In English, we say that we do not suffer fools gladly. But in Russian culture, a fool is someone whose position outside society allows them to serve as a kind of critique of society’s evil. Perhaps the most famous “fool” is Dostoevsky’s Prince Myshkin in The Idiot, a man whose innocence and moral idealism bring him into conflict with a society hungry for wealth, power, and sex. Join Liza Knapp (Columbia) for a discussion of Dostoevsky’s Idiot, and others.