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/lit/ - Literature

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5891760 No.5891760 [Reply] [Original]

Can we have a Kafka thread? Just finished The Metamorphosis, I wasn't expecting that ending at all. I preferred The Trial to be honest.

>> No.5891897

The Trial is the greatest work of literature of the 20th century
Anyone who disagrees is wrong

>> No.5891979

The part where he died caught me off guard, it was so sudden, like he just sat down and willed himself to death

>> No.5891996
File: 3.63 MB, 600x255, dealwithit.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5891996

>>5891760
> tfw finished The Metamorphosis 2 weeks ago
> tfw cant remember the ending already

>> No.5892035

>>5891897
I disagree. The Metamorphosis is better. The Trial and Metamorphosis essentially tell the same story, viz. alienation. The difference is that The Metamorphosis gets to the heart of the story by employing a fairy tale mode, whereas The Trial is written as a realist novel and so necessarily contains unessential details like all realist novels do (it really is a poor form). There is a fairy tale contained near the end of The Trial . . . Kafka's strong point was the short fable (he wrote many). His use of this form is what puts him ahead of all of his contemporaries who cling to the form of the novel which has always been weak.

>> No.5892044

The Metamorphosis should be shortened to five paragraphs.

>> No.5892073

>>5891760
It kinda surprised me as well, my edition had a bunch of short stories so I didn't know it was going to end so soon. I kinda expected the depressing ending, its Kafka

>> No.5892080

>>5892044
all books can have their message shorted down. That doesn't make them any better

>> No.5892111

>>5892044
in the future all literature is tweets

>> No.5892115
File: 25 KB, 312x290, 1417900548613.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5892115

This story made me so depressed and angry. Like some hardworking salesman lives on pennies and busts his ass so his stupid sister can get an education in music instead of a real job, then one day he wakes up and he's a giant fucking cockroach. What a kick in the nuts.

It also made me question how deep my social connections to other people are. Even though I hated Gregor's family if one of my peers mentally remained the same but physically turned into a revolting creature I'm really not sure if I could stay in touch to comfort and care for them.

>> No.5892164

>>5892035
The form of the novel is superior, though. The fact that it isn't a fairy tale doesn't make it bad.

>> No.5893282

>>5892115
Fuck the sister, I hated her by the end.

>> No.5893666

>>5892035
>a realist novel
I disagree, unless we have different definitions of 'realist novel', but the Trial has a definitive fantasy-like quality to it, and I can't think of any parts of the book that didn't contribute to the overall atmosphere.

>> No.5893694

>>5891897

The Castle is better than The Trial.

>>5893282

I hated Gregor's entire family by the time I finished reading it, absolute cunts what they were.

>> No.5893708

>>5893694
The Castle is next on my list. What about Amerika?

I had this nagging feeling that hatred for the family was unjustified though, and that while they're not likeable, they're defensible.

>> No.5893747

>>5893694
Mate. Gregor turned into a fucking bug. A giant fucking bug. He couldn't speak, didn't eat, he was just a massive fucking bug. How can you hate his family for not wanting him there?

>> No.5893826

Was that story poking fun at neets or depressives or something?

>> No.5893858
File: 26 KB, 1328x621, 1413066131249.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5893858

Was pic related made as a joke? Is it just one interpretation? Or is it an interpretation accepted by most?

>> No.5893865

>>5893858
>an interpretation accepted by most
An interpretation accepted by none

>> No.5893871

>>5893858

That just sounds retarded to me.

>> No.5893883

>>5893858
...?

>> No.5893886

>>5893865
But perhaps that's why Gregor retains his thoughts and feelings and seems oblivious to the fact that he is more buglike than usual compared to his environment until his family have a negative reaction to him. It seems to be a story about perception. Perception of familial relationships, work, humanness.

>> No.5893957

>>5893886
How on earth does the first scene make sense, then? He wakes up, hasn't seen or heard his family whatsoever, looks down, and he's a bug. Went to bed a human, didn't see his family ''move from him'' in any way, wakes up a bug.

>> No.5893960

>>5891897
hahaha what kind of ratchet ass opinion is that hahahaha you busta ass nigga its obviously Ulysses lmfao @ignorant ass niggas

>> No.5893972

>>5893957
That would mean his environment too ha become more human

>> No.5893978

>>5893858
i would be more interested in what happens the further you go towards infinitely human

>> No.5894044
File: 317 KB, 986x1517, The_Invisibles_V2_13_17.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5894044

>>5892115
Congratulations, you have less empathy than a comic book transvestite

>> No.5894060

Preferred the Trial as well. On the other hand, the more I read of his stuff the more I enjoyed it (maybe it needs some settling-in period for Kafka's style). Started with Metamorphosis and recently I read some of his short stories which I liked most. Also, The Metamorphosis probably takes the advantage of being of perfect length for books that are read in college/..

>>5892035
>The Trial is written as a realist novel
Such a totally unsuitable categorization. Surrealistic would be a (not as sole descriptor) fitting term for the book.

>>5893858 I guess it's a joke of some of the over-analyzed bullshit out there. I do think The Metamorphosis gives a large plane of possible interpretations and pondering, but some of the stuff is simply ridiculous.

>> No.5894726

I enjoyed his short stories the most, especially The Stoker, In the Penal Colony and A Country Doctor, so I'd rank his short stories (including Metamorphosis) as his best work. The Trial is great, but overrated.

>> No.5894816

The Burrow and Investigations of a Dog are a couple of my favorite stories. The Burrow captures the ridiculousness of obsessive thought perfectly. I liked The Castle more than the Trial.

I don't like that so much of his work is unfinished. Some people say that the stories are complete in their own way, but I never felt like that. I still love him for his ideas and his peculiar sense of humor, though. I might read Amerika next, it's been laying around long enough. It's kinda annoying when people write him off as angst-filled. He wasn't exactly a beacon of happiness, but he knew how to laugh at himself. I think the negative portrait comes from his diaries, which he probably didn't expect to be published and read by judgmental lit majors and psychoanalysis junkies several decades in the future.

My interest in him waned when I realized that other authors write weird stuff in the same vein as him. He became less special for me.

As for The Metamorphosis, you can spend forever unpacking it. Most of Kafka's work is like that. It's interesting to note that the transformation doesn't actually occur in the story, it's already done by the time it begins. Or maybe that isn't interesting.

Cool stories, bruder.

>> No.5894892

>>5891897
1.In Search of Lost Time
2.Ulysses
3.The Metamorphosis

>> No.5894908

>>5894816
>the burrow
Really overlooked short story, one of his best

>> No.5895909

>>5893747
Try to think about what the bug stands for.