3mo ago

Dostoevsky failed to account for the human tendency to be reborn in an isekai

In Crime and Punishment, the drunkard Marmeladov gets hit by a carriage and dies. In a very low-brow fashion typical of Dostoevsky, Marmeladov isn't reborn in a fantasy world with a game-like system that would help him rise to the top.

Why do so many people like this author?

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Also what's with the title? "Crime and Punishment?" What was wrong with, "I Killed An Old Lady To Steal Her Money So My Cute Sister Wouldn't Have To Marry A Rich Asshole But Now I'm Bedridden With Guilt And The Police Are After Me?"
- People are stupid and have low attention span, so the title needed to be short
I'm so tired of these "isekais with a twist", where it is clear that the author didn't actually want to write an isekai, but that was the only thing they could get greenlit. I don't blame Dostoevsky, we all do what we can to make ends meet, but a story where a guy gets isekaid but we follow the people left behind in the original world is just ridiculous.
- I think they mostly start as like semi-free web fiction being published chapter by chapter, and the most popular ones get turned into actual light novels with some backing which can then later be picked up by a mangaka and/or turned into an anime series if they're popular enough. That's why the titles are basically a story pitch and why there's so much "genre fiction, with a twist" that come out of it: they're trying to at once appeal to a popular genre audience while at the same time standing out from the crowd.
with a game-like system that would help him rise to the top.
I'm guessing since video games and RPGs hadn't been invented yet, the game-like system is Kriegsspiel?
- Smh at the proto paradox guys. My dad used to own a smaller version of that game, it was very run down though, since it came from my grandpa.

6 comments