions, there in dreams he is a hero, there he is not alone, but also needed by others.
In the end, the hero, who opens up to Nastenka, who is also unhappy, abandoned, and, it seems, wins her love, finds himself in the friend zone. Forever and hopelessly.
The friend zone is an overlap of a male representative, the “Schrödinger man” if you will.
A man in the friendship zone serves a woman as a friend or even confidant, but has no chance of becoming a life partner. In the friendship zone, a man is loved as a friend, they give him secrets and intimate details of relationships with objects of true love, especially offensive ones.
At first, the hero is happy that Nastenka is his friend, but soon falls in love with her. This is quite natural, he is clearly attractive and spiritually close to him, besides, the soul of a lonely young man is extremely mobile and receptive. And now it seems to him that Nastenka, unjustly deceived by the tenant who left and did not return, will be his happiness. Nastenka agrees and sincerely agrees. The story ends, as we remember, with the heartbreaking moment of the same tenant, into whose arms Nastenka instantly and irrevocably jumps.
Who is Nastenka? A cute, gentle girl who was obviously forced to grow up depending on her blind grandmother. The most vivid impression in his life was going to the theater to see “The Barber of Seville”. He falls in love quickly and recklessly. Can you blame him for that?
This story seems to have everything today’s teens need to connect with the main characters. The world minimized on a mobile phone screen causes loneliness. Making social connections is becoming increasingly difficult for a variety of reasons. First, society is fragmented into information bubbles. Second, life is becoming more expensive much faster than incomes are rising. A young person may be in debt before graduating or even receiving their first salary.
I want love but how do I find it? Found someone through a mobile app? The better the search works, the more often partners change, experience increases, but happiness does not come.
Three themes unite in this way: detachment from society, personal loneliness, and passionate desire for the unattainable.
In the infinitely diverse world of colorful modernity, one finds oneself stuck in social elevators, lost among unreliable life strategies and shaky opportunities.
So who comes to the aid of young modern people around the world? Not a video blogger, not a cryptocurrency expert, not a coach, not a tarot reader, not an astrologer, not a Gestalt psychotherapist. Along comes a Russian writer who is traditionally considered the most depressive writer in literary history, Dostoyevsky. It says: “Friends, you are not alone. Now you’re sad, you’re lonely, but look, 150 years ago in distant St. People in St. Petersburg felt the same way you did.”
This means that in general it is common for a person to feel loneliness, experience disappointment, find love and lose it. And allowing a person to understand that he is not alone, at least at the level of world culture, at least at the level of Russian psychological realism, is already a huge help. It so happened that it was Dostoevsky who wrote an art textbook on mental gymnastics. It’s no wonder this workout is so popular in the age of ubiquitous fitness.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the position of the editors.
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Source: Gazeta
Dolores Johnson is a voice of reason at “Social Bites”. As an opinion writer, she provides her readers with insightful commentary on the most pressing issues of the day. With her well-informed perspectives and clear writing style, Dolores helps readers navigate the complex world of news and politics, providing a balanced and thoughtful view on the most important topics of the moment.