Why is Kafka one of the greatest literary minds of the 20th Century?
>>7956954
because teenagers love him
Hint: It has nothing to do with teenagers
>>7956954
He probably ate his vegetables
>>7956954
He wrote about tfw your Dad stops you from doing what you want.
Then tfw the government stops you from doing what you want.
Then tfw reality stops you from doing what you want.
And all the while you're just sitting there like "ok, this kinda sucks, but I'm too powerless to actually do anything about it,"
It is a pretty universal feel and can be applied to everyone ever.
Don't make me laugh. In fact his friend Max wrote all of his posthumously published work (sometimes realized from the barest of premises provided by Franz), made up a dramatic story about saving the manuscripts from the flame, and had the pieces published under Kafka's name because, impoverished, he needed to bank on what little recognition editors of his late friend had. You really think he wrote the original manuscript of Amerika in ballpoint pen, decades before such a device was commercially available? Also Brod was black, but you'll never read that in any biography of "Kafka," now will you?
What Kafka to start with.
I own The Trial but haven't picked it up yet.
>>7957066
kek gr8 b8 m8
>>7957068
start with A Country Doctor
It's a short story but still one of his greatest works. It showcases the numberous forms of interpretation that can be applied to his works.
>>7957068
Probably start with The Metamorphosis, and then read either The Trial or some short stories, whichever you feel like. You could just start with The Trial but I don't think it's a great idea.
>>7957066
you know im impressed this was good
>>7956954
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igTQoCBwp-4
>>7956954
He was an emo before it was cool.
>>7957066
Shut the fuck up you fucking moron
>>7957005
What do you say about teenagers you stupid idiot. Sure you also say that Nietzsche is for teenagers you expert
>>7956954
Because everyone said so and no on dare to say otherwise.
>>7956954
>literary minds
I dislike this phrase.
>>7956954
>tips bowler hat
>>7956954
He is absolutly awesome, but I hated to read his books during school (germanfag). But only because I never realy encountered law or bureaucracy during my school period. Only now during college I can appreciate his point of view.
I wonder how I would have reacted to the penal colony as 17year old.
Kafka memetards are so summer reading-tier I've been seeing this guy get meme'd for years and I still don't know shit about his themes, writing style, or notable ideas/scenes than le morose German man and dude then he wakes up as a bug lmfao modern malaise amirite
>>7956954
Captured a whole spectrum of emotions in his writing - the feeling of powerlessness and inadequacy before authority (the law, your dad, etc). Generally based writer. As I grow older and encounter mindless bureaucracy and arbitrary judgement more and more, my appreciation of his writing grows.
Poor guy also, lived a pretty miserable life and died young. His entire family was also later killed in the holocaust. :(
>>7957066
Good bait, you had me for a bit there.
>>7957066
if you left out the last sentence this couldve been a spicy new meme
as such its just a very good bait
>>7956954
cause he has nice hat.
He wrote about a universally human but very unexplored feeling of uneasiness, powerlessness and self-disliking.
That thing that everyone but you seems to know about and understand, that you feel you should know about but are too afraid or proud or stubborn to ask, that is what Kafka explores. He summed himself up quite well saying "A good book is the axe that breaks the ice over the ocean that is you."
On top of that he was a master of utilizing the german syntax to create an uneasy and eerie feeling while reading his sentences. He manages to withhold crucial information until the very last word. Translations usually don't do him justice because of that.
>>7959152
>the Holocaust existing
Come on, I though this board was for intellectuals
>>7958202
spooky
Because he showed in his writing emotions really well.
>>7959528
>they're a teenager
kek
Because he beat pacquiao in 2005 and even turned southpaw against him.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R2fbD6g_PUA
Because he anticipated, with his poetic prose, the mental issues of today. And because he wasn't published until his death.
>>7959665
goddamn he fuckin smoked him!
>>7959707
>he wasn't published until his death.
But he was.
The Judgement is his best work. Also read his parables, they're a joy.
>>7959152
>if Kafka had lived that long he'd likely have been holocausted
This always seems so weird to me. I'm kinda glad he wasn't, maybe it would have overshadowed him. Jewishness wasn't that much of a defining attribute for Kafka, and I'd hate people to see him as some literary martyre rather than just the miserable little fuck he thought himself to be. (Obviously his jewish surroundings influenced his work, I've read somewhere that for example some of his short stories are set up like hebrew jokes, but Kafka's writing wasn't really about being a suppressed minority in a time of growing antisemitism.)
>>7959717
Turning left handed against a left handed guy who was destroying everybody, in the last round when you are winning the fight, is probably the ballsiest thing ever done in the ring. And his resemblance to kafka is just icing on the cake. Morales might handle bureacracy a little differently, though.
>>7959745
Did Kafka even see himself as jewish?
Also, is it true that some of his works were lost during the book burning of the nazis?
>>7959777
>Did Kafka even see himself as jewish?
Well, he planned to go to Palestine in his early 40s, but then he died.
>>7959745
His writings are basically an insight into the jewish psyche.
>>7959840
How? They seem to apply pretty universally.
>>7956954
What did this guy do to make him revered? I have never read any of his stuff, what makes people think that he is better then Joyce?
>>7959846
Insight into the human psyche that is/was largely unexplored. Also, he sure had his way with syntax. Read him in german if you can.
>>7959851
Fair enough, did he explore themes of uneasiness, symptoms and results of poor relationship with ones father?
Why do you think people think he is better then Joyce? Has he really don't that good of a job at it
>>7959844
Insecurity, guilt, hatred, emasculation, cynism ... all feelings more present into the jewish mind.
>>7959395
>On top of that he was a master of utilizing the german syntax to create an uneasy and eerie feeling while reading his sentences. He manages to withhold crucial information until the very last word. Translations usually don't do him justice because of that.
Spot on. I thought I enjoyed Kafka, then had a friend of mine go line by line translating some of his shortest works, explaining everything like connations and syntax of the original texts. He was a true master.
>>7959895
I fail to see how these would be "more present" in the jewish mind. Maybe they tend to exist in different ways in the jewish mind vs those of other cultures, but all of those are prevalent in my own culture and, I would imagine, most others as well.
>>7959912
fuckin, I'd kill for friends to do shit like that for mei'd kill for friends .
>>7959895
But I am not jewish and have all that stuff. A lot of people do. They are universal human aspects.
>>7959865
I am not sure if he is better than Joyce. Ratings like that are silly anyway.
The relationship with his father is only important for a few of his works. I am not even sure if bureaucracy was that important to read most of his stuff, but rather one's own lack of confidence and self-worth in front of, for lack of a better word, "society".
>>7959538
>6 gorillion haircuts
oy vey
>>7960026
They are?
>>7956954
Crippling Daddy issues and J00 G3N35, 3bh desu.
>>7958697
Why not actually read Kafka instead of talking shit?
>>7960212
I don't have any idea if this holds up to modern scientific tests and applies to Jews in America but it's a commonly held belief like more logical Germans or emotional Italians or depressed Fins.
>>7960262
I don't think, generalizations like that ever held up to scientific tests.
>>7960426
Well the depression certainly runs rampant with Russians in accordance with the "generalization". Are you implying there are no cultural differences between nations?
>>7960612
No, just between groups that happen to be within or sometimes across nations/nationalities.
>>7956954
because nabokov said so, and people trust pedophiles implicitly more often than not.
Because he's Intelligent, Nihilistic and has a Wicked Sense of Humor.
why is the trial so boring?
idk if im gonna be shot for this but i really feel like im trudging through a lot of it (interactions with his uncle and the lawyer especially)
some of it is fantastic though
is it worth it?
>>7962575
Yeah there's some GOAT moments in the end that are totally worth it
>>7960212
where do you think of the whole neurotic jew schtick that woody allen or larry david do comes from?
