Today, October 30, 2019, marks the 198th anniversary of the birth of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
A titan of world literature, Dostoevsky delved into the psychological makeup of his characters as had no other author before him. His major works - Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov - have been translated into over 170 languages, have been read by millions, and have influenced literally thousands of writers.
In Chapter Two of The Brothers Karamazov, the character Zosima delivers one of the most insightful quotes on the subject of lying in literature:
“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself.
A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea - he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility. . . Do get up from your knees and sit down, I beg you, these posturings are false, too.”
Feel free to join me in drawing inferences and finding correlations to the great liar of our time.
(Julian calendar dates are referenced here, as the current Gregorian calendar was not adopted in Russia until well after Dostoevsky's death.)
(I recommend the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV.)