The Rationalist From the Underground

Notes from the Underground consists of the self-reflections of an unnamed “sick”, “spiteful” man. He is a caricature of a man who valorizes the aesthetic of intellect, but fails to accomplish anything in reality. Nonetheless, the Man is far better at seeing through his own self-deceptions, far more than most people, let alone someone in his condition. 

This man is often called “the man from the underground”, but I will just call him the Man. He is an unrealistic combination of extremely high reflectiveness and extremely low self-control. Typically, those who notice their own mental patterns can change them more effectively than most. This is not the case with the Man. 

Unlikely combinations make striking characters. It’s often remarked that Han Solo is a cowboy without the hat. The Man is a chuunibyou with childish ambition. But he is not a child and lacks the childish curiosity which makes them fun to be around. Take his fantasy life with Liza, a woman he meets: “Then we begin living together, go abroad and so on, and so on. In fact, in the end it seemed vulgar to me myself, and I began putting out my tongue at myself.”(81) In back-to-back sentences he dreams freely and pours water on his own dreams. This cynicism and self-hatred is the heart of the Man’s worldview.

The Man is a champion in motivated reasoning.