Can you explain Kafka to me like I'm an idiot
December 10, 2015 4:06 PM Subscribe
Reading a collection of Kafka's short stories cold. Don't see the appeal. What could help me appreciate Kafka?
I'm really bloody irritated because this is not my first exposure to Kafka and isn't the first time where I've been like what the hell are you talking about dude. I read "The Hunger Artist" in grad school and I had the same reaction. Am I like missing something in my soul? Or is there an appreciative contemporary think-piece that makes Kafka nonbelievers into believers?
I'm really bloody irritated because this is not my first exposure to Kafka and isn't the first time where I've been like what the hell are you talking about dude. I read "The Hunger Artist" in grad school and I had the same reaction. Am I like missing something in my soul? Or is there an appreciative contemporary think-piece that makes Kafka nonbelievers into believers?
He's honestly a bit of an acquired taste. Are you a fan of dystopian literature? Or, well, anything written by a Russian? I find the experience similar, personally, to reading Dostoevsky.
I appreciate him more after talking with the IRS, personally. Oh, or the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Try reading all the documentation for your student loans!
posted by SMPA at 4:29 PM on December 10, 2015
I appreciate him more after talking with the IRS, personally. Oh, or the Department of Veteran's Affairs. Try reading all the documentation for your student loans!
posted by SMPA at 4:29 PM on December 10, 2015
Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life was a smash hit in my bachelorette pad, but is apparently remaindered on Amazon. So, as in all things, YMMV.
posted by sweltering at 4:32 PM on December 10, 2015
posted by sweltering at 4:32 PM on December 10, 2015
I haven't read any Kafka for a long, long time, but I remember coming to it via an appreciation of things considered Kafkaesque, namely -
The Prisoner
Brazil
Closet Land
If you have an appreciation of the absurdity and arbitrariness of rules-bound bureaucracy, as well as an appreciation for the dry and melancholy, you should get along with him eventually.
I also remember something particularly enjoyable about the prose. It always felt very...black and white, and sharply outlined, like a written equivalent of a lithograph.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 4:44 PM on December 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
The Prisoner
Brazil
Closet Land
If you have an appreciation of the absurdity and arbitrariness of rules-bound bureaucracy, as well as an appreciation for the dry and melancholy, you should get along with him eventually.
I also remember something particularly enjoyable about the prose. It always felt very...black and white, and sharply outlined, like a written equivalent of a lithograph.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 4:44 PM on December 10, 2015 [7 favorites]
Although I always respected Kafka's writing, I didn't really "get it" until I had the experience of living in Germany and trying to do - well, anything really, anything involving bureaucracy and forms. Government, taxes, banking, even one of the apartments I rented. It's like there's a secret law requiring them to waste your entire day redirecting you to different offices and departments.
Trudging up and down those endless white hallways, taking a number, waiting in line in an office with a line of little windows looking out on some bleak November nightday .. fuck just the memory makes me twitch impatiently.
posted by mannequito at 5:16 PM on December 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
Trudging up and down those endless white hallways, taking a number, waiting in line in an office with a line of little windows looking out on some bleak November nightday .. fuck just the memory makes me twitch impatiently.
posted by mannequito at 5:16 PM on December 10, 2015 [4 favorites]
How old are you? (It's a rhetorical question; don't actually answer.) I read a lot of Kafka in my mid-20s, but now in my 30s he seems a bit juvenile, and I feel a bit embarrassed that I used to be so into him.
Kafka appeals to twentysomethings because his main themes are confusion, alienation, and hopelessness. If you're not in that mindset, his writing probably won't seem particularly appealing. If you can get yourself into that mindset, though, Kafka can seem to be speaking directly to you.
Have you ever read Gogol? He touches on the same absurdity that Kafka does, but in a more lighthearted, humorous way. When I was into Kafka, I read Gogol and hated him because it felt like he was making fun of the confusion I was feeling. Now, though, I appreciate Gogol more because I realize feeling confused and hopeless is a bit silly. Maybe try some Gogol instead?
posted by kevinbelt at 5:38 PM on December 10, 2015 [9 favorites]
Kafka appeals to twentysomethings because his main themes are confusion, alienation, and hopelessness. If you're not in that mindset, his writing probably won't seem particularly appealing. If you can get yourself into that mindset, though, Kafka can seem to be speaking directly to you.
Have you ever read Gogol? He touches on the same absurdity that Kafka does, but in a more lighthearted, humorous way. When I was into Kafka, I read Gogol and hated him because it felt like he was making fun of the confusion I was feeling. Now, though, I appreciate Gogol more because I realize feeling confused and hopeless is a bit silly. Maybe try some Gogol instead?
posted by kevinbelt at 5:38 PM on December 10, 2015 [9 favorites]
I loved him when I was 12. I also loved Henry Miller when I was 12. I loved existentialism when I was 12. My world has changed since then. They no longer fit. (Last I read Miller, I laughed out loud at his mental masturbation.)
I would suggest learning a bit about his underlying belief system, and just read it in that context. It may not resonate with you, personally, but you will be able to see what he is writing in the context of what he believes and what he needs to express from that belief. You may not love it, but it will help you understand why he wrote what he did, and appreciate it from there.
posted by Vaike at 6:35 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
I would suggest learning a bit about his underlying belief system, and just read it in that context. It may not resonate with you, personally, but you will be able to see what he is writing in the context of what he believes and what he needs to express from that belief. You may not love it, but it will help you understand why he wrote what he did, and appreciate it from there.
posted by Vaike at 6:35 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Am I like missing something in my soul?
No. Not at all. I have always found Kafka to be the most irritatingly one-note of writers.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:47 PM on December 10, 2015
No. Not at all. I have always found Kafka to be the most irritatingly one-note of writers.
posted by jason's_planet at 6:47 PM on December 10, 2015
I was also going to suggest trying some Gogol. He is, in some sense, Kafka with a sense of humor. I'd recommend The Overcoat, The Nose, and The Government Inspector as some of his more notable works.
posted by zachlipton at 9:39 PM on December 10, 2015
posted by zachlipton at 9:39 PM on December 10, 2015
I've also enjoyed this.
Also (why not?) a Ghalib quote:
ham vahāṁ hai jahāṁ se hamko bhī
kuch hamārī xabar nahīṁ ātī
"We are in that place, where even we
don't hear any news of ourselves"
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 9:42 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also (why not?) a Ghalib quote:
ham vahāṁ hai jahāṁ se hamko bhī
kuch hamārī xabar nahīṁ ātī
"We are in that place, where even we
don't hear any news of ourselves"
posted by Stilling Still Dreaming at 9:42 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Read his letter to his father. I can't find the full text easily online, but this has an excerpt. It might help you understand where he was coming from emotionally.
posted by thetortoise at 9:53 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by thetortoise at 9:53 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]
Kafka's writings are also often focused on exploring theological questions. If you're coming from a purely secular perspective, that might be something to keep in mind. I would disagree that he's a one-note. But! Life is too short to worry about the authors that don't speak to you. Don't worry about it too much.
posted by veery at 6:05 AM on December 11, 2015
posted by veery at 6:05 AM on December 11, 2015
Response by poster: Thanks guys. The DFW piece "Laughing with Kafka" was especially helpful as well as Kafka's letter to his father.
posted by angrycat at 6:56 AM on December 11, 2015
posted by angrycat at 6:56 AM on December 11, 2015
I actually had a problem with most of Kafka's work, but it wasn't until I read his work Amerika that I figured out what my problem was.
For all his other work - and I am going to generalize quite whumpingly here - the tension comes from his talking about some certain things that are subtly just "off" - but he was writing from the perspective of a turn-of-the-Century Prague bureaucrat, and I'm a turn-of-the-next-century New York boho. And the social codes and conventions in early 1900's Prague were just different from early 2000's New York. So a lot of his stories just kind of didn't sink in for me - he'd be talking about some miniscule detail of something, and while everyone in 1900's Prague would have gotten that that was just wrong, I would be sitting there wondering why he was making a big deal out of it. It felt like someone who was part of a very tightly-knit clique of friends trying to tell me, an outsider, about some of the clique drama, but I didn't get it because I just plain didn't have any of the background knowledge of that clique.
With Amerika, though, it was totally different. It's the only one of his works not to be set in Europe, and it's almost joyful - the main character is a teenager from an upper-class Prague family who knocked up the maid, and the family ships him to the US to keep him out of scandal. So rather than the main character being a guy who had all this background knowledge in his head and trying to tell you a story assuming you knew that, the main character in Amerika was just as much of a newbie as you were, and that made it much more relatable for me. Granted, Kafka gets the geography of America totally wrong - he says that Boston is a couple days' walk from New York, and claims that the Statue of Liberty is holding a sword, things like that - but that only coded as "okay, this is fantasy anyway" in my head and didn't bother me.
In fact, I will tack the advice "Read Amerika" onto the end of this answer because it was actually fun. I understand that Kafka even had fun writing it - the chapter on something he called The Nature Theater of Oklahoma is apparently something he loved reading out loud to friends.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:29 AM on December 11, 2015
For all his other work - and I am going to generalize quite whumpingly here - the tension comes from his talking about some certain things that are subtly just "off" - but he was writing from the perspective of a turn-of-the-Century Prague bureaucrat, and I'm a turn-of-the-next-century New York boho. And the social codes and conventions in early 1900's Prague were just different from early 2000's New York. So a lot of his stories just kind of didn't sink in for me - he'd be talking about some miniscule detail of something, and while everyone in 1900's Prague would have gotten that that was just wrong, I would be sitting there wondering why he was making a big deal out of it. It felt like someone who was part of a very tightly-knit clique of friends trying to tell me, an outsider, about some of the clique drama, but I didn't get it because I just plain didn't have any of the background knowledge of that clique.
With Amerika, though, it was totally different. It's the only one of his works not to be set in Europe, and it's almost joyful - the main character is a teenager from an upper-class Prague family who knocked up the maid, and the family ships him to the US to keep him out of scandal. So rather than the main character being a guy who had all this background knowledge in his head and trying to tell you a story assuming you knew that, the main character in Amerika was just as much of a newbie as you were, and that made it much more relatable for me. Granted, Kafka gets the geography of America totally wrong - he says that Boston is a couple days' walk from New York, and claims that the Statue of Liberty is holding a sword, things like that - but that only coded as "okay, this is fantasy anyway" in my head and didn't bother me.
In fact, I will tack the advice "Read Amerika" onto the end of this answer because it was actually fun. I understand that Kafka even had fun writing it - the chapter on something he called The Nature Theater of Oklahoma is apparently something he loved reading out loud to friends.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:29 AM on December 11, 2015
Response by poster: Heh I actually just started an excerpt from Amerika and I got to the Statue of Liberty holding a sword, and I was like Franz what the hell man
posted by angrycat at 7:54 AM on December 11, 2015
posted by angrycat at 7:54 AM on December 11, 2015
Kafka did not actually ever visit America, so he was totally pulling stuff out of his ass. But that helped, in a way - this was all about a wide-eyed kid exploring a fantastical new country, and the wack-a-doo changes to American geography made it all New And Different for me too and that sort of helped.
Seriously, the bit about the Nature Theater of Oklahoma is awesome. It doesn't come until the very end but it sounds like this sort of "Burning Man" thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2015
Seriously, the bit about the Nature Theater of Oklahoma is awesome. It doesn't come until the very end but it sounds like this sort of "Burning Man" thing.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:40 AM on December 11, 2015
I am a HUGE Kafka fan. I find his writing hilarious and absurd--and sometimes tragic. I agree you should try Amerika, but also I *highly* recommend The Castle. Reading The Castle is like being in a dream: I read it once a year if I can, and it only gets better and better. And it gets much funnier as I get older. Michael Haneke also made a wonderful adaptation that captures the spirit of Kafka's tone.
You're really not supposed to "get" Kafka. His writing isn't about that. You should feel confused, unsettled, and WTF about most of his writing. That's the point.
You could probably approach most of Kafka's writing as though they're operating under dream-logic that you, along with his narrators, never get access to. I mean, that's what a bureaucratic nightmare is like, right? It's like walking up a staircase that keeps getting longer.
Just enjoy it! Don't try to figure it out. Be lost. Be confused. Have you gotten to the short story "Give it up!" yet? Don't try to find the way: The Police officer (like in the story) as a figure of authority, MAY know the answers- but he doesn't want to help you. Give it up! We can't know anything anyway. You've got your watch and the time isn't aligning with the Clock Tower, and everything is slightly unfamiliar, and no one wants to help you... that's what it's about.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 8:43 AM on December 11, 2015
You're really not supposed to "get" Kafka. His writing isn't about that. You should feel confused, unsettled, and WTF about most of his writing. That's the point.
You could probably approach most of Kafka's writing as though they're operating under dream-logic that you, along with his narrators, never get access to. I mean, that's what a bureaucratic nightmare is like, right? It's like walking up a staircase that keeps getting longer.
Just enjoy it! Don't try to figure it out. Be lost. Be confused. Have you gotten to the short story "Give it up!" yet? Don't try to find the way: The Police officer (like in the story) as a figure of authority, MAY know the answers- but he doesn't want to help you. Give it up! We can't know anything anyway. You've got your watch and the time isn't aligning with the Clock Tower, and everything is slightly unfamiliar, and no one wants to help you... that's what it's about.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 8:43 AM on December 11, 2015
i wonder if there's a literary parallel to the political use of art during the cold war, and the extent to which this affects writers like kafka (who was certainly a political football)?
i have a book of cod-philosophy, beautifully bound and published by a small house (eric hoffer's ordeal of change) that cost a pittance and must have been funded in a similar way. but i have no idea how deep it goes, or if there's any kind of analysis / history of such things.
so maybe this should be a separate question, rather than an answer, but i'd like to know to what extent political support for "useful" writers changed reputations during the cold war, and whether there is / was / will be some kind of adjustment later.
posted by andrewcooke at 8:48 AM on December 11, 2015
i have a book of cod-philosophy, beautifully bound and published by a small house (eric hoffer's ordeal of change) that cost a pittance and must have been funded in a similar way. but i have no idea how deep it goes, or if there's any kind of analysis / history of such things.
so maybe this should be a separate question, rather than an answer, but i'd like to know to what extent political support for "useful" writers changed reputations during the cold war, and whether there is / was / will be some kind of adjustment later.
posted by andrewcooke at 8:48 AM on December 11, 2015
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Hope this helps.
posted by forallmankind at 4:28 PM on December 10, 2015 [7 favorites]