Bookmaniac
Reader
The Castle is surely one of the most disturbing books written. A good translation that emphasises the alienation, dislocation and spiritual loss of life in this century and probably the next.
Franz Kafka
- Thread starter Eric
- Start date
I love Kafka's writings, his dry, bureaucratic language, free of all dialect and the oppressive situations he creates, that picture inner life in modern times so exactly. My favourite work is Das Urteil, from his novel fragments I prefer Amerika (Der Verschollene).
When I first read his works, around the age of 12, 13, I thought Kafka's K. was related to Bert Brecht's Mr K (from "The Stories of Mr Keuner") in some mysterious way. Does anyone share this association?
When I first read his works, around the age of 12, 13, I thought Kafka's K. was related to Bert Brecht's Mr K (from "The Stories of Mr Keuner") in some mysterious way. Does anyone share this association?
I read translations of Kafka when I was younger. I remember his prose as being so limpid and pure, even in translation. A unique writer, very hard to pin down. An angelic writer. A lot of people would say that his only limitation is that he excludes the social from his work but this essentially is his purity. It is amazing that a writer can produce such a substantial amount of great work without real engagement with this huge sphere of human reality. Looking forward to reading him again.
B
Backwords
Guest
Franz Kafaka
Oddly peculiar that there is no Kafka thread or am I missing it? Alas, with this guy once the applecart is overturned there can be no righting it, not ever.
Correction:
didn't see the second page in the archive search... :O
Oddly peculiar that there is no Kafka thread or am I missing it? Alas, with this guy once the applecart is overturned there can be no righting it, not ever.
Correction:
didn't see the second page in the archive search... :O
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beelzebubbles
Reader
Re: Franz Kafaka
Now that you have been oriented, do you care to elucidate on your applecart metaphor or make it murkier? Whatever makes you comfortable. Proceed.
Now that you have been oriented, do you care to elucidate on your applecart metaphor or make it murkier? Whatever makes you comfortable. Proceed.
B
Backwords
Guest
It's only that there is a certain relentlessness in Kafka, no? At the start of The Trial something goes wrong, a man wakes up to find himself... and then two hundred pages later without any relief he dies (To stretch a metaphor: Unable to gather up the apples, to put them in a basket or a cart as it were that would comprise his fulfilled and ordered life.. or whatever. Instead the apples get lost, roll around and rot.).
On a side note-
I came across a book about him a few years ago that suggested his life was far from Kafkaesque. The gist of the little biography was that Kafka was the playboy son of an industrialist who earned perhaps the equivalent of three hundred thousand a year for working part time hours in an office. On is tempted to add that he was only able to write such "unfortunate" stories, with sincerity and conviction, precisely because they had little to do with his own experience.
Personally I think he must have taken a good deal out of Kierkegaard, remolding the material in a sort of atheistic vein to achieve an "existentialist" texture, as Dostoevsky did with the biblical text.
On a side note-
I came across a book about him a few years ago that suggested his life was far from Kafkaesque. The gist of the little biography was that Kafka was the playboy son of an industrialist who earned perhaps the equivalent of three hundred thousand a year for working part time hours in an office. On is tempted to add that he was only able to write such "unfortunate" stories, with sincerity and conviction, precisely because they had little to do with his own experience.
Personally I think he must have taken a good deal out of Kierkegaard, remolding the material in a sort of atheistic vein to achieve an "existentialist" texture, as Dostoevsky did with the biblical text.
beelzebubbles
Reader
That sounds like an odd biography for Kafka. Was there nothing about his troubled relationship with his father or his physical frailty and anorexia due to tuberculosis or the woman who loved him, who he needed but who did not seem to inspire his ardor?
Still it is our own relationship to the material that is most important. I can only take Kafka in small doses. I find dealing with paranoia on the larger scale of The Trial and The Castle difficult. I prefer the short stories. They are like a dream that is easy to wake from the novels feel like a trap.
I was only ever interested in one writer as a human being and that was after I had made my own use of his work.
Still it is our own relationship to the material that is most important. I can only take Kafka in small doses. I find dealing with paranoia on the larger scale of The Trial and The Castle difficult. I prefer the short stories. They are like a dream that is easy to wake from the novels feel like a trap.
I was only ever interested in one writer as a human being and that was after I had made my own use of his work.
B
Backwords
Guest
Of course I know those bio bits too and read all that stuff years ago and his personal diaries. This book purported to dispel those myths. Maybe I'll track it down, I saw it at U.C. Berkeley a few years ago.
I think I will be long dead before I understand the notion of a writer being separate from his work, so superficial and evasive does the notion seem to me.
Amendment:
http://www.amazon.com/Should-Read-Kafka-Before-Waste/dp/0312376510 "The focus of British novelist Hawes's (Speak for England) book is to debunk these myths of Kafka, an ambitious, earthly lawyer and literary figure who lived an adjusted life—and even enjoyed "expensive porn." Taking a satirical approach, Hawes intends to reveal the truth beneath the image academics and critics have maintained"
And - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/29/franzkafka.civilliberties
I think I will be long dead before I understand the notion of a writer being separate from his work, so superficial and evasive does the notion seem to me.
Amendment:
http://www.amazon.com/Should-Read-Kafka-Before-Waste/dp/0312376510 "The focus of British novelist Hawes's (Speak for England) book is to debunk these myths of Kafka, an ambitious, earthly lawyer and literary figure who lived an adjusted life—and even enjoyed "expensive porn." Taking a satirical approach, Hawes intends to reveal the truth beneath the image academics and critics have maintained"
And - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/29/franzkafka.civilliberties
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Battle over Franz Kafka archive kept for decades in cat-infested flat - Telegraph
Came across this in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.
Kafka asked Max Brod to destroy all his writing - I, for one, am glad Max Brod managed to save Kafka's work. After reading Das Schloss, Das Urteil, Die Verwandlung and his posthumous unfinished Amerika, I found his diaries provided a great insight into the tortured man he must have been. One only has to look at his photo. TB is not the only reason for that expression.
His inner loneliness, his victim of fate attitude are apparent in all his writing. In his books, the protagonist never makes things happen, they happen to him.
I read him in German but I find Metamorphosis a much better title than Die Verwandlung!
Came across this in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.
Kafka asked Max Brod to destroy all his writing - I, for one, am glad Max Brod managed to save Kafka's work. After reading Das Schloss, Das Urteil, Die Verwandlung and his posthumous unfinished Amerika, I found his diaries provided a great insight into the tortured man he must have been. One only has to look at his photo. TB is not the only reason for that expression.
His inner loneliness, his victim of fate attitude are apparent in all his writing. In his books, the protagonist never makes things happen, they happen to him.
I read him in German but I find Metamorphosis a much better title than Die Verwandlung!
I just saw the article about Kafka and the cats as well. It's a minor miracle that there is still anything left of Kafka's unpublished work. It's sad how it can go with the posthumous papers of some writers: the university scholars are eager to get hold of them, but the family is either indifferent or wishes to preserve the memory of the author in their own way (e.g. covered in cat piss).
Despite everything, there is a kind of wry absurdist humour in Kafka's work. Whether he was a bundle of laughs down the pub (the Czechs have excellent beer) is another matter.
Despite everything, there is a kind of wry absurdist humour in Kafka's work. Whether he was a bundle of laughs down the pub (the Czechs have excellent beer) is another matter.
I too am a fan of Kafka, although I've not read anything for ages. I did start "The Castle" again, noticed the humour there, but then broke off for some reason. I stand more chance of reading his short prose, which Beelzebubbles also likes, than his novels, given my reading (and translating) commitments. I do think that Beelzebubbles overstates her case with regard to Kafka's being a deeply morbid consumptive, compulsive bachelor insurance clerk, with a thousand hang-ups.
One thing I'm very glad about is that Kafka's major works have been reconstructed and subsequently retranslated into English, so we can appreciate the text maybe as Kafka wanted it to look.
One thing I'm very glad about is that Kafka's major works have been reconstructed and subsequently retranslated into English, so we can appreciate the text maybe as Kafka wanted it to look.
Manuel76
Reader
I liked The Process and some of his short stories, but started twice The Castle and both times stopped near the middle of the book (even if I liked it).
It can last 100 pages or a million. It's very depressing (even his sense of humour is depressing) you recognise at the beggining the atmosphere of a nightmare but after a while you start wondering in which planet it takes place.
But of course you can admire his intelligence and narrative style (even translated). It reminds me Poe but with less literature, and more straight to the point.
It can last 100 pages or a million. It's very depressing (even his sense of humour is depressing) you recognise at the beggining the atmosphere of a nightmare but after a while you start wondering in which planet it takes place.
But of course you can admire his intelligence and narrative style (even translated). It reminds me Poe but with less literature, and more straight to the point.
Heteronym
Reader
I think everyone knows the story of Kafka reading the first chapter of The Trial to an audience of friends, and everyone laughing including the author
There's humor in the novel alright, but it's a humor that undermines any possibility of tragedy. Everytime the novel is tyring to become tragic or serious, in comes the absurd to remind the reader of the fragility of Joseph K's life. He can't even have the satisfaction of being a tragic figure. Anyone interested in this matter, should read Kundera's books on literary theory. He spends a few chapters exploring the way humor works in Kafka.