Apuntes del subsuelo

The "Underground Man" talks to himself, contradicts himself, humiliates himself, and then feels ashamed of having done so. He hates people, yet he craves their attention. He is perfectly rational, yet he despises reason with all his soul, for nothing could be more wretched or oppressive than the indisputable truth that two plus two equals four. The Underground Man does not want to be good or happy. He wants to be right. He wants to be left alone. He wants everyone to listen to him. He wants everyone to go away. Above all, he wants to want whatever he pleases, even if it destroys him. We recognize him instantly because the mechanism is familiar to us: we know we are sending a message we shouldn't, overexposing ourselves and setting ourselves up for regret tomorrow, and that the reply we keep waiting for will never come. Yet we do it anyway. He is our darkest inner monologue.