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Study 067 - The Bet (Patreon)

Published:
2023-11-16 20:43:14
Imported:
2026-06
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Could you do fifteen years in solitude for thirty million bucks? We put the question to the test in Anton Chekhov's The Bet!

Special thanks to our reader, Jeff C. Carter, host of We Bleed Orange and Black and author of We Bleed Red and Green!

Readings are accompanied by Prelude No. 4 and 22 of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, Opus 87.

Next up: Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron and 2BR02B!

Comments

Jason Thompson

That story was so frickin’ rad! I didn’t expect it’d end so nihilistically.

Jason Thompson

The ‘solitary confinement can give you super skills’ thing reminds me of the film “Oldboy”, which I love. FWIW I have also read the original manga of “Oldboy” and it kinda sucks, the movie hugely rewrote the plot and improved it (for example, the hero’s romantic interest is not in the manga).

Jim Cannon

One thing the COVID period taught me was that its not just time keeping me from finishing that novel. The PS4 and my lack of willpower shoulder much of the blame.

REO Jackwagon

Teeth!? Sloooowly I turned... 😁

Sweatin' to the Great Oldies

As I recall, Chekhov was adamant that he wrote comedies. The twist in this story could be cosmic horror, but I think it's also quite funny. See to what lengths we'll go to be proven right? How unable we are to plan for a certain future? How time to reflect, learn, and achieve true insight results (for some) in madness? It's all a joke. Laugh. Now, if the student had been a hermit by temperament and conviction, well, perhaps he'd have collected his winnings, given the money to the poor, and found a nice cave to hole up in for the rest of his beatific life.

Illegal_Structures

Great episode! Glad to hear you boys dipping into some Russian classics, although I couldn’t help but notice a lack of cat sound effects 🐈🤔 In any case, themes of avarice and insane stake-upping feature in many Russian short stories, including Pushkin’s “Queen of Spades”, Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time” (from which we get the first recorded reference to Russian roulette), and Gogol’s “Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” (where two friends descend into a bitter feud after one calls the other a goose).

Ben A

It is wonderful to hear you guys branching out into a broader assortment of stories of estrangement. Chekhov’s work can take so much critical analysis and can be deeply applicable to modern life because he wrote about fundamental human nature. I remember reading The Bet in high school and feeling profoundly alienated at the end by the actions of both the banker and the lawyer. A couple things occurred to me this time around. The banker is very bad at his job, and not just because he entered into this highly illogical arrangement. He had 15 years to generate 2 million dollars. Couldn’t he have made investments at the beginning and known those funds would mature in the time to see through his side of the bet? I know, that’s not the point, but it does speak to the fact that not only is the bet itself absurd, but the bettor is a thorough idiot. And I agree strongly with your sentiments at the end—the antidote to nihilism is engagement and life experience. Sure, nothing really matters in the end—just ask Douglas Adams and his Total Perspective Vortex—but the rewards of existence come from shared experiences and the meaning we give them. Chekhov knew this, I think, and this tale illustrates why chronic isolationism can be the most damaging factor on psychology. I’m sure you all have seen the many recent headlines highlighting this, especially among middle aged and older men. Looking forward so hearing your thoughts on Vonnegut!

Sludgecrawler

From your show description I thought this would be about something like Nasubi and a certain gameshow, but this was good too.

Richard Horsman

Chekhov’s gun is great when you’re looking for economy in your storytelling. I like a bit of extraneous detail though, like the amount of time you spend with the polar expedition guy in Frankenstein before the doctor or the monster shows up. Let’s have a little pointless ornament and mood setting!

MonsterTalk

I can't believe how much this synopsis reminded me of that Twilight Zone episode "The Silence." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_(The_Twilight_Zone)#:~:text=%22The%20Silence%22%20is%20episode%2061,April%2028%2C%201961%20on%20CBS. The wiki doesn't mention a connection to Chekov but I'll check my TZ Companion. [update] Confirmed - the TZC says that while it isn't credited, it's almost certainly riffing on the Chekov source material. That episode has some ST:TOS crossover in that the actor playing the guy who takes the bet also appears in TOS as Parmen the Platonian in "Plato's Children."

Eric - Speaker in Digressions

I found myself thinking of Camus' The Plague--a novel which, bee tee dubs, would certainly fit broad themes of cosmic indifference and estrangement. Against the backdrop of stresses caused the quarantine of an entire city, there are individual characters who have come up with absurd ways to pass the time, even before the plague. One old shut-in had retired early and spent the 25 years since cheerfully sitting in bed moving dried peas from one pan to another; as he knows exactly how long the process takes, and thus when it's time for dinner, he won't allow watches or clocks in the house. "Every fifteen pans," he [says], "it's feeding-time. What could be simpler?" He's one of the happiest characters in the novel. Another character muses on ways to give the passage of time your full awareness: “‘Query: How to contrive not to waste one’s time? Answer: By being fully aware of it all the while. Ways in which this can be done: By spending one’s days on an uneasy chair in a dentist’s waiting-room; by remaining on one’s balcony all of a Sunday afternoon; by listening to lectures in a language one doesn’t know; by traveling by the longest and least-convenient train routes, and of course standing all the way; by lining up at the box-office of theaters and then not buying a seat; and so forth.’” Meanwhile, the most sympathetic characters, knowing that there's no order or meaning to the world and precisely for that reason, do everything they can to struggle against the plague and help their neighbors, even though it means exposing themselves to danger. Another character, however, is maybe a bit more like our lawyer in "The Bet": when he realizes the plague and quarantine are ending and he has to go back to his sad regular life, he can't cope. It's a good read.

HRPrice

Me, yesterday: Man, I really gotta get out and do stuff. The hermit-habits I acquired during Covid are not doing my anxiety-depression any favors. Me, today: Do you have to look STRAIGHT AT ME, Anton Chekhov?!?

Erik Jordan Phillips

As a younger person, I often felt that being alone I did most of my best work and I did get plenty done. For period of two weeks before I left to go on a two year ecclesiastical excursion to Maine ( that’s a whole different story) I opperated solo. The lesson I gleaned was life doesn’t amount to much without an another mind to magnify it and multiply your ideas. (At the risk of alienating myself)To quote a bit of scripture, It is not good for man to be alone.

It's a Ghost.

I think I’m with the banker when he said, “Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you incessantly, for years?” The lawyer so much did die slowly in degrees over time. Yet, then again, the banker ended up fearing being bankrupted by paying out the two million to the lawyer, and was so scared that he considered killing the lawyer so he wouldn’t have to pay out, which makes me wonder what kind of life the banker was living. Was his life a life well lived? Maybe the lawyer, who realized that life was meaningless, made something more or found something more real and true than the banker ever did.

It's a Ghost.

The solitary living aspect of this story reminds me of Henry David Thoreau and how some people to this day get hung up on the fact that he wasn’t totally isolated while he lived at Walden Pond. I, on the other hand, like how although he was rather isolated and took much solitary notice of nature while living at Walden Pond, he also still needed the company of others at times. Also, he only lived at Walden Pond for two years and two months, and when he felt like he’d gotten all he could from the experience, he moved on. If only the lawyer could have taken a similar approach to his situation. And one last thing, keeping with the recent theme, yes, Henry David Thoreau died at the age of 44 of tuberculosis.

Rafe Ball

You know if this was made into a movie, the ending would be ‘Dodgeballed’ after test audience feedback that the ending was too depressing: BANKER (sipping wine): Ah, my millions remain mine! GUARD: Sir! Sir! He did it, the lawyer lasted the fifteen years! BANKER (spitting out wine): What?!? LAWYER (appearing at door): Yes! You see, from all the insight I got into the human condition from my years of reading, I knew you would try to kill me to get out of the bet - so I wrote that letter to fool you! BANKER: Damn your scholarly hide! You’ll never catch me! BANKER leaps through the window, sending glass flying, and takes off into the woods. LAWYER grabs Chekhov’s Gun from above the fireplace and dramatically pumps the shotgun one-handed. LAWYER: Wanna bet?

Karlandos

Much to Chad's points about the internet its frightening how hollow and mentally and spiritually eroding it is to live vicariously through others especially if you feel that you can't obtain or do any of the things you see and envy others for doing. It all seems to lead down the path of self-loathing to nihilistic disdain for everything.

Jourik De Vetter

very poignant story and notes in the end, thanks!

REO Jackwagon

This story is very representative of Russian humanist writings in general, and what a rich example it is. Chris and Chad poking holes in the terms only drives home the sense of high-concept morality and philosophy present in these kinds of stories, and the fallability of their human characters. Of course, the reveal of the banker's moral corruption in the end undercuts the whole sense of his initial performative moralizing in the beginning. He was never interested in goodness, he was interested in seeming right and clever, while our writer (was he a writer?) clings (some might say foolishly) to a sort of bloody-minded dedication to prove a point. In the end, both are a kind of fool, which is how so much of Russian writing wraps up. Great stuff!

Robby H.

Let me preface this comment by saying I will be talking g about the cons of capital punishment, which is inherently political and that I will try to be as impartial as possible to avoid antagonize anyone. Additionally, I'm not here to argue with anyone. With that out of the way, the banker is plainly wrong, at least in current day America. While the act of carrying out is supposed to be quick and painless, people on death row spend over a decade waiting for the sentence to be carried out or over-turned, while half waits almost 2 decades before the sentence is carried out. And the person on death row spends 23 hours in solitary confinement for a number of reasons (one of them is for their safety as they are seen as targets by other people who are inmates). Not to mention that holding someone for an upwards of 2 decades costs more than life imprisonment. So it's like the banker said, "life imprisoned kills you by degrees..." but so does waiting for an long. Again, I'm not trying to antagonize anyone. And it's about time my Masters in Homeland Security pays off Here some links: https://www.statista.com/statistics/199026/average-time-between-sentencing-and-execution-of-inmates-on-death-row-in-the-us/#:~:text=In%202020%2C%20an%20average%20of,row%20in%20the%20United%20States. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/death-row-time-on-death-row https://ejusa.org/resource/wasteful-inefficient/#:~:text=Many%20people%20believe%20that%20the,making%20it%20much%20more%20expensive.

The Lonely Sand Person

The lawyer's nihilistic comments remind me, in contrast, of Death's comments from the end of The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Paraphrased, humans need little fantasies like tooth fairies and Santa Claus to practice for believing in big ones like justice, or mercy, or duty. The things we have to believe in, or what's the point?

Doc Singles

The takeaway for me is that the banker realizes the truth of his conviction when he goes to murder the lawyer. To his horror, the banker discovers that not only is long solitary imprisonment a slow, torturous murder by degrees, but he is the one guilty of inflicting a death worse than execution, guilty of destroying this young man’s spirit. “Never at any other time… had he felt such contempt for himself as now.” I think it’s interesting that the banker’s shame and self-loathing was overcome by desire for self-preservation when he locked the lawyer’s note in his safe. Segue: I too have recently read Crime and Punishment. Yes, it’s a great novel and I’m glad I read it, but the way the characters treated Raskolnikov (the main character) pissed me off! Everyone was so supportive and helpful, they gave him the benefit of the doubt, and they endured his disdain and hatred of them all… even after it was revealed he murdered two old women in cold blood just to see if he could! The court took it easy on him because he didn’t do it out of greed, which was obvious since he didn’t even spend the money, right? I think it’s far worse to murder people just to see if you can, than to do it for survival. There was precious little remorse or sympathy for the lives he took, from him or the other characters. The ending was unsatisfactory for me. Over the years he spent in prison, he magically transformed into a decent human being (which reminds me of Heathcliff’s transformation at the end of Wuthering Heights, also unsatisfactory). So why did Raskolnikov get all this special treatment? Because he was that greatest of human beings: an intellectual! I feel like Dostoevsky was exalting intellectuals with this book, either consciously or unconsciously.

H P Lovecraft's Cat

December 30th is quite a red letter day in St. Petersburg .Rasputin died in that city ,which was temporarily called Petrograd, in 1916.Then in the year 2010 , Bobby Farrell died of a heart attack in St. Petersburg as well.Who is Bobby Farrell?He is the singer for Boney M ,know mostly for their hit “Rasputin”.You can definitely fashion a winning bet over that piece of trivia.

Beanz

This episode would have *messed me up* 4 years ago. The story resonates with childhood guilt that turned into adolescent goals that then became adult obligations. And then it does a triple sow cow because the child dies in the process of succeeding in his goals. I could write an entire autobiographical essay on this but I just wanted to say I'm grateful that you did this story. I'm going to sit this on my imaginary triggers-mental-anguish-from-my-childhood bookshelf, next to "The Metamorphosis" by Kafka. Edit: This comment was meant for "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and I'm feeling pretty silly right now. 🤦‍♀️