Kafka - Josephine the Singer

[Anonymous No.15262270]

What is your interpretation of this story?

It seems like a bundle of contradictions that Kafka doesn't want to resolve. She's a singer who can't sing. Her whisper singing isn't any better than anyone else's (they shush a young mouse who dares to sing along despite being just as good) but they glorify her for some reason. But they don't glorify her because they are independent and don't valorize any single individual. Yet they are willing to risk their lives for her music.

And then she just disappears into mythology. Is that the clue to this story? That this is what mythology would sound like to a contemporary of the myth (mundane, nonsensical) if they had actually lived through it?

[Anonymous No.15262514]

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[Anonymous No.15262731]

>>15262270
Okay, I read it.

It seemed to me that Josephine was Kafka's definition of an "artist": mediocre but necessary, existing in order to fulfill the childish need for art within people. And like the typical artist she is used and abused, and her disappearance doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. The "mythology" she passes into is being forgotten, which for Kafka is the heroic thing to do. That's my interpretation.

(On a side note, I wish Kafka's writing style wasn't as dry.)

[Anonymous No.15262738]

>>15262270
I posted about this story a week or two ago! Did you pick it up cause of my thread? I just finished all of Kafka’s short stories and found this to be one of his most interesting.

I still think that Josephine is somewhat of a stand-in for Kafka. Artists are never praised by everyone, there is always someone who says “Why, they aren’t any better than a regular guy writing letters to a friend, they just call themselves an ‘artist’ or a ‘writer’ and everyone believes them!” Josephine’s voice is feeble and weak, yet perhaps it is this weakness which sets in stark relief certain resonances which would not be apparent in a more perfect voice.

[Anonymous No.15263694]

>>15262731
this is probably his worst written story. very officious and meandering style

[Anonymous No.15263714]

>>15263694
>officious and meandering
This is 90% of his work though and all of his novels????

[Anonymous No.15263725]

>>15262738
Are you also the guy who asked for "flash fiction" recommendations and then I recommended Kafka to?

[Anonymous No.15263831]

>>15263714
as meandering as his other works are, they all have some plot to them. action happens, characters talk, things progress.

this story has no plot, character or dialogue. it's a narrator analyzing the society these mice live in and josephine's place in it. that works for shorter works but doesn't for longer stories.

[Anonymous No.15263892]

>>15263831
pleb and neurotypicalpilled

[Anonymous No.15263910]

>>15263725
>recommendations
Nah I read all Kafka's microfictions ages ago, I was mainly finishing the long stories like the burrow. They are a great lesser known side of his oeuvre tho

[Anonymous No.15263980]

>>15263910
the burrow is full on autism but is actually pretty hilarious as satire on a paranoid autist

[Anonymous No.15265482]

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