strangedaze

Blade - I have a copy of Das Urteil, but I've only been able to (roughly) translate one of the pieces. I've read it all in english, though, but as my studies in German continue I hope to be able to read all of his work.

Hodge - Yeah, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Franzy knew Max wouldn't burn his things. I think Brod even told Franz on numerous occasions that he wasn't down with destroying all of his stuff. But Kafka also instructed Dora Dymant, his female partner at the time, to burn some of his works. Makes me wonder what sort of Kafkaesque tomfoolery bit the dust, as it were.

jipsi - The Trial is wonderful, like his diaries. His external life was so mundane compared to the explosive one he lived in his mind. He's the epitome of a tortured writer and I think that his work fed him more than his life fed it. Let me know what you think of The Trial.

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

Lost

One morning Gregor samsa awoke a hideous vermin.

Ooooh, I love Kafka.

Fucking apple, fucking microchosms, fucking allegories.

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Checkmate.

Hodge

It really irritates me how ambiguous Gregor's size is throughout the whole thing... He's apparently large enough to frighten everyone and not fit through the door unless both sides are open, yet he's small enough to hide under the sofa.

Tough enough to survive a fall onto his back from the ceiling, yet fragile enough to receive a major wound from an apple flung fast.

Such a depressing book... I like it.

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Science

Cipher2

Yeah it's ambiguous...no...it' allegory...it's metaphor...

...or maybe he just couldn't be bothered..



hmm..


maybe not.

Reminds me that I have his complete novels sitting unread on the shelf.

strangedaze

start with the trial, cipher, you won't be dissapointed, but only touch amerika if franzy gives you a hard-on, or appropriate female equivalent.

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

Cipher2

Is my avatar asexual? I will have to add a goatee.

No he doesn't. If you were to use sexual arousal as a scale I would say...actually I wont.

strangedaze

Who can really tell these days.

Whatever makes your avatar feel good about itself.

In which case I don't recommend Amerika.

Okay.

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

salvothasock

funny, i heard pieces of kafka here and there in conversations. always looked up at his section at barnes and noble, i guess it wasnt the right time. my friend sent me a link to one of his parables recently, i loved it. never seen anything quite like it in other works. i picked up the sons. reading metamorphasis right now. and it seems already that this can be related to almost any time or place. anyone can relate. which is why its so poignant. really looking forward to reading his other pieces. yes, tis true, tis true...

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purple junk diluted iguana infested snarkleberries hungry traveller

whoneedsactions

I liked Metamorphosis for the same reasons. I like original metaphors that work for anyone.

About doom and gloom, I have the same conversations about certain music. Some people think it's depressing, others think "Thank God there's SOMEONE in the world who understands." (Usually depressives) I've been reading a few short stories lately and Kafka's one of the best.

pawn_of_pawns

I love Kafka. If you need help having his babies, I'd gladly donate my womb, Strangegaze.

The Metamorphosis and In The Penal Colony are two of my favorite short stories. The Judgment freaked me out, maybe because that was the very first Kafka story I read.

It can be hard to read his novels, but I find it to be very satisfying finishing one. It took me forever to finish The Trial, and now I'm slowly chipping away at The Castle. My copy of The Castle is the new translation which is very interesting. In the introduction, the translator talked about how Brod thought the Castle had a religious metaphor and how the Muirs implied one in their original translation. This translator says he tried keep his as close to the original as possible. It reads well, but since I don't know German I have to take his word for it.

Has anyone seen the biography of Kafka illustrated by Robert Crumb? It's pretty interesting, though I have to admit I mostly bought it for Crumb's art. Though, Crumb did draw Samsa as an insect. (And right afterwards the author said how Kafka forbade the vermin to be depicted. ) The author, Mairowitz, also had an irritating habit of assuming the main characters to be self inserts of Kafka. I hate when critics suppose that about any author.

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"When I was young I used to have this nightmare about dying. I used to lie awake at night screaming. All my schoolfriends went to heaven or hell, and I was sent to Southend."
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strangedaze

PoP,

I'm sure even if Franz had your womb and my, uh, contribution to the spawning of his offspring, he wouldn't know what to do with them Oh Franzy, how you make me swoon. Anyway, I have the new translation too. Brod was a cool cat for not burning Kafka's shizzat, but I tend to agree with Harmen when he says that Kafka's original translators played with the texts to suit their own interpretations.

I'm actually doing a presentation on Kafka in my German class, which should be a gay time. My degree requires that I have a second language, so I'm picking German up. In another year or two I hope to be fluent.

Crumb's artwork is out of sight. I want to get myself ahold of that. Depictions of Gregor are all over the place these days, which makes me sad. I loved the original cover work for Die Verwandlung, with the scratchy penmanship and the poor fucker holding his head. Lot of debate whether it's Herr Samsa or Gregor who's outside the door. The latter would mean that it's all in Greggy's head, which I'm not inclined to agree with, but I think trying to take Kafka literally is doing yourself a huge disservice.

As for your thoughts on people who take narrators/characters to be the author, I think in K-dawgs case it may be semi-acceptable, since he made the claim time and time again that he was writing for himself.

But that's only a half truth, because he was writing for me

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

pawn_of_pawns

Hehe, I'm sure Franz wouldn't know what to make of fans like us.

I need a second language too; I tried to learn German but that didn't work out. I couldn't even say, "Hello my name is" and I ended up dropping before the end of the second week. Sigh, there goes my hopes of ever reading Kafka in the original German.

I found Crumb's Kafka at Borders, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. It should be in the graphic novels section (not comic books!). I haven't seen that cover yet, but it sounds interesting. I'm going to google it in a second.

Kafka very well could be writing about himself, in fact it does seem that way half the time. It is something interesting to talk about or think about, but to state it as a fact? I donno, I guess it's just a pet peeve.

Edit: I have seen it! There is (a rather crappy) copy of it in R. Crumb's book. Hmm...I'm not sure if it's Gregor either, but that is something to think about.

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"When I was young I used to have this nightmare about dying. I used to lie awake at night screaming. All my schoolfriends went to heaven or hell, and I was sent to Southend."
--Douglas Adams

strangedaze

let's be friends.

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

pawn_of_pawns

Sure.
Yay! I made a friend

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"When I was young I used to have this nightmare about dying. I used to lie awake at night screaming. All my schoolfriends went to heaven or hell, and I was sent to Southend."
--Douglas Adams