Fair enough. I personally like stories ending on a more ambiguous note.

When I finished the last chapter of crime and punishment I was moved to tears and thought I had just read a masterpiece. Then I read the epilogue and hated it so much it almost ruined the book for me lol. I understand it was important for giving Dostoyevsky’s “answer” to the nihilism presented throughout the book. But it was so heavy handed, completely lacking any subtlety whatsoever, completely lacking humour whatsoever, and completely different in tone than the entire rest of the book while lacking everything that made the book special. Also the last chapter ended everything so perfectly it really didn’t need anything added to it imo.

Trauma is a natural phenomenon with a purpose. If a person in our prehistoric past were to live in a particularly dangerous place and time, they would become “traumatized” and become hyper-vigilant to threats. They would constantly be on edge, scanning their environment for threats, and would go into a fight or flight response extremely easily. This would give them a competitive advantage and increase their chances of survival in a dangerous environment.

However, in the modern day and age, most people in developed countries live in relatively safe environments. So when a person is traumatized by some event or series of events they also become hyper vigilant to threats, they also become constantly on edge and go into a fight or flight response extremely easily. However, this way of being is not at all adaptive to the modern, relatively safe world that we live in (quite the contrary).

My favourite characters are those of Dostoyevsky. Raskolnikov from crime and punishment is one of my favourite protagonists, as is the underground man from notes from the underground.

Histamine in the brain is an excitatory neurotransmitter (it has inhibitory effects on certain neurons but is overall excitatory) and is generally wakefulness promoting. Antihistamines that cross the blood brain barrier in sufficient quantities cause sedation through the antagonism of histamine receptors in the brain.