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/lit/ - Literature

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4746262 No.4746262[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

>be telling bf about The Trial
>who is kafka?
>explain to him and then tell him Metamorphosis being a literary breakthrough
>what's it about
>say it's about a guy who wakes up a giant cockroach but it never says cockroach because he's more general vermin
>so it's sci fi?
>tell him no
>like the fly?
>no there's scientific explanation
>so it's a thriller?
>no
>sounds like it
>it's not trust me. it's an exploration of numerous themes like alienation
>what do you mean?
>the feeling that the world or your family sees you as vermin
>I think maybe he was just saying the world is full of cockroaches

I'm reading it to him tomorrow. What's a good way of helping him understand it?

>> No.4746280

You should stop pretending that your "philosophical" books have some deep thoughts that are not already know by any sane man.

>> No.4746282

>>4746280
I don't think I'm trying to say the thoughts are unique; Kafka is about his expression of these thoughts and feelings, not the feelings themselves.

>> No.4746290

>feminister

jesus fucking christ

tell him to stop being autistic and taking things at face value, hopefully he'll tell you to stop making inane threads

>>4746280

holy shit, this thread gets even worse

>> No.4746287

I think tell him it's a metaphor, but reading it to him should help

>> No.4746300

>>4746262
>What's a good way of helping him understand it?

...By actually letting him read it, instead of giving him a vague explanation and waiting for him to incorrectly fill in the gaps based on common contemporary story telling?

>> No.4746303

>>4746290
>tell him to stop being autistic and taking things at face value
>pulling deep hidden themes out of your ass instead of reading what the author actually wrote
You may as well get philosophical degree and start making arguments based on word-play and different definitions of terms of the disputants

It would be nice if all wannabe philosophers would get the fuck out of /lit/

>> No.4746306

what a pleb.

dump him and get a decent /lit/ bf

>> No.4746309

>>4746262
>What's a good way of helping him understand it?

Drop him by calling him a pest and a filthy coachroach. Then flee from him in a display of obvious disgust. Don't forget to throw heavy objects and food at him.

>> No.4746316

Where did the cockroach thing come from, anyway? Was that from an early translation that just kind of stuck, or just people jumping to a conclusion?

>> No.4746323

>>4746309
this.

throw an apple at him

>> No.4746324

>>4746316
Horrible, horrible people read one of numerous English translations of "The Metamorphosis" and think it's an accurate translation.

>> No.4746331

>>4746316
i read english translation and arrived at the conclusion he was a giant beetle

>> No.4746342

Field Guide to Kleptoparasitism is a good comparison, regardless.

As subject, breakdown of subject-object relation, embarrassed self-presentation, desire to be useful without worth, scuttling on the backs of chairs and so on. Self-presentation and response to loving concern (in various forms) are particularly important to the work, I think.

As object, he's a bug.

I have a German copy if you'd like me to read deeper.

>> No.4746356

>>4746316
He's described as an insect-like vermin that can only eat putrid food, cockroach sort of leaps to mind.

>> No.4746358

>>4746262
Explain it to him like The Very Old Man With Enormous Wings: it's fantastic realism.

>> No.4746362

>>4746331
It implies that but I remember reading a translator's note that said the word that's used is best translated as "vermin," but "awoke to find himself as a vermin" doesn't really work.

>> No.4746382

>>4746262
>>I think maybe he was just saying the world is full of cockroaches
He is jumping to conclusions of a book he never read?
I think he's a pretentious pleb, OP. Sorry, its incurable, there's nothing we can do

>> No.4746385

>>4746287
I think so

>>4746306
He's not very well read, but he's not stupid

>>4746323
kek

>>4746342
I don't think he'll do well if I try to cram him on existentialist theory all at once; I'd rather give him a crash course on the word and then go from there if it makes him intersted.

>>4746358
This story looks worthwhile to work with, thank you based Anon

>>4746362
Yeah, it is vermin

>> No.4746397

>>4746382
he's not pretentious. If anything he's impatient, he wants to understand too quickly. He also likes to try to look for things I don't see so he can seem smarter sometimes but it doesn't work as often as he'd like

>> No.4746405

>>4746385
>He's not very well read, but he's not stupid

Smart people can be plebs. Pleb status has little to do with intelligence

>> No.4746407

>>4746385
>>4746397
I have a strange but efficient solution for you.
Make him read the book while listening to the soundtrack of Tetris. Nothing quite conveys that sense of inescapable yet unrecognized depsair like a sad senseless repetitive little music.

Well, it worked for me at least. To this day I play Tetris feeling a repressed tear in my ear.

>> No.4746413

>>4746407
*I can't play Tetris without

Way to ruin my dramatic effect.

>> No.4746410

>>4746405
It does in the subjective conception of intelligence. But no, it doesn't relate to spatial cognition or theory of mind.

>> No.4746417

>>4746410
>It does in the subjective conception of intelligence

Nope. For instance, my father is a partner at a large metropolitan law firm, and yet his listens to the Beatles and likes fantasy novels. He is a massive pleb

>> No.4746420

>>4746407
heh maybe. It seems more like a quiet book to me

>> No.4746426

>>4746420
Tetris is pretty quiet as far as music go. Plus it's way easier to implement than locking him in a room without food until he dies.

>> No.4746478

>>4746262
But if it's about an Alien nation, how is it not sci-fi?

>> No.4746661
File: 1.85 MB, 266x154, 1389315417929.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4746661

>>4746478

>> No.4746664

Of course your boyfriend is an idiot.

Wait until I snag butterfly. You're going to be so jealous of her for having a handsome3.14 patrician /lit/ bf.

>> No.4746669

>>4746664
she's a lesbian m8, good luck

>> No.4746673

>>4746664
But since she doesn't go for guys, I'd be more likely to end up with her. In which case U MAD

>> No.4746790

>>4746417
>Beatles
>Pleb

So, these days pleb is like "someone with better taste than me" i see.

>> No.4746795 [SPOILER] 
File: 2.91 MB, 300x224, the sony experience.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4746795

>>4746262
why did I read this fucking post? Now I have a migraine

just neverfucking mention it again. and please don't read kafka anymore, ok? Don't read him to anybody. Don't even think about him. Read Borges instead. Or Gaiman. Or Plath. Read him those, or Billy Collins. Just please don't read him anything by Kafka. Please don't

>mfw this thread

>> No.4746814

>>4746795
I enjoy Kafka, go be a fascist somewhere else.

>> No.4746825

>>4746814
What's your favorite story by him, and why? Mine is a Hunger Artist. But I haven't read the Trial or Amerika.

>> No.4746828

>>4746790
lol he likes the beatles

>> No.4746830
File: 48 KB, 350x466, 1359550120582.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4746830

>>4746795
>filename

>> No.4746838

>>4746830
how do you read spoiler image filenames?

>> No.4746847

>>4746825
I would like to give you a favorite, but the truth is everything I love about any one of his works in particular, applies to every one of them I've read. His themes are so amazingly universal.

The Hunger Artist is incredible.

>> No.4746848

>>4746795
>don't read kafka anymore
are you this retarded?

>> No.4746855
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4746855

>>4746848
it is better to be silent than to speak and be misunderstood

>> No.4746857

You're the worst fucking poster on this board feminister. God I hate you. Sage

>> No.4746889

>>4746857
I think she's probably just trying to be annoying like a sadist or something. whatever the best revenge is a happy life huh. but Ive never gotten revenge on anybody

>> No.4746894

Oh look, another mediocre thread that gets traffic because OP is an grill.

And keep your hands off that fedora.

>> No.4746897

>>4746669
>>4746673
I refuse to believe that! She says that only to avoid unwanted attention.

>> No.4746907

>>4746897
why are u even attracted to her anyway, she rarely posts good content, and, worse, she's here. something awful must have happened to her

>> No.4746959

>>4746907
I accept the love I think I deserve.

>> No.4746967

>>4746790
The fact that

>> No.4746970

>>4746478
top lel

>> No.4746973

>>4746959
No one deserves love. It is a blessing for all who find it and express it.

>> No.4746979

>>4746973
>tfw no /lit/ gf

>> No.4746995

>>4746669
>a well read lesbian.

You guys surely believe anything you'll read here, don't you?

>> No.4747007
File: 17 KB, 460x288, Tips Verwandlung.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4747007

Read it to him as you penetrate his manhole with your over-sized strap-on.

>> No.4747031

>>4747007
Fuck, why does this get me so hot...

>> No.4747037

>>4747007
He won't do strap-ons and I don't think he'd be paying attention to the words if I did that.

>> No.4747055

>>4746303
But modern philosophy is semantics

Not my fault you can't adapt.

>> No.4747065

>>4747055


no.

>> No.4747071

>>4747007
>you will never have a qt gf who'll read Kafka to you while ravaging your virgin boypussy

>> No.4747076

>>4747071
Just find a woman who likes pegging and is into literature

>> No.4747079

>>4747007
I am masturbating while imagining this scene.

>> No.4747130
File: 50 KB, 280x280, boyfriend material.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4747130

Sounds like boyfriend material.r

>> No.4747152

>>4747037
>he won't
>implying this has been on the table

lol. Seriously are you a masochist or something? Why do you come here and say such things? Not what I'm quoting, but "philosophy is semantics", and all that stuff. Don't you understand you aren't enlightening anybody?

>> No.4747158

>>4747071
Why would you want this. I guess I can understand why you want a girl to fuck you (muh prostate), but why would you want to hear Kafka while it happens? Wouldn't that be a turn off? Also, I'd rather nobody read Kafka to me than someone who doesn't understand him.

>> No.4747163

>>4747158
I think that pegging hasn't much to do with prostate stimulation as much as it has to do with submission and liberation

>> No.4747167

>>4747163
Liberation? You mean being freed from all responsibilities?

>> No.4747169

>>4747152
I never said philosophy is semantics; they interrelate but they aren't synonymous.

>> No.4747195

>>4747167
Yes. Being a male in a sexual act is really stressful for some men.
Sexual submission in general has a liberating feeling

>> No.4747234

>>4746262
Are you just with him as a good deed? To educate him so to say?
Wouldn't you rather be with someone who could understand you, appreciate your work and discuss serious matters with you (without forgetting having fantastic sex), like I would?
<3

>> No.4747242

>>4747234
No, fuck off

>> No.4747275
File: 25 KB, 320x256, 750px-Steve_Wozniak_thumbs_up.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4747275

>>4746262

The bible
The fall

Apples are for making cakes, though.

>> No.4747304

>>4746280
As is the case with a lot of philosophical literature.

>> No.4747396
File: 10 KB, 61x55, efg - Copy.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4747396

>>4746262
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a Eurofag. He was lying on his bony, as it were effeminate, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see that he was wearing designer silk Prada G-string underwear which was slippery due to the fact that he was covered in K-Y jelly and Baby Oil, and was so uncomfortable that he was about to slide off the bed completely.

What has happened to me? he thought. It was no dream. His early-20th-century Central European bedroom was authentically minimalist, perhaps too much so. Above the simple minimalist table on which a collection of cloth samples was unpacked and spread out -- Samsa was a commercial traveler -- hung the picture of a lady with a fur cap on.

"Fur is murder!" Gregor heard himself blurt out, but he did not even understand its meaning. And again: "Fur is beautiful on animals but ugly on humans!" and "Would you wear your dog?" and "Give fur the cold shoulder!" The voice was his, as were the thoughts -- only the meaning escaped him.

>> No.4747407

>>4747396
this is just absurd

>> No.4747415

>>4746262
You should instead read something else. Don't waste your time.

>> No.4747433

>cockroach
He wasn't a cockroach, faggot, do you even Nabokov?

>> No.4747434
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4747434

>>4747407
Gregor's eyes turned next to the window, and the overcast sky -- one could hear rain drops beating on the window gutter -- made him think only of getting back to southern Portugal, or to Greece, or to Majorca, all beach vacation destinations which Gregor had no immediate recollection of ever visiting, precisely because he had never been to any of them. And yet the urge to "return" to the beach, and to "catch up on his tan" so that his body would attain the color of burnt pork knuckle, was overpowering, and this cast him into a gloom. "I'm so pale," he heard himself moan.

What about sleeping a little longer and forgetting all this nonsense, he thought, but it could not be done, for he was accustomed to sleeping in his nightgown and in his present costume, wearing only a tight silk Prada G-string, sexually aroused and imagining, to his own horror, what a joy it would be if a gypsy man were to urinate into his mouth, Gregor simply could not relax. However violently he forced himself towards his right side he always felt the pinch of his G-string and the slipperiness from the lubricants, and he rolled onto his back again. He tried it at least a dozen times, shutting his eyes to keep from seeing his shaven white legs, and only desisted when he began to feel a faint sense of irritation and depression which he had never experienced before, along with twitching in his spine, and a sore sinus and a sore nose with dried blood. He was terribly thirsty, and at the same time he felt fatigue and a profound sense of angst.

Oh God, he thought, what an exhausting job I've picked! Traveling about day in, day out. Although it's better than being stuck in an office, which is so alienating and oppressive, with its bourgeois dictatorial rules and spatial techno-totalitarianism. At least as a traveling salesman he was able to constantly move, take the train, see the beautiful countryside, meet so many interesting people, including students, activists, artists, and minorities.

He felt a slight itching on his pubic area; slowly lifted his head so that he could see more easily; identified the itching place, which came as a result of shaving all of his pubic hair, including his scrotum and the tuft which usually lined his anus, and he made to touch it with a hand, but he drew the hand back immediately, for the contact made him want to visit Thailand, where there are many friendly young boys.

>> No.4747477

>>4747434
wait wait wait hold on-

so WHY did he turn into a eurofag

also of what significance is the chicken

>> No.4747486

>>4746316
The cleaning woman literally calls Samsa a "Mistkäfer," at one point, which means dung beetle. It's not horribly wrong to assume he looks something like a cockroach, even though that is beside the point of the novella.

>> No.4747495
File: 125 KB, 599x833, Flying-Bear.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4747495

>>4747477
He slid down again into his former position. This getting up early, he thought, makes one quite queer. A man needs his sleep. Otherwise I will look awful when I meet my clients, and who knows what interesting, unique Europeans I will meet along the way. Besides, the union I belong to has won concessions reducing the workweek to only 35 hours, while our pay was increased, so what's the point of waking up early? In fact, I am tired of working. It's only because of my overbearing parents that I continue this job. If it wasn't for my respect for their authority and my inner need to follow orders, I would have told off my boss some time ago. Well, once I've earned enough money to pay for a Swatch car and a 6-week trekking tour of Southeast Asia -- that should take another year, given my union wages and the strength of the Euro -- I'll quit for sure. Besides, I'll just collect unemployment, which is more lucrative. And in doing so, I'll cut myself completely loose from my parents. But for now I better get up to catch my train.

He dismissed these increasingly strange lines of reasoning and looked at the alarm clock ticking on the insufficiently-postmodern chest. It was already half past eight. Had not the alarm gone off? He had set it for seven-thirty, yet he could not wake up to anything except for the pulsing sounds of DJ Sven Vath. But what was he to do now? He was late for work, and although he could not legally get into any trouble, he felt that somehow he was not behaving like a proper German. Besides, did his parents not teach him, "Gregor, the thing in life is that you should be an anarchist and fight the totalitarian state until your hairline starts to recede, and then you must work and earn money and wear nice clothes and become obsessed with buying a new car every two years." Did Gregor's parents say this to him, or did someone else's parents say this to someone else?

Maybe he should say he was sick. But that would look suspicious, since Gregor's real desire right now was to pay a "doctor" to visit him in his bedroom and administer an enema, which he would then feed to this "doctor." His parents would not disapprove of this, even though they made him watch their own amateur Scheisse video which they posted on the Internet. What is the Internet? Gregor felt really quite exhausted and depressed, but this was utterly superfluous after such a long sleep, especially considering that the coke he bought was not very clean.

read the rest here, i cant be fucked: http://exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=773

>> No.4747505

>>4747433
nabakov was a faggot, you faggot

>> No.4747538
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4747538

I can't shake the impression at least one "so deep criticism of human condition and society" novels was written as a literary equivalent of a shitpost to see if anyone falls for it and then hundred plus years later people masturbate in circles around the book giving reverent worship to the peerless depth of thought poured into the sacred pages.

>> No.4747550

>>4747538
thats the beauty of interpretation and absurdism, you can squat a load and people will go "awweee..amazing!"