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/lit/ - Literature

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2789587 No.2789587[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Hello all,

I was thinking about reading Kafka for the first time and decided to flip through a few pages of the metamorphosis... The plot seems really interesting in a surrealist sort of way, but after almost finishing Naked Lunch I just feel like the prose is a bit stale and I have trouble keeping interest. Anyone else think Kafka is worth reading... or on the same note, find Naked Lunch to be as exceptional as I did?

>> No.2789598

>decided to flip through a few pages of the metamorphosis

so you read the entire thing? there's only a few pages in the book.

>> No.2789601

>>2789598

I was at barns and noble... and they were closing in 10 minutes... read a few pages literally.

>> No.2789606

You should go full Kafka and read The Trial. Mindless drivel, it is...

>> No.2789608

David Foster Wallace published a short speech he wrote about trying to teach college students to appreciate Kafka. I was a math/econ major and never read any Kafka in college, but it seemed like a good intro for someone who wanted to better understand his stuff.

If you google the title you can get a lot of different PDF's of it
"some remarks on kafka's funniness from which probably not enough has been removed"

>> No.2789618

kafka is kind of overhyped, his work is appealing in some ways, specially if you find meaning in absurdities
A Country doctor, animated version :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XpvlrOcEcM

this was a fun watch, the story is good

>> No.2789723

Read the Penal Colony, is soo depressing and weird and awesome, also very short.

>> No.2789796

I think he is worth reading. The Trial was awesome.

>> No.2790107

You retard. Kafka is one of the only writers ever to capture human essence through the written word. The Metamorphosis is an amazing book. If you have ever had an old/sick/burdensome family member and even for a moment thought about how cool it would be for everyone if that person died, that you might get the book, otherwise gods help you. SPOILER: like in Ovid's book, Gregor has become what he was all long. His transformation is the inward personality and essence being transmuted to his appearence. He cared for his good for nothing family but when he is useless, they stop caring for him. This is just the ice flakes on the iceberg..

>> No.2790122

I started reading Naked Lunch right after reading Kafka and it worked to me. The idea of power in Kafka's work some how echoed Naked Lunch.

Read into Kafka's life first before you start reading Metamorphosis. When you understand his state of mind then you can have a pretty close relationship with him. If you enjoy that read The Penal Colony, The Judgement then the Trial/

>> No.2790204

Here is an excellent quote right from the beginning of The Trial:
"He realized at once that he shouldn't have spoken aloud, and that by doing so he had, in a sense, acknowledged the stranger's right to oversee his actions"

The Trial is really an amazing piece, beginning to end. Kafka is often criticized by his style, his "lack of engaging qualities" but the distance towards the world that his main characters always show helps a great deal to capture the modern middle-class man. Disengaged from a seemingly non-sensical job and under the impresion of constant surveillance.

It is one of the jewels of literature