The Gambler - F. Dostoevsky

On a first read there are two ways to look at this short story - either you say that it describes the general mentality of gamblers, but even more specific, the casino culture of the time, and then there’s a story around it, but it’s more an excuse and/or an example - or you say that this is some kind of trick and the roulette is a metaphor for what the gamblers are doing with their lives in general. Maybe in one case you are too superficial and in the other read too much into the book.

What I want to say is that the irrational and hazardous temperament the gamblers show at the roulette table - but you would need many more adjectives than that, you need a book, which is what we in fact have -, they also show in the way they take decisions in their lives, the roulette is just a toy model where the phenomenon is easier to spot.

One could code the actions the protagonist takes - again, also outside of the casino - as bets, the events that follow as consequences. Bets because they are taken without really knowing the outcome of the actions, which are accordingly sometimes (very) good, sometimes (very) bad. Another character, Mr. Astley, does not participate in the casino and lives his life differently as well. Broadly speaking, I would say the gamblers end up miserable, the non-gambler mediocre.

The love for the gambling then would correspond outside of the casino to the love for Polina. Maybe it is also important to notice that she never actually plays roulette.

I was less convinced of the interpretation while writing it down than I am now. Maybe there is something to it?

A quote:

«[…] Ich bin trotz allem ganz sicher, dass ich, sobald es allein um mich geht, unbedingt gewinnen werde.» «Woher diese unbedingte Sicherheit?» «Mit Verlaub - ich weiß es nicht. Weiß nur, dass ich gewinnen muss, dass es ebenfalls mein einziger Ausweg ist. Daher kommt es vielleicht, dass ich so sicher bin.»

Disregarding the probabilities and just looking at the outcomes is not necessarily a bad idea, but a very bad idea in the context of a casino, which is possibly the only place in the universe where one should unquestionably take the abstract computation of probabilities into account. That is probably the whole trick of the casino - that it only looks by chance, but it actually is probability.

Mi è piaciuto questo proverbio:

Il faut que jeunesse se passe