Tolstoy On Art Isn't As Anticipated July 5

I read Dostoevsky and wondered if Tolstoy was similar. It was in art school I was beginning my 3rd year living in a women's artist cooperative called The Three Arts Club- 1300 N. Dearborn, in the Gold Coast of Chicago- when it was still affordable because of the implied scholarship in the rent. I read Crime and Punishment and could not put it down. It was the compassion the author seemed to evoke for the man confined to a small room during college and he committed the awful crime. Yet I remember being uncomfortable that there was something called a Jewish question and a woman question in society in Russia at the time he wrote the book. It has been about 17 years since I read it, I also remember the main character goes back to Sonja who had to sell herself on the street and I think they both decided to live a new life together in the future. This was written in 1866. It caused me to question the prison system because the defender of Rodion shed light on how squalid conditions can push people to wits end. This caused me to tie this novel to what I am currently reading about Trotsky, a Red Letter Press reader written by a local Seattlite and friend- and the vision of Socialism by Trotsky- which in my opinion was way more humane than Stalin, who hijacked the movement. Trotsky envisioned shared power and created meaning in society by workers interacting with each other and defining their roles in society. So I picked up the audiobook of Tolstoy and saw that he was writing for the upper classes in particular to the point in the book I am now. He may change, I don't think so. He says the peasant class isn't as fun to keep up to date with as the class that owns the wealth. Before he made this point, I was digging the different German, French, and English philosophers he was giving brief synopsis of their writing on aesthetics on what is art and what is Beauty. He mention Kant, Scheller, and many others who are not on audio and I wonder if anyone else would make a brief synopsis. I appreciated how he reflected on if beauty can be separated from goodness, and how in some societies it is separated and in others beauty and goodness are one. He also discusses where the concepts of beauty come from that the ancient and philosophers during the enlightenment write about. I plan on giving him a chance and keep listening as I ride the 0 carbon emitting train and buses in Seattle, I long not for the status symbol or "convenience" of a car, and I find people of all classes fascinating to learn about. It seems as if he were writing to pander to the upper classes. This bothers me as a socialist in 2020. I may have to have more empathy for his circumstances and if that ever frees someone from owning up to slander, and ironically I slander Tolstoy. I may relisten to his summaries on the writers of beauty.