7:50 AM --
NPR reports today that there's a suicide watch on at the newly opened Dostoevskaya station on the Moscow subway:
The walls are gray and bare, except for murals capturing scenes from Dostoevsky's famous novels: Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and of course, Crime and Punishment, the book where Dostoevsky digs into the mind of his lead character, Raskolnikov, exploring a young man's path to murder...
The fictional character — poor, desperate for money to help his family and mentally tortured — ends up killing two women. And it's all depicted in a mural right on the subway platform in which Raskolnikov holds an ax over a woman's head, while a corpse lies on the ground...
Mikhail Vinogradov, who heads a psychological help center in Moscow, went on Russian TV to complain that the murals will make people "afraid to ride the subway." Like other psychologists who raised concerns in Russia and abroad, Vinogradov says gripping images can induce violent behavior — and a subway station is the last place for that.
"There will be suicides more often," he says. "I can't rule out people will commit murders or attacks."
I understand. I ride the NY subway every day, and the advertising posters for The Real Housewives of New Jersey affect me the same way.
But if you think that's bad, try Prague's Franz Kafka International Airport.
— Larry, Attack Monkey, Light Reading
