/lit/ - Literature

>>4437126
>4437131
>>4437131
>>4437414
>>4437420
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Private_life

>>3616738
Whoops.

He's wonderful!

Start with some of his well-known shorter works, such as "A Little Fable," "The Hunger Artist," "In the Penal Colony," and "The Hunter Gracchus." Then meander through the rest of his oeuvre as you please. [I'm guessing you have a sense of what his major works - like The Trial - are.]

David Foster Wallace wrote a very short essay on the humor in Kafka, which I recommend. It's a short, quick, easy, and insightful (at least for newbies to Kafka).
Robert Crumb illustrated a wonderful biography on Kafka, which I recommend reading as well. It also helps understand how to read Kafka, for lack of a better phrase.
Camus also wrote an essay about him. I don't remember much of what's in it, but I remember thinking it was pretty cool. [I think he said something about how meaning in Kafka's works unfolds only through rereading, or something like that.]

Kafka

1. 19, U.S., MD, Math and Computer Science major
2. Email for convenience. Maybe some occasional snail-mail for the pleasure of writing, receiving, and reading handwritten letters.
3. I like to read all kinds of stuff (or at least I like to think so). Lately, I've really been into Flannery O'Connor and Franz Kafka. I also like history, philosophy, mathematics, history, and music (though my knowledge in all these areas is not very impressive). As far as music goes, I don't listen as often as I used to in high school. I do like a lot of stuff though. Lately, I've really been into Beethoven and Richard Fariña. I also saw a performance of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte last semester and fell in love with opera as a result.
4/5. A conversational partner for nice conversations, I guess. Anything else would just be gravy.
6. Nope.
7. I'd rather not have my information saved, but I have a feeling there's not much I can do about it.

Yeah, /lit/'s weirdly homey. Dysfunctional-homey, but homey nonetheless. The rest of the boards, at least for the most part, all like mental asylums (asyla?).

"In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka
>"Colony by Joy Division

The Trial by Franz Kafka
>"The Trial" by Pink Floyd

These are obviously found easily on YouTube.

I just finished reading "In the Penal Colony." I ended up reading it all in one setting. It's not very long, of course, but... it sure kept my attention the whole time.

Anyway, thoughts? I'm particularly up in the air about what it said on the deceased Commandant's gravestone. There's the obvious parallel to Christ, but I really don't know what to make of it. Also, what do you make of the explorer not allowing the soldier and the condemned to get into the boat with him?

I just finished reading "In the Penal Colony." I ended up reading it all in one setting. It's not very long, of course, but... it sure kept my attention the whole time.

Anyway, thoughts? I'm particularly up in the air about what it said on the deceased Commandant's gravestone. There's the obvious parallel to Christ, but I really don't know what to make of it.