{"id":5220,"date":"2009-11-08T12:22:19","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T16:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryeblog.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca\/?p=5220"},"modified":"2009-11-08T12:22:19","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T16:22:19","slug":"leviathan-and-dostoevskys-crocodile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/11\/08\/leviathan-and-dostoevskys-crocodile\/","title":{"rendered":"Leviathan and Dostoevsky’s Crocodile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"j5691\"<\/p>\n

As a way perhaps of tying together two of the recent threads on the blog, I thought I might offer up this little piece as an intriguing example of Leviathan symbolism. It is a summary of Dostoevsky<\/a>\u2019s unfinished grotesque allegorical satire, \u201cThe Crocodile<\/a>,\u201d from Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871<\/em>, vol. 4 of Joseph Frank’s monumental critical biography.<\/p>\n

The Jonah\/Leviathan archetype is all the more resonant in the tale because it is a playful but deadly serious satirical attack on the murderous logic of ideologies\u2013in this case the opposing faiths of capitalism and socialism–and the way in which the primary demands of human welfare are so \u201crationally\u201d sacrificed to the secondary concerns of ideology:<\/p>\n

The Crocodile concerns the fantastic adventure of a conceited bureaucrat of \u2018advanced\u2019 opinions, who is accidentally swallowed by a crocodile on exhibition in St. Petersburg and quite contentedly swallowed by a crocodile on exhibition in St. Petersburg and quite contentedly takes up residence in his belly. From this secure vantage point, whose isolation allows him the leisure to concentrate his mind, he decides to proclaim a whole new set of ideas about the future improvement of mankind. As he explains his enthusiasm, \u201cyou have only to creep . . . into a crocodile . . . shut your eyes, and you immediately devise a perfect millennium for mankind.\u201d This mockery of a visionary Utopianism, however, is not Dostoevsky\u2019s main target; rather, he focuses on the futile attempt made by a naive friend of the crocodile-dweller, concerned about his health and welfare, to initiate a rescue effort before he dissolves entirely in the reptile\u2019s gastric juices. This well-meant humanitarian aim is opposed by a highly placed bureaucrat, who has recently been convinced by an important capitalist that Russia is greatly in need of new foreign investments. The crocodile is the property of a visiting German entrepreneur, and any injury to it would only discourage the flow of capital into the country and hinder Russian economic expansion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The crocodile-dweller himself, though \u201cprogressive\u201d to the tips of his toes, nonetheless agrees with the capitalist\u2019s reasoning: before all else, \u201cthe principles of economics\u201d must be respected. All consideration of simple \u201chumanity\u201d are thus swept aside, and the logic of utility, the logic of economics, triumphs over the plight of a human being. The advocate of capitalist enterprise and the inventor of a new millennium are in complete accord; both right and left in Russia, as Dostoevsky saw it, had now accepted exactly the same chilling and inhumane prescriptions for human conduct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a way perhaps of tying together two of the recent threads on the blog, I thought I might offer up this little piece as an intriguing example of Leviathan symbolism. It is a summary of Dostoevsky\u2019s unfinished grotesque allegorical satire, \u201cThe Crocodile,\u201d from Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871, vol. 4 of Joseph Frank’s monumental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archetype"],"yoast_head":"\nLeviathan and Dostoevsky's Crocodile - The Educated Imagination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/fryeblog\/2009\/11\/08\/leviathan-and-dostoevskys-crocodile\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leviathan and Dostoevsky's Crocodile - The Educated Imagination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a way perhaps of tying together two of the recent threads on the blog, I thought I might offer up this little piece as an intriguing example of Leviathan symbolism. 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