Kafka

[Anonymous No.1987910]

/lit/, I just read The Judgement by Kafka, and I really don't know what the hell just happened. Like... I'm really not even sure where to begin my inquiry to you. I feel like I hardly even knew the character when suddenly the story ended. Can anyone offer some sort of explanation for this?

[thewholesystemisawholesystem !19/MTb7X0g No.1987913]

freud

/thread

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.1987923]

Can't help ya. I read a summery of all his stories in a bibliography and decided on this one, but I haven't read any of it yet (Just the forward) I also thought you were talking about The Trial, and I can't recall a thing from the bibliography.
Franz is a nutter ain't he.

[Anonymous No.1987941]

I can see no motive, no moral, and no lesson to be learned. Fuck, I don't even see a plot! Georg has a friend that he doesn't talk to very often. Georg gets engaged. He doesn't feel like telling his friend about it at first because his friend is a loser. He then decides to tell his friend, but wants to let his dad know first. Then his dad waits 7.5 minutes and goes batshit insane about Georg being a bad friend. Then Georg gets hit by a car?
Am I missing some vital detail? Did I skip the page where something happens to actually make sense?

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.1987963]

>>1987941
Yes. We all are. Just read a summery.
I think this girl was once involved with the friend in Russia, and the father preferred this(?) Its a short story where you have to think about what the motives are. Like when stories leave things open at the end (Oryx and Crake for one) This story is like that throughout. Right?

[Anonymous No.1987965]

>>1987910

It might be helpful to know a bit about Kafka's life. He had a long relationship with a woman whom he never actually got around to marrying. Also, he had daddy issues (like this guy said >>1987913
, read some Freud and you'll see what I'm getting at). Also, he was torn between his writing career and his "day job." The dude that goes to Russia could represent what Kafka's life could have been like, if he hadn't been in a relationship, committed to a job, obligated to take care of his father, etc.

Also, just the general sense of a world that is totally indifferent to one individual's sufferings. Hence the last line where the traffic keeps going by, without stopping, without caring- the world moves on. In German, the word used to describe the traffic can also mean "ejaculation," and Kafka certainly had this sexual double entendre in mind... it makes sense with the Freud stuff, but don't let it confuse you.

So there's a few things to consider, and hell, I'm not exactly the best person to help you-- I haven't read much Kafka analysis or criticism. Maybe you should.

[Anonymous No.1987978]

Well thank you all. You've helped me understand it a bit better, and given me some new ideas. (and for the anon, don't worry. I'm not using /lit/ as my only source of information. Just an easy place to ask.)

[Anonymous No.1987979]

This thread can die now.

[Anonymous No.1988028]

>>1987965

I'm pretty sure 'Verkehr' doesn't mean ejaculation...

[Anonymous No.1988049]

>>1988028

No, it does. Or something like that, somewhere in that last line means ejaculation. Also, OP, consider the following:

An underlying current in Kafka's work, at least that I've found, is the posturing of the individual in a world that is literally better off without them. You have Josef in The Trial, who works his ass off to get free, and in the end is exterminated and all the psychotic people go on just fine. Same with K. in The Castle, he fights and fights against the system (the system in this sense means, pretty much, anything beyond our grasp--religion, politics, happiness, reconciliation, afterlife, etc.) and ends up dying and the village just goes on.

Now, The Judgment is a little weird, because you don't really have the son fighting against anything. Unlessssss you take into consideration all the daddy issues that everybody's talking about (Kafka's letter to his dad is apparently pretty good, never read it) and you've got the mother of all authority overcoming. Except, by allowing the father power, by even trying to compare to his father, by telling his father about his "accomplishments" and "friends" and all that good stuff, the narrator automatically gives all power back to the father. He proves himself weak and in need of the father's approval. And thus, when the father sees this weak bitch, he decides that perhaps maybe he's raised a failure (Kafka was also HUGE into the idea that the modern times were destroying the individual: Old ass father > New punk kid) and with his powah, he sentences that bitch to death. Which, powerless, the kid must obey. Plus impotence.

[Anonymous No.1988060]

>>1988028

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Judgment#Translation

>>1987979

No. We need more good Kafka thread.

[Anonymous No.1988068]

>>1988049

Nope, it doesn't. Maybe you mean intercourse.
It could mean that, but not necessarily in a sexual way.

[Anonymous No.1988072]

>>1988060

Oh sorry. Didn't see your post.
Yeah, you're right then

[Anonymous No.1988099]

>>1988072

Kafka's actually all about the close reading. Which sucks for me cause I don't read German. But like e.g. if someone says anything about "The Hunger Artist," by skipping out on the indefinite pronoun, they've already added a layer of humanity to the story that shouldn't be there, yknow? This website examines the first -line- of Metamorphosis, and it's pretty fuckin fascinating. The actual word, I recall, is something akin to "bug" or "pest"(but with insectile connotations). The whole idea is, within the first word, Kafka reduces Samsa to a nasty little shit, rather than an INSECT (which sounds cool and proper and scientific) or COCKROACH (which strikes terror into some people's hearts and also removes any sense of ambiguity), which empower. Honestly, I bet there's metafictive shit at play here (the author reducing the character intentionally, maybe?). Maybe not metafictive, but something kinda like it that I'm too stupid to know of?

[Anonymous No.1988118]

>>1988099

I got his collected works in German, but I haven't come round to reading it yet. It's been gathering dust on my shelve for quit a while now.
Tomorrow is my first day of vacation though, so I'll pick it up one of these days

[poweroffacing !!XH7uIQnxMO2 No.1988128]

Cure for confusing Kafka: reread over 9000 times.

[Anonymous No.1989365]

Kafka was really handsome

[sandwiches No.1989554]

> he thinks Kafka can be reduced to Freudian interpretations