The Crystal Palace (Or "The Palace of Crystal" in Constance Garnett's translation)
So…what exactly is the Crystal Palace? In 1851, The Great Exhibition was held in London. It was basically like a World's Fair, where everyone got together to show how cool and modern things w...
2+2=4 and the Stone Wall
These two ideas come up a lot. And they really piss off the Underground Man. His argument goes like this: 1) free will means man gets to do whatever he wants. 2) The laws of nature say that 2+2 alw...
The Underground
We know that the Underground Man has been underground for twenty years, but he tells stories about his interactions with the world sixteen years ago. So when he talks about being "underground," he'...
"The Sublime and Beautiful" (or "the lofty and beautiful" in some translations)
This phrase comes from Immanuel Kant's 1764 essay, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. In this work, Kant (an enlightenment philosopher) explores these two emotions we feel wh...