YMMV / Notes from Underground

• Fan Nickname: A quite popular one, as most scholars refer to the narrator as the Underground Man.
• Misaimed Fandom: This novel—like most of Dostoevsky's work—has been a perennial favorite of atheists, nihilists, and others (for instance, Friedrich Nietzsche) with whom the conservative, deeply religious Dostoevsky would have vehemently disagreed. It doesn't help that the entire first half seems to be an Author Tract for such a worldview. (It's not till the second half that the Underground Man's contentions are turned on their head.)
• Once Original, Now Overdone: The novel was a major influence on many 20th-century philosophers (most notably the Existentialists), novelists, and filmmakers, and has been imitated endlessly. Among the most famous Spiritual Adaptations are Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man and Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader's film Taxi Driver. After decades of high-profile homages, modern readers may find the book played-out or underwhelming.

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