November 11, 1821 -
Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born on this date. Mr. Dostoyevsky is universally recognized as one of the pre-eminent authors of nineteenth-century
Russia and perhaps one of the finest novelists of all time. As mentioned yesterday, on
November 10, 1969, public television broadcast the
Children's Television Network's first episode of
Sesame Street.
I like to take advantage of this serendipitous occasion by celebrating both of these cultural icons, who have more in common than you might think.
One of Mr. Dostoyevsky's most enduring characters is that of the angst-ridden student,
Raskolnikov, who brutally murders an old woman with an axe in order to confirm his own intellectual freedom. One of the most popular characters on
Sesame Street is
Big Bird, an eight-foot-tall, easily flustered, flightless yellow bird of indeterminate species.
Mr. Dostoyevsky's novels deal with a broad range of complex issues such as as parricide, political philosophy, epilepsy, freedom of the will, suicide, theosophy, revolution, addiction, dissipation, forgiveness, and the legitimacy of absolutist rule.
Sesame Street deals frequently with the alphabet and the numbers one through ten.
Mr. Dostoyevsky was once sentenced to death, blindfolded before a firing squad, then reprieved at the very last moment and exiled to Siberia, where he overcame great obstacles to produce some of his finest work. On Sesame Street, Ernie and Bert often bicker over household chores.
Mr. Dostoyevsky was a devout Russian Orthodox Catholic, and in
The Idiot he explores the practical difficulties of living a life according to the principles of love, tolerance, and forgiveness set forth by
Jesus Christ.
Sesame Street features a grumpy green monster named
Oscar, who lives in a garbage can and frequently breaks into song to proclaim his love of trash.
Imagine all of those similarities. Now write a two hundred page essay discussing all of this and your have a doctoral thesis.
You're welcome
