/lit/ - Literature

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773667]

Franz Kafka "Amerika"
I need someone to explain Kafka to me.
People told me to read him and to read "Metamorphosis". I have not read that but i read "Hunger artist" and liked it so when Amerika came across my desk i read straight through.

I wanna be clear its not that i hate Kafka, its that people have always said this or that is "Kafkaesque" so i was not getting what they meant i thought kafka had some deep understanding or profound irony but after reading his work i don't see any irony or metaphors all i see is blunt criticisms that show no more insight then a teenager might stumble upon.
Also why do hipsters love his shit? He basically said they are naive idealists that will walk into gas chamber if someone promises them a job.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773766]

Kafka is ass. He uses his pen as a blunt object to bludgeon his readers into a malleable and naive minds. Who think every passing notion of skepticism is grand insight. His fans are generally people who have failed at life or are currently failing and are all too eager to announce that this is the fault of society and individuals other then them selves

I will bump this by insulting Kafka till someone responds and enlightens me

[sage No.3773811]

>>3773667
Come back when you have read "The Castle", "The Metamorphosis" and "The Trial". Only then you will be deemed capable of understanding him, you inbred piece of shit.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773813]

Fuck Franz Kafka
he has no insight past the surface

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773816]

>>3773811
why should i read more of his shit if even u cant explain why its good

[Anonymous No.3773819]

What's up with you guys trying "get" Kafka? There's not all that much to get really.
If you don't like his style why even bother making a thread like this?

[Anonymous No.3773818]

>>3773813
What an interesting self-analysis.

[Anonymous No.3773824]

>>3773811
>>3773811
>provides no defense for the works he criticized.
>0-10 internet violence guilty of your own name calling.

This is why anger just makes you look dumb. Kafka needs none of your asinine nut hugging.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773827]

>>3773811
I don't mean to be a dick but people only respond to you here if you are vulgar and rude

The reason Kafka's works are all so short is because he couldn't fully grasp a thought larger then his ego or tell a story that conveyed more then small talk

I will stop bumping this when someone explains what is Kafkaesque or why they enjoyed his works
thankyou

[Anonymous No.3773830]

>>3773819
Its an obvious bait and switch trying to debate people who praise him often here I would think.
>Was this not implied?

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773841]

>>3773827
>>3773819
>>3773818
>>3773811
I don't hate Kafka nor wanna debate. i want a fan to come forward and tell me what it is they enjoy and what ideas i might have missed that validate why our professors have so much praise for him.

[Anonymous No.3773844]

>>3773841
>our professors
>they all da same
>we all in college

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773855]

>>3773844
yes i am implying that all collage professors use the same reading lists
because i assume i am not the only person who has heard his teachers praise Kafka or use the word kafkaesque

[Anonymous No.3773858]

>>3773855
Change your major

[Anonymous No.3773868]

>>3773841
What I enjoy most about Kafka is the atmosphere he creates.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773872]

>>3773858
already graduated and i wasn't a English lit major

Since no one is responding with their opinions i must deduce that either you all agree with me and kafka is a hack that is only noted by hipsters that never read him.
Or none of you have read him so i will inform you by giving you a brief summary of what is a very brief story.

Why they fuck does everyone on /lit/ assume everyone else on /lit/ is either a philosophy or English lit major?

[Anonymous No.3773874]

>>3773855
Because his critique is profound, he is one of the well known conveyors of the idea that we have built a system that merely functions for the sake of functioning a full blown automaton and we fight to keep it going even if it will destroy ourselves, he points out the absurdity like many others have done but he is the most well known if you don't like this idea, criticize it or don't read him if you are an insecure faggot

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773880]

>>3773868
through his inner monologue u mean?
and by atmosphere do u mean how certain characters seem to have auras of selfishness, lewdness, or depravity and the main character is always some degree of innocent?
plz more detail i am just curious

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773892]

>>3773874
No i like the idea fine and his choice to depict it in Hunger artist as a starving artist was unique and at the same time a well known cliche but in "Amerika" the Automaton state was manifest in the characters uncle whose rejection resulted in a vagabond life that ended. The character wanted to blame all these ill woes in his life on the nonsense of the system that he found himself in but at every step it were his own actions or inaction that lead him down the road to destruction not the self sustaining system.
Plz Tell me where i misunderstand

[Anonymous No.3773907]

>He basically said they are naive idealists that will walk into gas chamber if someone promises them a job.

Kafka broke off his work on this novel with unexpected suddenness. It remained unfinished. From what he told his friend and biographer Max Brod, the incomplete chapter "The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma" (a chapter the beginning of which particularly delighted Kafka, so that he used to read it aloud with great effect) was intended to be the concluding chapter of the work and should end on a note of reconciliation. In enigmatic language Kafka used to hint smilingly, that within this "almost limitless" theatre his young hero was going to find again a profession, a stand-by, his freedom, even his old home and his parents, as if by some celestial witchery.[4]

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773908]

>>3773874
define profound and what about Kafka's critic makes it worthy of such an evaluation PLZ

For those who don't know "Amerika: the man who disappeared" is the journey of a man who disappeared

[Anonymous No.3773910]

>>3773892
Well your view then, i guess, implies that its better to become a part of the automaton to avoid destruction, which is horrific to a reader who agrees with Kafka, unless of course you mean that we have absurd freedom and everyone would be billionaires if it wasn't for people making bad decisions like becoming teachers or joining the workforce

[Anonymous No.3773911]

>>3773874

[Anonymous No.3773912]

It's the specific style of writing that do not posses any canon explanation and interpretation but provoke as many interpretation and DEEPness as it can. It's not the matter of thoughts involved but the skill of a writer you admire. Not everyone can make it so effective. He was the fist one to do it.

[Anonymous No.3773913]

>>3773911 damn smartphone. Nevertheless, the question is in the subject.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773931]

>>3773907
ya all that means is he died and found his place in Heaven, the "limitless theater"
All the people are actors the world is but a stage and god is our only audience in a theater where the seats are to be filled with our past relationships there is nothing original or unique about that.
He stopped the work where he did because he was short on thought and long on bullshit he got to the point where the character disappeared and he figured the ending was dramatic enough that the "last chapter" was superfluous but he needed a good boot licking so he would distract people with the same great effect he always had

[Anonymous No.3773939]

Kafka's prose isn't outrageously stylish but he has a way of apathetically smacking the reader in the face with unexpected information. Take the first sentence of the Metamorphosis, for example. This trait compliments the absurdity of his stories, in which the characters hopelessly accept the fate of life even though it is completely asinine and ridiculous.

Kafka's imagination and innovation in the art of storytelling is really what makes him such a revered writer. There is an atmosphere, a metaphysical property, to his works that no one ever reached before him and is very difficult to authentically emulate. The term "kafkaesque" is used to describe this, but it doesn't include the whole of his mind. For that you need to actually read it. It is surrealistic without being surreal. He takes ordinary things and layers them in such odd ways that it chokes the reader in an existential limbo, dragging him into the depth of mind Kafka lives in.

[Anonymous No.3773940]

>>3773911
Well meant authors like Orwell, Huxley also dostojevskij, they are not in any way similar in style of prose, but they do poke at the same "rage against the machine", if anyone know someone who's actually know someone similar I'm interested aswell

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773946]

>>3773912
ok i get that his pen did have a fancy stroke, but people need to stop saying he was the first to do anything he wasn't. I liked the dialogue it was witty and some what realistic but what rubbed me the wrong way is there is no progression the character starts of naive and pennyless and dies naive and pennyless

[Anonymous No.3773948]

>>3773931

> "limitless theater"
>"almost limitless"

Reading comprehension

>He stopped the work where he did

He didn't stop the work, it was unfinished when he died. The "ending" was assembled by other people from his manuscripts.

[Anonymous No.3773959]

>>3773911
tao lin
david lynch
ayn rand

[Anonymous No.3773963]

>>3773908
>define profound and what about Kafka's critic makes it worthy of such an evaluation PLZ


That's in the eye of the beholder, its worthy because people have deemed it so

[Anonymous No.3773970]

I liked 'the Metamorphosis' as he perfectly depicted the model of a family that you can often see today (hence careerists) where members have huge egos. Shows a total difference from the usual german KKK.

[Anonymous No.3773975]

>>3773946
>there is no progression the character starts of naive and pennyless and dies naive and pennyless
Well, I don't think it's a writing workshop flaw. You just don't like what author is trying to say by this.

[Anonymous No.3773980]

>>3773811
Literallely this.

[Anonymous No.3773985]

>>3773667
>OP read watch Sasha Grey movies then look for a picture with her reading in front of children

[Anonymous No.3773988]

>>3773980
>Literallely this.
>Literallely
>Literal[lel]y

Literaly lel

[risky cat !EyoS5AWf4c No.3773989]

>>3773940
>2012
>dostojevskij
>not dostoedgy
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL RISKY!!

[Anonymous No.3773994]

>>3773989
Why shouldn't literature be edgy? Keep reading erotic novels pleb

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773996]

>>3773948
>Reading comprehension
so almost changes the meaning how? if he didn't mean afterlife or some other metaphysical crap then what?
I don't find the problem with the piece to be the ending or some missing chapter the problem is that people see a reflection and think the water must be deep because they cant get past the surface

I am pissed because the character starts bydisappearing from Germany when the responsibility of a child arrives
then disappears from his uncles comfy living because he wont do whats expected
then abandons his vagabond friends for a stable blue collar life but disappears from there because he wont listen to management and keep it in his pants
then joins the circus because why not and the disappears from the face of the earth
I am pissed that the character didn't develop the plot didn't develop and the societal critics were weakly socialist with little alternatives presented

[Anonymous No.3773997]

>>3773816
its gud cuz its gud

[Knee Ander Thall No.3773999]

>>3773963
i will give you that

[Anonymous No.3774008]

>>3773996
Alternatives are not necessary, that's up to the reader to decide, fuck authors that cheerlead for a specific outcome Kafka was and is an inspiration to what not to do and what problems to find solutions for. Also he is enjoyable to read

[Anonymous No.3774010]

>>3773880
>the main character is always some degree of innocent?
but even in America he's not entirely innocent (remember why he's escaping his home country), nor are the others entirely guilty, they are simply in a system. Plus there is always a existentil guiltiness behind all of it, not a judicial one. I have to say, whoever recommended America should have recommended the Trial. America touches all the same themes in a more naive way.

Zurau's aphorisms and The trial, coupled with short tales like The Penal Colony is my recommendation. Zurau's aphorisms will give light to what I'm talking about when I say existential guiltiness. America's protagonist doesn't ever question his innocence, it's only questioned by others. Only in the end it is hinted that he's starting to come to some understanding. The trial's protagonist questions it a bit but again, understanding comes close to the end. This protagonists are most definitely not simply victims

[Anonymous No.3774029]

>>3773996

>almost changes the meaning how?

It's not limitless

>all that spoilered text

Gee, maybe you should think about the connections between freedom, responsibility, and basic human relationships, and how that relates to the "almost limitless" theatre and Kafka's representation of America

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774039]

>>3773939
I loved your response the most i reread it a couple times but i still don't get what Kafkaesque means.
I totally feel like kafka was smacking me with apathy but i didn't think the information to be unexpected. His characters did all accept the fate of life even if asinine but i didn't see that to be a comment, metaphor, or critic but laziness on the writers part.
>There is an atmosphere, a metaphysical property
don't see it sry
also i did find the story to be similar to the journey a immigrant would have once in America but i just cant accept that someone who travels around the world to change his life is going to be content letting fate lead him by the nose and make no actual decisions. If so why not stay in Germany and be that engineer he was never going to be.
>It is surrealistic without being surreal
what the fuck? so what his work is ironic but without the irony?
>He takes ordinary things and layers them in such odd ways that it chokes the reader in an existential limbo
I don't think he layers anything its like he takes a deck of cards lays it flat out so u can see every card and tells u its a magic trick then when u ask wheres the trick he says "the trick is you were programmed to pick a card"

I got on a bit of a rant sry am i explaining my self properly?

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774128]

No one handed it to me i found in a box that some people were tossing for trash and i will give trial a read since kafka is too well known for me to write him off as a fluke
>>3774010
wow really enjoyed reading that
but i didn't mean innocence as a distinction of morality or exemption from a criminal act rather a blank slate (like a child who just born may be covered in filthy but still be unsullied). I didn't feel that the corruption or taint in the other characters was something they gained from the rules and systems of the society but rather a rot originating from their own apathy to the inequality that they witness. an example is the uncle couldn't abide disloyalty, the vagabonds wouldn't accept individuality, and the girlfriend wouldn't abide him telling her of the unknown(Prague). Each one had a thier own system and they wouldn't conform to his unique thoughts but wanted him to assimilate to then so by each meeting the protagonist was stained with the prejudices he acquired from his last encounter.
I didn't feel like anyone in the story felt guilty about anything and most certainly not the protagonist.
By existential guilt i have to assume you mean the person feels a debt to society or a burden of responsibility from the very fact of their existence (if i am wrong plz correct me).

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774227]

>>3774029
well thank you for your time and attention but
>the connections between....
Ya i don't really see any unique connections that kafka makes
I have been convinced that i need to read more of his work but i no longer view him as much better the JD Salinger (but with more adult topics)
If the almost limitless theater was only a reference to a utopian world where u can be anything you want then it might as well be heaven cause i wont see it in my life time

but in full disclosure i haven't read much i thought was worthy of the praise it received

[Anonymous No.3774235]

>people tell that 'the metamorphosis', 'the castle' and 'the trial' are good
>op reads other shit
>complains that it is crap
>has no clue why

I wonder.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774283]

>>3774235
that is a good point
but in my defense i cant read half the amount of books people tell me to read
also
no one here said "Amerika" was any good
so i guess i am right it sux

[Anonymous No.3774520]

>>3774039
>I got on a bit of a rant sry am i explaining my self properly?

I guess so, but (no offense) you seem very juvenile... both in the way you comprehend concepts and your rebuttals. Maybe you're just in a bad mood.

Kafka deliberately includes the absurd. There is no doubt about it. How could someone be so terrible of a writer that they don't even have the foresight to give their characters adequate reactions to problems? I think you're just running out of room here and are resorting to nonsense

Kafka is painting a picture of what it is like to have your entire life controlled by something totally out of your control. For example, here is a quote from The Castle:

"It amuses me," said K., "only because it gives me some insight into the ridiculous tangle that may under certain circumstances determine a person's life."

This "tangle," or the absurd, is one of ever-present and possibly the most important of Kafka's motifs. He fully understands what he is doing and what he is getting at: and that is man's futile efforts and comprehending life, whether it be the complexity of society, relationships, authority, or the universe/god. When man attempts to seek meaning in any of these things, he fails. When man goes out expecting something to work perfectly in his control, he is almost always taken by the absurdity of life and flipped upside down. This is the atmosphere we speak of, only with an extreme sense of weirdness, like being a bug or having guards that arrested you one morning being beaten in the closet of your own office.

>what the fuck? so what his work is ironic but without the irony?

What I mean to say is that he achieves the affects of surrealism by examining ordinary aspects of life... courts, work, bosses, authority. These are not arcane/made up things, these are aspects of what it means to be a 20th century modern man. But, on examination, it is revealed that all of these things completely dominate our psychology and determine our lives.

[Anonymous No.3774526]

>>3774520
(cont) this is not some marxist critique but merely an artistic interpretation of the modern condition.

"According to W. H. Auden, Kafka’s work characterises the twentieth century better than any other writer. Like life itself, Kafka’s stories are bizarre, frustrating and ultimately inexplicable. His texts gesture towards conventional realist narrative, only to frustrate and perplex readers by refusing to adhere to those conventions. When we read Kafka, we struggle to understand: that is the point. The stories and novels seem to cry out for interpretation, but also resist it stubbornly. They do this by means of the narrative technique, which uses free indirect speech (called ‘erlebte Rede’ in German), the subjunctive mood and the allegorical mode in order to disorient and tantalise the reader. [The standard work in English on Kafka’s use of free indirect speech in his stories is by Roy Pascal, see reading list below]. An allegory is a description which points towards a higher (religious) truth. Kafka’s texts adopt this gestural mode, but they point towards the inaccessible. His fictional statements undermine, relativize, and contradict each other. His protagonists are shut off from the truth which they seek, deny, embody or ignore. They fail, but they fail in very interesting ways. To quote Samuel Beckett: ‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774615]

>>3774520
>you seem very juvenile
i don't take offense much of what i wrote was in a passion and some was irrelevant to get a rise out of people but in my defense i comprehend things in the literal and the abstract just seems unnecessarily vague.
>deliberately includes the absurd
i have heard that before but i don't see it maybe "Hunger artist" and "Amerika" were particularly down to earth works. I don't see anything absurd besides the characters apathy. Maybe its because i take things too literal but the hunger artist while a amusing notion was not more absurd then a hindu ascetic and in Amerika the only absurdity i can point to would be the coincidences that lead to his meetings. The train in the end that is something that he took from history. The notion that we walk through a world we cant control and ponder questions that will never be answered is just the default state of humanity.

>so terrible of a writer that they don't even have the foresight to give their characters adequate reactions to problems?
I didn't say that, i meant the characters apathy(if a theme of its own) only instills apathy in me. If the character feels no passion, love, or fear then how am i to feel those things for them. The only emotion the protagonist portrayed was disappointment that things didn't go his way. Is the apathy of the characters the absurd part? because its sad to say the world is full of apathetic people.

>This is the atmosphere we speak of, only with an extreme sense of weirdness, like being a bug or having guards that arrested you one morning being beaten in the closet of your own office.
sry i don't get what u are saying here

>he achieves the affects of surrealism by examining ordinary aspects
Ya what i mean to say is i dont see anything surreal about it but the bluntness of it. Nothing requires a stretch of the imagination. When i think surreal i think Salvador Dali when i think of Kafka i think more Andy Warhol's paintings of Campbell soup cans

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774633]

>>3774526
I do want to express gratitude for further discussing this with me. i wanted to talk about kafka since i read Amerika but no one i know reads any books.
also i am not categorizing Warhol and Dali together Dali was an artist Andy Warhol was a publicist.

[Anonymous No.3774644]

>>3773811
Why should OP bother? Kafka never finished any of his novels; anyway read the shorter works and you'll read all he has to say.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774666]

>>3774526
>this is not some marxist critique but merely an artistic interpretation of the modern condition

i suppose this is exactly why i am turned off by Amerika. It is not a critique but just a depiction of what the author find distasteful and unfortunate. I suppose i am disappointed because i was expecting something and when i put the book down i felt i gained nothing.
Also i don't really get what people mean buy modern.(as opposed to what Victorian?) what makes this anymore modern then Huck Finn?

[Anonymous No.3774688]

>>3774615
read the metamorphosis. people turning into bugs is surreal. Read the trial also. Those are much more absurd and much more favored

[Anonymous No.3774692]

OP, Ive only read the metamorphosis and the trial, so take what I say with some salt.

As far as I can tell, Kafka is revered because he can pull off this dream-like surreal narrative pretty well. Ive never heard of the word "Kafkaesque", but my guess would be, a piece of work that has a dream-like surreal narrative.

For example, in the trial the main character and his uncle are talking to this old dying lawyer who is in his bed, about the main characters trial. The uncle is very excited and so is the old man, but the main character is detached and thinks of being in the room as a chore. This goes on for a couple pages, of the old describing the ridiculous procedures of the judiciary.

Then, out of fucking no where, this old man appears from the corner of the room to gives his two cents on the issue. Apparently he was there the whole time, and the old dying lawyer simply forgot he was having a conversation with him. That kind of shit is what I personally think about when I think of Kafka. That these strange things happen and everyone but the main character reacts like as if god or satan appeared in the room and everyone was like "oh, youre still here?"

[Anonymous No.3774693]

>>3774666
>Also i don't really get what people mean buy modern.

You should probably read more and grow up. See the world. Study history, the arts, and science. When you're ready, come back and read literature

[Anonymous No.3774722]

>>3774692
>"Kafkaesque", but my guess would be, a piece of work that has a dream-like surreal narrative.

Nope it's to name a real world social or political that somewhat resembles the absurd/nightmarish societies of Kafkas literature

[Anonymous No.3774723]

>>3774722
*Social or political circumstance

[Anonymous No.3774742]

>>3773667
I'll do my best here, but this would be easier if you would read Kafka in toto and then list your complaints. That said, the phrase "kafkaesque" is somewhat amorphous but typically means something along the lines of darkly complex, senseless, and I suppose ironic.The important aspects being a menacing feeling of impending danger or harm and a disorientation or confusion. As for your statement that Kafka utilizes "blunt criticisms" I would say that you are missing the essential attribute of Kafka's work which would be complexity. I assure you that if you examine these "criticisms" more closely you will find that they are both profoundly disturbing and clearly accurate depictions of the way the world works, that it is both absurd to wake up one day as a cockroach and also fitting because each one of us walks around with an identity that we think is self created but could be in fact be created by another ( and is the other society or something outside of society) and so on. Kafka criticizes the state to be sure, and any area where power flows but he also criticizes the individual. These "flaws" in characterization are "criticisms" on mankind as an individual being incapable of coming to terms with or taking responsibility for that which it creates. These institutions like the courthouse in The Trial take on a life that is outside of the life of the individual and one of the questions that the reader has to ask is which is preferable? The life of the individual is miserable and spineless and without understanding and the life of the created institution appears mechanical and malevolent. Kafka shows us our hidden assumptions that we carry with us everyday (of course I'll wake up as a human, of course other people will recognize me for who I am, of course our institutions of law give just verdicts, or course I would resist a system once I recognize it as evil) and he shows us how fragile and wrongheaded these unstated assumptions are. Kafka shows us reality.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774749]

>>3774693
ok fuck you very much and the ivory tower that is rammed up your privileged ass
and i don't give a fuck about what u might consider adequate knowledge of the world

I was just expressing my confusion on how classifying something as "modern" only means it expresses rejection at earlier traditional norms , by that stantard the bible is modern but no i am sorry it wasn't written after the 1900s. i resent the fact that if something was written yesterday its modern even thought the ideas expressed in it have been expressed since we climbed out the trees. if i wrote a book declaring a monarchy and slavery as the proper order of things it would be modern because the traditional norm is democracy and liberty

and thank you for responding with your very insight full answer to what modern means

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774811]

>>3774742
thank you for your response i found it very easy to understand and i will read more of his work.
>darkly complex, senseless, and I suppose ironic.
when i hear it used its more darkly senseless and absurdly complex
as in "The Dmv has a Kafkaesque fascination with torture by means of patience"
I suppose his other works could present more complexity and absurdity so i will refrain from use Amerika as an example of that.

I have to admit I am an anarchist and i didn't find anything he wrote or that others described "profoundly disturbing" but i do agree the depictions are accurate.

[Anonymous No.3774816]

I read the first 3 pages of metamorphosis and stopped

I'm sure it's about how nobody is surpised he's a cockroach and he just goes about his confusing daily routine. theme is the arbitrariness of life

completely overrated

[Anonymous No.3774823]

>>3774811
>I am an anarchist

[Anonymous No.3774830]

>>3774823
>Not being an anarchist

[Anonymous No.3774831]

No writer is greater than kafka.
OP have you finished highschool already

[Anonymous No.3774836]

>>3774830
grow up

[Anonymous No.3774842]

this kafka dude seems pretty cool

[Anonymous No.3774844]

>>3774830
Why are you an anarchist?

[Anonymous No.3774848]

In short Kafka says America sucks.
He also says germany sucks, but America even more so.
I'm german and think he's right.

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774855]

>>3774831
for clarification i am 26yrold white male from NYC who graduated university with a (guess what kind of) degree. should be easy not philosophy or English lit.
also nothing childish about believing government is the biggest extortion racket out there

[Anonymous No.3774862]

>>3774836
If that isn't the most brain-dead typical response...

[Anonymous No.3774868]

>>3774128
>By existential guilt i have to assume you mean the person feels a debt to society or a burden of responsibility from the very fact of their existence
more along the lines of the second. He hasn't exactly done wrong in an evil deliberate way, only by his irresponsability. There's this kind of faulty nature in some of Kafka's protagonist and they themselves get a glipse of it near the end. I would consider the one in The trial and the one in Amerika among those. As for the characters, they all seem too much into their role -their place inside that claustrophobia inducing society that Kafka portrays- without any flexibility. That's all I mean.

Kafka is not my favourite author tho, I just happen to think he's actually really good, and I consider your insight better that that of inconditional fans (just so that you don't get a wrong idea)

[Anonymous No.3774882]

>>3774283
>so i guess i am right it sux
that's a harsh way to put it. I wonder what you would say about 50 shades. Would you say it sucks too? but the book is no big deal, yeah

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774890]

>>3774868
>>3774862
>>3774842
>>3774848
>>3774830
>>3774816
>>3774742
>>3774722
>>3774692
>>3774520
your all cool peoplez

[Anonymous No.3774891]

This is kafkaesque

http://www.academia.edu/359912/Scientists_make_new_discovery_-_Anarchy_doesnt_exist

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774906]

>>3774882
ya i was a bit harsh
but i do think 50 shades sux but i only read the 1st chap so i cant judge my mom sis and friends who are girls all loved it (except my cousin she thought it sucked)

[Anonymous No.3774925]

>>3774816
>I'm sure it's about how nobody is surpised he's a cockroach and he just goes about his confusing daily routine
you are kidding me right? no, it's not about that and that doesn't happen. you should refrain from making such predictions about work you're not familiarized with

[Anonymous No.3774936]

>>3774925
Do not fall for it it's probably someone who frequents /pol/

[Anonymous No.3774948]

>>3774906
your cousin is cool. you two should make babies

[Knee Ander Thall No.3774955]

>>3774948
what books do u think are cool?

[Anonymous No.3774988]

My god, OP. If you are not 13 I'll be damned. You're such an immature piece of shit

[Anonymous No.3774993]

>>3774955
Well I don't think I've read a cool book in a while, to be honest. Some parts of The Canterbury Tales were really fun to read because of their lewd humor. Milton's Paradise Lost is pretty badass; if you like an erudite tone in your prose and some interesting concepts Borges' "Fictions" and some of his tales in other books (sorry I don't have them at hand to be more specific) are something you should check; Murakami was too cool for my school, I couldn't like it but cool guys seem to like him (not being sarcastic, I've met some pretty cool dudes that like his books); The book of disquiet is dry and full of insight about the min of an isolated person. One I can say i love is Juan Rulfo. Both El llano en llamas and Pedro Paramo are amazing.

[Anonymous No.3774998]

>>3774816
ISHYGDDT

[Anonymous No.3775004]

Read The Trial. It's a pretty nifty allegory about the absurd and meaningless machinations of traditional academia.

[Anonymous No.3775027]

Stylistically, I love Kafka because he was willing to bare himself to the world; he was willing to expose all his fears, his hopes, and his idiosyncrasies and show that modern man is, despite the 'modern,' still a man.

He's still soft, he's still scared, and he's still curious.

I also love Kafka because he's very good at creating an experience -- a kind of metanarrative, if you will. Some of Kafka's finest points aren't in the text itself, but in the act of reading the text; in the act of trying to find concrete, absolute meaning and struggling in vain; in the act of creating something authentic for yourself out of a bleak, seemingly pointless text.

Plus, he's just a good writer. Dat prose.

[Anonymous No.3775055]

>>3775027
>dat pic's swag

[Knee Ander Thall No.3775059]

>>3774993
>Murakami was too cool for my school
ya u and me are going to be fast friends
i will keep an eye out for those other suggestions
>>3775027
i see what u mean

"dat prose"
i cant stop chuckling