Still on this unfortunately but like the way fantasy functions in white nights is so fascinating
Like that the narrators whole thing being that fantasy has swallowed him whole. Not just his current life, but his past, whatever family or other connections he may have once had. He is a man that to us (and to himself) exists only in the present and only within his own dreams. Even the backstory he gives to nastenka doesn't provide any context. almost no concrete details of his life are ever given. The fact that matryona only actually appears to us at the very end, when his purely imagined fantasy is dead, as is his real-fantasy w nastenka.
The reality can't coexist with either of those, but once he has a taste of that real-fantasy, he can't return to the pure one, so once the real-fantasy is dead, all he has left is reality. And the way thats almost mirrored in his initial greediness, for lack of a better term, w nastenka. He tells himself want he wants from her is so small, but the moment he gets it, he demands more, and that pattern repeats. If he cld ever have actually been satisfied w the reality he had, he wld never have had to live w that reality
I was just chatting about Dostoyevsky, and now your postings. This might be a sign I should check him out.
That and Oscar Wilde
You definitely shld! Im biased lol but I think white nights is a great entry point.
I've been meaning to read wilde too, but i haven't gotten around to him yet. My reading list is already way too long lol
