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From the Afterword
Sorry for Life is a verbal/visual interpretation and an [extreme]
abridgement of Fyodor Dostoyesky’s 1864 novel, Notes from the
Underground. In this canine version of the novel, Max Brodsky,
a Westie, plays the Underground Man. Max, although young
and inexperienced in life, is a good actor. Unlike the Underground
Man, Max is a happy guy who wags his tail a lot —
he is not mopey, cynical, or judgmental. Whether or not Max
is a ‘conscious’ being who exhibits greater or lesser rationality,
is also unclear. Max seems calculating when treats abound
but it might be more accurate to understand this behavior
as a gluttonous, hedonistic, survival instinct rather than free
will, rational intelligence, or ‘consciousness’ as defined by
man. There are times that man, if given a choice, would take
no-consciousness over consciousness, for ‘consciousness’ often
turns into constricting ‘self-consciousness’ and gets in the way
of having a jolly good time.
All the words in Sorry for Life are by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
For this book, Charlee Brodsky abridged Dostoyevsky’s novel,
made the photographs, and designed the book. The typeface
is Bembo and the book is printed on Red River Natural
Aurora paper. The painting of Dostoyevsky on the last page
was made by Vasily Perov in 1872.
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