Dostoevsky and Wheat Germ

I was helping a friend pack today when we ran across a copy of Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground. Knowing that I like to read Dostoevsky, he asked if this was something he should read. I told him that the first paragragh pretty much sums up the mood of the story (It is a short story and not really a book). I just wanted to share that pararaph with all of you.

In Walter Kaufman's book on Existentialism, he says that the first part of the story is the most important. Dostoevsky's range and depth of thought is simply astounding. Woody Allen says reading him is like a full course meal with dessert, vitamins, and wheat germ at the end (rent Husbands and Wives - it is fantastic). I imagine one could study the man all one's life and still be challenged and stupified. Well, I really have no thoughts to share on this (maybe in a couple of years when I can study what I want). I just wanted to share it and get your thoughts as to how this strikes you.

I am a sick man. ... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me. I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors. Besides, I am extremely superstitious, sufficiently so to respect medicine, anyway (I am well-educated enough not to be superstitious, but I am superstitious). No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite. That you probably will not understand. Well, I understand it, though. Of course, I can't explain who it is precisely that I am mortifying in this case by my spite: I am perfectly well aware that I cannot "pay out" the doctors by not consulting them; I know better than anyone that by all this I am only injuring myself and no one else. But still, if I don't consult a doctor it is from spite. My liver is bad, well--let it get worse!

- Fyodor Dostoevsky from Notes from the Underground