That is a very good idea. We recently read Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther and Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, and I wound up writing an essay basically on just how irrational the characters were, and found it to be a very interesting and engaging topic. While I was thinking about that, I was more engaged with the book. I don’t write much fiction, but I do enjoy it when I’m doing so. For a writing competition a while ago, I wrote my own version of the Faustian legend (the original version of selling your soul to the devil) with the protagonist being a rationalist and a transhumanist.
That is a very good idea. We recently read Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther and Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, and I wound up writing an essay basically on just how irrational the characters were, and found it to be a very interesting and engaging topic. While I was thinking about that, I was more engaged with the book. I don’t write much fiction, but I do enjoy it when I’m doing so. For a writing competition a while ago, I wrote my own version of the Faustian legend (the original version of selling your soul to the devil) with the protagonist being a rationalist and a transhumanist.
Thanks! (Upvoted)
It can be very interesting to suspend disbelief and critically look at a classic work; I did it once for The Tale of Genji: http://www.gwern.net/Notes.html#a-secular-humanist-reads-the-tale-of-genji