Dostoyevsky’s notes from the underground Part 2 Chapter 1 has a story about a long “vendetta” between the underground man and an officer. It was a comedy in how he was so intent on things and cared so much about an imagined slight and prepared and saved and got an advance on his salary and all this preparation… to nudge this guy slightly while walking down the street instead of completely moving aside.

It felt like a comedy to me, where someone uptight got themselves all worked up against someone who didn’t hardly even know they existed, become obsessed, and the impression I got is that the officer didn’t even know the other guy existed.

The way the Underground Man talks and acts is starting to make me realize he’s a nerd, and almost shockingly similar to repressed nerds in the current age.

He is also highly vain about his intelligence, and how well-read he is, and he really feels like that makes him a better person than others. His imaginary feud started up in part because he didn’t get into a dramatic fight that would be appropriate for a work of literature, and he blamed not just starting a fight in the bar because it wouldn’t be fantastical like his stories.

I’ll say I can see why it’s considered a masterwork, because while it’s investigating a lot of themes, it’s also fairly entertaining. The first part of the book could be seen as reasonable within itself, but then you see his actual behavior it’s almost cartoonish the way he is.