Not a poet, but I was forced to read "Metamorhisis" in my Literuature 102 class, and found it rather humorous. I bought a Dover Thrift of "Metamorhisis and other stories", just to see if the 1.50 was a bargain or not. Just wondering what any of you think of Kafka?

I happen to like Kafka a lot, though at times he can be too Kafka-esque

Seriously, his writing tends to stick with you, its initially accessible, and has the effect of continuing to make you think about the subject and thusly seeing the deeper darker meanings of what is being said

Talia,

Kafka's writing is one of the touchstones of my felt life. He is very scary, a wrily funny, almost sardonic. I haven't read his novels, but I have read many of his parable and short stories. By the way, the language he writes in is a combination of an obsure dialect of German and a variant of something like Yiddish. His world is his own, its self. So it seems eerie that when we visit it, is seems familiar. His is a strong interrogation of the horrors of the mechanical, systematic state oppressing the indvidual through its most powerful device: innuendo. But is is much, much more than that.

I'd advise that you read everything you can get you hands on.

amo,

Peter

Parables an Paradoxes is a fine collection, if its available.

I especially like "The Hunger Artist," in The Complete Stories, for its optimism and cheerfulness [sic].

Talia,

There is a fine film out entitled just 'Kafka'.

Peter

what subjects, for example? what deeper, darker meanings, for example?

Thank you, Peter. Can you tell me more about the film? Is it biographical? I might see if my college library has it.

Talia,
The film stars Jeremy Irons. The main charater is called K. He is a clerk oppressioned by the organization, the system of authorities. Seems semi-autobiograhical, like many of Kafka's stories. There is also another film, a French production in English, The Trial, based more directly on one Kafka's novel of that name.

Avanti, enjoy,

Peter

Kafka was first translated into english by the fine poet Edwin Muir and his wife, Willa.

well, they both did a damn fine job....very very readable

They were themselves poets.

I remember ( at the time, looooooooooong ago ...) I enjoyed his Letters to Milena
It does tell a lot about him
- I believe I would not enjoy anything else now

I read "The Judgement" last night. Only 11 pages, but I think I need to read it again.

Kafka is great. Give me some Kafka, Borges, Calvino or Dostoevski and I am a happy man in my misery. Kafka's protaganists are always trying to make sense of an arbitrarily ordered world that makes no sense.

BTW, there was a recent novel called Insect Dreams that carries on the story of Georg Samsa from the Metamorphosis. In it he flies to Amerika, and becomes involved in the Manhattan project. Has a Forest Gump feeling to it. Nothing like Kafka though, just uses his character.

Kafka is great. Give me some Kafka, Borges, Calvino or Dostoevski and I am a happy man in my misery. Kafka's protaganists are always trying to make sense of an arbitrarily ordered world that makes no sense.

BTW, there was a recent novel called Insect Dreams that carries on the story of Georg Samsa from the Metamorphosis. In it he flies to Amerika, and becomes involved in the Manhattan project. Has a Forest Gump feeling to it. Nothing like Kafka though, just uses his character.

There are some notes about "The Judgement" here, in case you are interested Talia.

[victorian.fortunecity.com]


Les

Thank you Les...and what do you make of this statement?

"When I wrote it, I had in mind a violent ejaculation." —Kafka to Brod

Just as here:

>This is necessary because the story came out of me like a real birth, covered with filth and slime...

I think the writer was expressing a type of wonder similar to the most euphoric and painful of bodily functions. He felt he was creating a "brain child" so to speak.

Les

and certain phrases just translate strangely too.......

OK, well I read it again, even read it aloud to my husband's agitation and it seems an interesting, supriseful read, but seems to me to reflect just a big macho-ego-insecurity thing. The same as in Metamorphisis.

There is a quotation attributed to Kafka and quoted by Kafka scholars, that nobody can actually track down to an actual source: "The thing about life is that it ends."

If anyone finds that in the writings of Kafka himself, or quoted with an actual source given, PLEASE let me know or go direct to Nigel Rees at QUOTE-UNQUOTE.

Thanks!

FRANZ KAFKA VERSUS THE NOVEL. 'The Limited Circle Is Pure' by Zadie Smith
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