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/lit/ - Literature

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2302796 No.2302796 [Reply] [Original]

I just read the Trial. I have a few questions.

1. Am I the only one who like his shorter works far better? It seems to me that the somewhat surreal world that Kafka can create is best experienced in small glimpses, when less is explained. At the later stages of the novel, it almost started to make too much sense.
2. With the above observation, am I missing the point of the Trial completely?
3. Is Kafka one of those authors where most of the meaning is lost in translation? I often worry about missing things when I read translated text.

>> No.2302804

1. n/a

2. yes.

3. more is lost translating kafka than translating the average german.

>> No.2302818

>>2302804
>2. yes.
Care to elaborate for me?

>> No.2302830

>>2302804

>learn to k-12 education
>learn to answer in short answer form

... i haven't read this book so I have nothing to add to this consevration, but for someone who has you have virtually nothing to contribute

>> No.2302832

Making no sense is part of his schtick. But I tend to agree with proposition #1. I loved the Trial, but not so much The Castle, or Amerika.

>> No.2302843

>>2302818
the surreal aspect of kafka isn't the main one so its diminution isn't that important. having said that, i don't think the trial makes any more sense at the end that it did at the beginning.

>> No.2302850

>>2302830
>mistaking answering in short answer form for laconicity

there isn't much to say in general.

>> No.2302864

>>2302796
>3.

I remember reading an article on Kafka and translation and there are some things. For example he uses "verkehr" which in German can means both copulation and traffic. Somehow it's translated into the 'rush of traffic' to signify the sexual aspect to it, similar to an ejaculation. So they try their best, but you have to look harder to find ambiguies meanings.

>> No.2302867

>>2302843
What, in your opinion, are the main aspects of Kafka?

>> No.2302884
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2302884

I had a good time reading the trial, but it was more like having a good time laughing at all the odd stuff he put in there. Plebeian master race.

>"Alright, I'm coming," said K., moved forward, took hold of her, kissed her on the mouth and then over her whole face like a thirsty animal lapping with its tongue when it eventually finds water.

>> No.2302908

>>2302867
kafka uses surrealistic devices as tools to comment on the absurdity of (some aspects of) human interaction and contemporary society. what I'm trying to say is that the point isn't that he's a bug now, it's the implications his family's treatment to him now that he can't provide for them.