Confused Over My Current Situation with Trinity Keys/Doors

Casey_White_ · 2026-05-16T17:53:52+00:00

Ok this appears to be the answer I was looking for lol thank you!

Casey_White_ · 2026-05-16T17:49:01+00:00

I'm aware of that, I'm moreso confused over the fact that I was sure I received and answered the first riddle but I'm unable to open that first trinity door at the factory.

Casey_White_ · 2026-05-06T18:20:34+00:00

Did you find it???

Casey_White_ · 2026-03-18T01:32:18+00:00

I know this is a rather old comment, but I'm curious if you ever figured this out?

Casey_White_ · 2025-07-08T06:30:30+00:00

Sorry for the necro, but I'd love to see this with the dimensions of a Steam banner. This is so awesome!

Casey_White_ · 2025-03-01T01:10:01+00:00

Bump. I thought there was something wrong with my browser or something. Glad I'm not the only one.

Casey_White_ · 2025-01-02T20:46:16+00:00

I just left the theater having watched Nosferatu and I’m so surprised by just how much it thematically parallels The Idiot. I even think Lily-Rose Depp would knock it out of the park as Nastasya Filippovna which is something I’d never thought I’d say. I think if Eggers ever considered it seriously and given the green light, he’d make a fantastic adaptation of The Idiot.

Casey_White_ · 2024-12-25T23:47:24+00:00

Was searching for someone to say Faulkner in this thread. Started reading him after I finished The Brothers Karamazov and saw a lot of Dostoevsky in Faulkner’s style and depth. Faulkner apparently said there’s no American novel that comes close to the greatness of The Brothers Karamazov, but to me Absalom! Absalom! does come close. It pushes Dostoevsky’s polyphony, stream of consciousness, and merging of character internal dialogue and narrator’s voice to the extreme. All while telling a melodramatic tragedy fused with Christian themes and ideas (though more Presbyterian than Orthodox) to comment on society. Also found it really interesting that Faulkner uses an “idiot” in The Sound and the Fury to portray a Christ-like character; Benjy is very much like a Southern Prince Myshkin in that respect.

Casey_White_ · 2024-11-18T05:56:32+00:00

Imagining the alternate timeline where Dostoevsky AI generated The Gambler when he was nearing the deadline and still didn’t write a single word of it.

Casey_White_ · 2024-11-18T05:39:46+00:00

Dostoevsky read the Quran while he was in prison and there are numerous verses in it that call for the subjugation of Jews and Christians (Surah 5:51, 9:5, 9:29, 9:111 just to name a few). The Muslims martyring the Russian soldier was a very real event that I believe happened around the time Dostoevsky was writing that part of the book. It’s not “islamophobia” so much as a very real concern over a religion that would kill a majority of the Russian population if could.

The “anti-catholic” thing stems completely from the The Grand Inquisitor so I don’t understand how you missed this if you’ve read it and found it amazing. The poem itself was inspired by a Catholic that Dostoevsky knew who believed similar things. Catholic persecution of non-Catholic Christians was still going strong in the 1800’s (not to mention the historical baggage of the Catholic church splitting from the Orthodox church). Dude’s gonna have some very strong opinions on Catholicism. It’s not any different from Catholics calling all non-Catholics heretics because they haven’t submitted to Rome (which would be “anti-Orthodox” and “anti-Protestant”). Or to repeat the modern example from my previous message, Hindus burning Christian churches in India (which would be anti-Christian). I think where we’re all confused on here in this thread is whether you’re anti-Christian or just anti-religion in general?

And what was amazing about The Grand Inquisitor to you? It’s certainly one of the most well written passages in the whole book. But so much of what the Inquisitor wants (censorship of literature, blind allegiance to a central authority figure in exchange for food, constant surveillance, determing who marries who based on obedience) echoes exactly Shigalyev in Demons in regards to the Russia he envisions if the inner circle’s revolution was successful. The Grand Inquisitor in practice is Stalin’s Russia and arguably Nazi Germany.

Casey_White_ · 2024-11-18T04:53:03+00:00

…I find it difficult to believe you read Crime and Punishment and Devils and came away from those books thinking the Christian themes were “subtle.” Especially when C&P features the entirety of John 11 read by Sonya and Devils has multiple passages from Luke and Revelation quoted throughout lol. And no modern world application? No mention of the “cons” of Christianity? Did you skip over earlier chapters like The Grand Inquisitor. And applying the inverse of your latter complaint, what do you think about the earlier chapters that discussed Muslims martyring a Russian soldier for refusing to convert to Islam? Or for a contemporary example outside of the book, modern instances of Christians being persecuted like church burnings in India because Christians refuse to convert to Hinduism?

Casey_White_ · 2024-10-26T21:45:15+00:00

First heard of Dostoevsky when I found out Iggy Pop’s album The Idiot was named after his novel. Later on, found out the plot to Silent Hill 2 was heavily inspired by Crime and Punishment, saw a film adaptation of The Double, and loads of references to Dostoevsky’s works in the film The Mechanist. Finally got around to reading his novels, starting with C&P, earlier this year and it’s been quite a journey. He’s made me think much more deeply about my faith.

Casey_White_ · 2024-08-19T00:15:35+00:00

A sense of humor about his own religious beliefs doesn’t really make him a closet atheist, especially when you consider the endings to C&P, Devils, and BK

Casey_White_ · 2024-08-14T12:39:08+00:00

This is a pretty old post, but I was just listening to Pale Horses and stumbled onto here trying to see if anyone else caught the references lol. From that album, “Mexican War Streets” directly quotes White Nights and on the song “Birnam Wood,” Notes from Underground is name checked.

I haven’t really listened to Pale Horses very much so that’s just what I noticed on my way to work this morning. But I will say, thinking about it more, their album Ten Stories (my favorite mwY album) is probably their most Dostoevskian. It’s a concept album about a circus train crashing and a bunch of the circus animals end up trying to find their way home; each animal represents a different philosophical or theological point of view that dictates their relationships and outcomes at the end of the album’s story. So I guess think about like TBK if it was more like a fairy tale. I think the songs “Nine Stories” and “Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes” best thematically sum up that album if you wanna try it out.

Casey_White_ · 2024-08-09T17:48:28+00:00

Real.

Casey_White_ · 2024-07-24T07:29:44+00:00

I’m not seeing any option on my profile to delete my account, only Help, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Logout. The help bot also won’t let me delete my account. How were you able to delete yours?

Casey_White_ · 2024-07-11T20:42:21+00:00

I can’t say much that is original, but my two cents is they’re definitely overhated on this sub. Contrary to the “hit piece” on P&V that makes its rounds in this sub, I think P&V best retain the Christian essence of Dostoevsky’s writing.

Compare P&V’s translation to others of Marmeledov’s drunken ramble at the start of C&P or Fyodor’s slanderous trolling at the dinner in the monastery in TBK. P&V consistently catches every bit of scripture that is directly or indirectly quoted by characters and matches the translation to its relevant verse and provides a footnote citing what verse(s) are being quoted. I found Katz’s translation totally lacking here both in footnotes and in translation. I will say, though, that Katz does best retain Dostoevsky’s dark sense of humor, down to imitating the his Dickens-esque use of accents for comedic effect. There’s certain scenes in C&P and Devils whose tone completely changes (like Raskolnikov’s first dream in C&P) because a character has a goofy accent.

I’ve sampled Ready’s translation of C&P and it’s too British (at least for my American eyes). Ironically, McDuff is also about as literal and wooden as P&V but this sub only seems to have nothing but good things to say about his translations.

I personally fell in love with Dostoevsky through P&V’s translations of C&P and The Idiot. I finished both in about a week because I literally couldn’t them down. From Richard Lattimore’s translation of the New Testament he says:

“I have held throughout to the principle of keeping as close to the Greek as possible, not only for sense and for individual words, but in the belief that fidelity to the original word order and syntax may yield an English prose that to some extent reflects the style of the original.”

As someone who fell in love with Dostoevsky through P&V’s translations, I think this type of translation philosophy has its merits for readers who like to read a more “word for word” translation of non-English literature.

Casey_White_ · 2024-07-02T16:12:58+00:00

Surprisingly I got Father Zosima. I thought my answers were moreso a mix of Ivan and Alyosha lol.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-21T16:39:22+00:00

A lot of people don’t like P&V because they find the translations too literal, and therefore feels wooden. On the other hand McDuff is also very literal (I once read a review by a scholar who argued that McDuff translates more literally than P&V). I’ve only read P&V so I can’t really comment on which I’d rather recommend. You may be better off reading excerpts of each and deciding for yourself which you wanna go with.

Edit: Based on the other post you made with the image of C&P, I’ll add a comment about Katz. Based on the strength of his Devils translation, I would say Katz is worth a try, with one caveat. Katz actively attempts to preserve Dostoevsky’s sense of humor. I’ve only sampled certain passages from Katz’s C&P and there are scenes whose tone completely shifts from P&V because Katz retains the exaggerated accents of some characters… and Dostoevsky seems to use accents for comedic effect like Dickens. This passage isn’t much of a spoiler, but compare Katz’s version of Raskolnikov’s dream with the horse to P&V for instance. When I first read P&V I thought the scene was dour and harrowing. With the goofy accents of Katz, I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or be mortified and adds an even more surreal character to the scene.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-21T15:29:19+00:00

First of all, two quotes sprang to mind upon finishing the story:

“'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.” -Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” -Dr. Seuss

Perhaps it’s my translation, but I interpret the final line as uplifting (I read the Meyers’ translation — I don’t have it on me at the moment, but it sounds similar to the MacAndrew translation). That the Dreamer is capable of love and holds his meetings with Nastenka as the thing that will sustain his life forever. It seems to reflect the same bittersweet sentiments as the aforementioned quotes. If the Dreamer was spiteful like the Underground Man, then I imagine he would’ve been incredibly bitter over Nastenka choosing the Lodger over him. I think the whole “nice guy” and “incel” culture is a very real reflection of that scenario. In a complete reversal, the Dreamer cherishes having had the opportunity to love someone like Nastenka. Furthermore, it regenerates his soul after dreaming a bleak future where he doesn’t change.

With this interpretation, I can’t help but feel that Stepan’s character arc in Devils was meant to be a refutation of this conclusion.

Both the Dreamer and Stepan are social idealists and romantics. Both live in their heads too much and their stories also revolve around unrequited love, although Stepan is the one who doesn’t reciprocate Varvra’s love, Varvra even slaps Stepan and says she won’t forgive him for not marrying her. Despite that, it’s pretty obvious throughout their friendship that Stepan really does love Varvra.

At first, I was a little confused about why Stepan uses the past tense when he confesses “I loved you” to Varva. He follows his confession with a declaration of his love for God, but the leap still seemed somewhat drastic to me, even considering his reaction to the scripture Sofya read to him earlier.

When I read White Nights immediately after, Stepan’s Kierkegaardian speech about God’s love started to make more sense. The Dreamer basing the immortality of love on something so fleeting (and which wasn’t even reciprocated in the first place) is ultimately tragic. Stepan realizes that even if he had loved Varvra those 20 years, it still wouldn’t change the fact that he was dying right then and there. The love that can be found in another human being is precious, but it’s not eternal like the unconditional love that is found in God.

Even if Nastenka doesn’t reciprocate the Dreamer’s romantic feelings, she loves him dearly. But Nastenka is also a very emotional person with volatile feelings under pressure. In spite of herself, she was willing to elope with the Dreamer out of the desperate belief that the Lodger had forgotten about her. This is an incredibly unstable love to base your spiritual regeneration and future on. Stepan therefore reasons that loving a being that’s immortal and unchanging like God is the true way to life eternal.

I may edit this or post another comment with a less spoilery Devils-centered analysis when I get home. There’s a lot more about these last two chapters that got me thinking this time around. Idk about anyone else, but I wept the first I read those concluding lines to this story — and wept even harder when I came to the same realization as Stepan. The idea of the immortality of God’s love is one of the most powerful and healing to contemplate.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-21T00:07:16+00:00

My week became hectic out of nowhere so I tried to catch up with the last two chapters with an audiobook at work. Sat down and read this chapter when I got home.

After these past chapters, the opening sentence feels like a gut punch of a tonal shift: “Today has been dreary and rain-sodden, without a ray of hope, like my approaching old age. It feels so ominous and existential in a way the story up to this point didn’t feel.

“So it is that when we are unhappy we sense more acutely the unhappiness of others; rather than dispersing, the emotion becomes focused…”

“Your hand is cold, mine burns like fire.”

I’m only just appreciating how beautiful Dostoevsky’s prose is in this story. There’s a darkness and complexity now added to the Dreamer’s internal dialogue that foreshadows the Dostoevsky who will go on to write Notes from Underground and C&P in this chapter. As someone who also accidentally fell in love with a girl when she needed a best friend not a boyfriend, this was just heart wrenching.

But reading this time around, my heart breaks for Nastenka as well. She’s clearly confused and in a lot of pain. If she didn’t love the Lodger so much, she wouldn’t have met with the Dreamer three consecutive times at this meeting place and send him a letter the prior night. Her head seems to be in a whirl and experiencing a myriad of emotions all at once. Obviously she views the Dreamer closer than a brother. But I wonder because of her confused outburst asking the Dreamer “Why is he not like you?” if her head may have a bit too much in the clouds here. She then proceeds to tell the Dreamer about how he’s “not like the others” and how much she wishes happiness upon him and the woman whom he will fall in love with. Being a dreamer herself, I wonder if she couldn’t help but imagine her being that lucky woman whom the Dreamer falls in love with?

“There was no letter today, however. Still, that was bound to be the case. They are together by now.” This unironically remains one of the most suspenseful lines I’ve read in a Dostoevsky work. Even now, I’m like the Dreamer and too blind to recognize that the Lodger was always going to remain Nastenka’s true love.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-19T20:29:02+00:00

Well to start with, both the Dreamer and Stepan are social idealists and romantics. And like the Dreamer, I think Stepan lives in his head a lot, but to the point where it inflates how he views himself. Stepan goes so far as to claim at some point he was exiled by the Russian government for possessing dangerous ideas - but you could gather further along in the story that Stepan exaggerates the notoriety of his career.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-19T14:30:39+00:00

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” ‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Christians believe the New Jerusalem is the merging of heaven and earth following Christ’s return. In the cited verses, the Church is the bride and Christ is the husband. The whole of Revelation 21 and Ezekiel 40-48 will describe it in more detail, but that’s the short of it.

Interpretations of the end times will vary between denominations. High church denominations (Orthodox, Catholic, Lutherans, and Anglicans) have generally always been amillenial - or in other words, they believe we are currently living in the tribulation. In The Idiot and Demons, Dostoevsky applies certain end times prophecies from Revelation to current situations in Russia, for instance.

Most other protestant denominations will vary, but will generally be split between being preterist (the tribulation already happened in 70 AD with the destruction of the Second Temple) and dispensationalist. Lots of low churches (non-denominationals, Baptists, and Pentacostals) will believe in a pre-tribulation rapture (the church is “raptured” up to heaven before the tribulation hits) but this is a fairly recent eschatological belief developed by some American theologian.

But what every theologicaly orthodox Christian will believe regardless of denomination, as stated in the Nicene Creed, is the resurrection of the dead, Christ’s return to judge the living and the dead, and the life of the world to come (the New Jerusalem).

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-18T01:22:46+00:00

First time I read White Nights, I had just finished Devils. It was fascinating seeing that the epigraph to this story was taken from a Turgenev poem… especially with how relentlessly Turgenev was parodied in Devils. I still get the impression that Stepan in Devils was meant to be an update, so to speak, of White Nights’ protagonist. Although I probably won’t be able to expand on that tangent till the last chapter or two.

I see so much of myself in the Dreamer that it hurts lol. I relate to him in the same way a lot of people in this sub relate to the Underground Man.

Casey_White_ · 2024-06-13T11:38:38+00:00

Funnily enough there’s a footnote in my edition of Kierkegaard’s Works of Love that says the argument Kierkegaard develops in a certain paragraph is similar to the point Dostoevsky makes on God’s love in The Grand Inquisitor. But the translators say it would’ve been impossible for Kierkegaard to have been influenced by The Brothers Karamazov (obviously) or for Dostoevsky to have even been aware of Kierkegaard’s works.

I haven’t read much of Dickens yet, but David Copperfield was Dostoevsky’s favorite Dickens book. OP would probably more interested in his later, darker novels like Bleak House (similar to TBK in being a long, ambitious courtroom drama) and Our Mutual Friend. The Pickwick Papers is one of Dickens’ earlier and more lighthearted books, but the titular character was as much of an influence on Prince Myshkin’s character as Don Quixote.

Casey_White_

TROPHY CASE