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/lit/ - Literature

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22211809 No.22211809 [Reply] [Original]

I don't get his short stories. What's the point of a one paragraph story? Are there any essential works besides Metamorphosis and The Trial?

>> No.22211815

>>22211809
I am retarded so I can't understand most of his stuff.

>> No.22211830

>>22211809
>>22211815
Little darkly comic fever dreams about the ugliness of modern life and nihilism. Better than Camus, but similar themes I think.

>> No.22211877

>>22211809
The trial is his best. Other than that he’s not really worth reading

>> No.22211885

>>22211877
Your opinion is left hanging there like a cold mutton leg off the carcass, the skin about to drop it to the floor.
You sure you want to make stupid posts like this?

>> No.22211894

>>22211885
Now find the word in your comment that doesn’t fit. Can you do it? Retard.

>> No.22211897

>>22211809
In The Penal Colony and Hunger Artist are among his peaks. From the shorter pieces, Bucket Rider stands out as amazing, but many (if not most) are unfinished or unedited sketches. He wanted this stuff burned after death.

>> No.22211906

>>22211885
faggot

>> No.22211913

>>22211809
A country doctor is my favourite

>> No.22211916

I don't know/remember how many of his one paragraph stories he even intended to publish if any, but I think they're often just fascinating little glimpses into absurdity. Some of them are almost like poems written without any regard for poesy. I don't care for all of his short stories but I'd say the bulk of them were wonderful.

>> No.22211952

>>22211809
What's the point of anything?

The Vulture

A vulture was hacking at my feet. It had already torn my boots and stockings to shreds, now it was hacking at the feet themselves. Again and again it struck at them, then circled several times restlessly around me, then returned to continue its work. A gentleman passed by, looked on for a while, then asked me why I suffered the vulture. "I'm helpless," I said. "When it came and began to attack me, I of course tried to drive it away, even to strangle it, but these animals are very strong, it was about to spring at my face, but I preferred to sacrifice my feet. Now they are almost torn to bits."

"Fancy letting yourself be tortured like this!" said the gentleman. "One shot and that's the end of the vulture."

"Really?" I said. "And would you do that?"

"With pleasure," said the gentleman, "I've only got to go home and get my gun. Could you wait another halfhour?"

"I'm not sure about that," said I, and stood for a moment rigid with pain. Then I said: "Do try it in any case, please."

"Very well," said the gentleman, "I'll be as quick as I can." During this conversation the vulture had been calmly listening, letting its eye rove between me and the gentleman. Now I realized that it had understood everything; it took wing, leaned far back to gain impetus, and then, like a javelin thrower, thrust its beak through my mouth, deep into me. Falling back, I was relieved to feel him drowning irretrievably in my blood, which was filling every depth, flooding every shore.

They're hilarious vignettes of the absurdity of being human.

>> No.22212220

>can I do x
>no you can't. - he said and then, after thinking for a minute, added: -or can you?
>okay this is getting really really weird I was just going to ask you for one thing and, despite getting a proper and, dare I say, a genuine answer from you I am still in a pickle regarding that one situation we were talking about so please, if that pleases you of course, could you tell me whether I can or cannot do x
>he gave him a weird look and then, out of the blue, got really mad and kicked him out of the room, shouting:
>you can. but now you can't

I hate Kafka so much.

>> No.22212245

>>22211809
>What's the point of a one paragraph story?
They are nice metaphors of specific concepts or ideas. People tend to forget fables have been a literary tradition since the time of the greeks,short stories are not a novelty per se

>> No.22212248

Remember that he didn't want anything he wrote to be published. Don't hold other people's arrogance against him. I still like him, even better when read through that mindset.

>> No.22212258

>>22211809
For me it's the castle

>> No.22212283

>>22211885
how is a mutton leg both hanging and off the carcass at the same time you god damn idiot

>> No.22212399

>>22212283
Holding on by its skin, evidently.

>> No.22212412

>>22211809
The Castle > The Trial > In the penal colony > Amerika > A country doctor > A hunger artist > Metamorphosis.
This is only my opinion, now stop making useless posts and start reading you lazy fucks.

>> No.22212447

>>22211952
Love Kafka's humor. Even his supposedly sad or tragic stories like The Metamorphosis can be pretty damn funny.

>> No.22212463

>>22212447
Agreed. The scene where Gregor hears his sister playing the violin and decides to go into the room to encourage her is hilarious.

>> No.22213715

>>22211809
for kafka there are a lot of themes in relation to his jewishness, specifically regarding a feeling of unbelonging and lost cultural connection, assimilation, and the inherent humiliating nature of this. A report to the academy exemplifies this and it's one of my favourite lesser-known stories of his.

>> No.22214050

>>22212399
Then it's not off

>> No.22214098

>>22211809
Jews have literally only one theme that they ever write about and that theme is what being a jew is like, they are narcissistic like that. Like if you didn't get how all of his stories revolve around how giga spoopy and absurd and surreal it is for him to be a jew among goyim then I'm not really sure whether reading is what you should be doing with your free time.