Deep Analysis of Anna Karenina Part Four: The Abyss Between Men and Women (Chapters 6-23) (Patreon)

Part Four of Anna Karenina is packed with psychological and philosophical insight. In this video, we're talking about spiritual development, one's place on the political spectrum, early-women's rights, Dostoyevsky, the telepathic love of Kitty and Levin, how to argue with your enemies (and win), Vronsky's lame suicide attempt, Anna's feverish near-death experience, and much more.

Below the timestamps, and bolded topics, I have five deep questions for you. Feel free to answer as many as you like in as much depth as you can muster in the comments or simply ponder about them to yourself.

• 0:00 about reading pace, slow reading, and rereading
• 2:40 Part Four, Chapter Ten
• 3:30 the language of nature and classical literature
• 4:30 getting spiritual development from Anna Karenina
• 5:30 librarian as shaman, bookseller as healer, and the value of the arts
• 9:00 Tolstoy as early pro-women’s rights
• 11:00 the subjection of women and refusing to comprehend the separating abyss
• 13:00 seeking obligations vs rights
• 15:15 Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment
• 16:50 classical liberals going through the socialist tunnel and arriving at capitalism
• 18:40 the inequality of spouses and unfaithfulness punished unequally
• 19:55 Kitty and Levin, table talks, telepathy, and spiritual love
• 21:30 how to argue and win every time (a tangent on dehumanising language)
• 23:00 one of the greatest renderings of sincere love in literature
• 24:00 sixth senses and premonitions
• 29:00 Anna’s on the verge of feverish death
• 30:00 on Vronsky feeling shame
• 31:20 Dostoyevsky, Alexei, and giving one’s torn caftan
• 33:00 Why does Vronsky shoot himself?
• 35:00 Anna and Tolstoy’s longings for death
• 37: Van Gogh, Anna Karenina, and the outsider

Questions

1) Do you believe that we often refuse to comprehend the abyss separating men and women? Is there an abyss?

2) Is selfishness ultimately altruistic? Is altruism ultimately selfish? Surveys like the political compass (which tells me I'm left-leaning libertarian alongside Nelson Mandela) show our thoughts on society and the individual, collectivism vs individualism, to be a huge spectrum with a lot of nuance. Where do you fall on the spectrum?

3) Do you believe there is still a disparity in public opinion regarding male infidelity vs female infidelity?

4) How did you respond to the “telepathy” scene with Kitty and Levin?

5) Why does Vronsky “try” to kill himself?

Happy reading!