In Dostoevsky's original notes, Prince Myshkin wasn't a figure of Incorruptible Pure Pureness, but a proud and passionate villain who would have undergone a complete regeneration by the novel's end.
At the time Dostoevsky finished Part One, he was still planning on a very different ending in which Myshkin would redeem both Nastasya and Rogozhin.
Write What You Know: Myshkin’s epilepsy, his reaction to Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting Christ’s Body in the Tomb, his thoughts on Catholicism: all modeled on Dostoyevky’s own thoughts and experiences. Myshkin recounts via hearsay the thoughts of a condemned criminal awaiting execution; Dostoyevsky had himself been condemned, run through a mock execution, and only informed at the last second that his sentence had been reduced.
For the album:
Black Sheep Hit: The album as a whole is considered this for Iggy Pop. While it sold well and has received plenty of critical acclaim over the years, the general consensus is that it is very much unrepresentative of Pop's sound, thanks to the close involvement of David Bowie (well known for inserting his own style into his production work) and many of his session collaborators. Consequently, it's viewed more as the prequel to Bowie's Berlin Trilogy than a proper Iggy Pop record.
Creator's Oddball: Compared to the protopunk of The Stooges and the art punk of Pop's later solo work, The Idiot sticks out with its doomy industrial style, the end result of producer David Bowie using it as a way to lay the groundwork for his own album Low.
The kick drum sound of "Nightclubbing" was sampled for the song "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails from their album The Downward Spiral and duplicated by Oasis for the song "Force of Nature" from their album Heathen Chemistry (2002). The song itself was also covered by Grace Jones as the title track to her album Nightclubbing (1982).
"Nightclubbing" has also been used in Trainspotting.
The Human League recorded a cover of "Nightclubbing" conjoined with a cover of "Rock and Roll Part 1" by Gary Glitter, included on their Holiday '80 EP and CD reissues of Travelogue.
The title track of Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk provides a shout-out to Bowie and Iggy Pop while they were recording this album in Berlin.
Producer David Bowie would cover "China Girl" on Let's Dance.
Dum Dum Girls have said their name was inspired both by "Dum Dum Boys" off of this album and the Vaselines song and album Dum Dum.
The script for M. Butterfly opens with an Epigraph quoting the first two lines of "China Girl", tying in with the play's examination of how the West exoticizes Asian women.
Working Title: "China Girl" was originally put together under the title "Borderline".
