April 2009: Kafka: The Trial

[Peder]

Second that re Brazil, a fantastic movie -- in both senses of the word.

 

[Libra]

It's also, as I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking (thanks, Sin), very very funny. It's a joyless sense of humour which probably owes a lot to what's often referred to as "Jewish humour" - whatever its roots, it's the humour of the eternally shat-upon, the ones who cannot hope to win but can just stave off defeat by laughing in the face of the whole sorry deal. The laughter is the narrator's and the readers', though; there are no jokes for Josef K, our sorry protagonist (if he can even be called that), since he only realises at the very end that the joke is on him. The more absurd the situation gets, the more serious it gets. Kafka's prose is bone-dry, which just adds to the frustration and confusion of everyone claiming to know what's going on without ever telling us in so many words - you'd almost think they are all just as clueless, that the ones claiming to hold the answers are just deferring their own trials.

There are alot of funny and silly moments like in the first examination room,("You should have been here an hour and five minutes ago"..."I am here now"took me a repeat to get it,but I did)where he states that some of the men had brought cusions and pillow because the ceiling was too low.
Then,in the painter's room where one had to step on the bed to get through the second door,or when the painter disapeared under his bed bringing out the same painted picture over and over.

My favorite is the student taking the magistrates wife over his shoulder and K trying to stop him:

"This little horror...As she said this ,she passed her hand over the students face,"This little horror won't let me."And you don't want to be saved? " shouted K,putting his hand on the student's shoulder who snapped at it with his teeth...

It seems like he uses humor to lighten up an otherwise confusing and complex story.

He's arrogant. He's not really a bad guy, he's probably pretty nice in the right context (we're told he regularly hangs out with friends at a pub, but they never show up in the story). But he's just a little too convinced of his own importance, his own ability to handle everything that he comes across. He's critical of others, but he never turns that critical eye towards himself; he keeps claiming he's innocent without ever defining what he's innocent of.

I find this happening to people who learn to count only on themselves to cope through situations,not by choice,but it's the only way they know how.

It's tempting, of course, to incorporate Kafka's own story and background into the story..

Reading a bit of his biography and each work I read of his,gave me a better understaning of him and a deeper appeciation of his work.
I find similarities between his works. The background always being judgement,unhappiness,depression,no answers to questions.

Kafka,an adult struggling with stress and what comes with it,still trying to figure out what had he done wrong as a child to be treated like that

Spoiler

from his tyrant father,made to feel rejected,his existence unimportant.A father who destroyed his soul. A mother who did not do much either and who never passed on his letter to his father,but returned it to him.

I think we get a glimpse of what was kept inside.

And obviously, there's despair. The Trial is a frustrating work because it doesn't seem to offer any outs, it just gets worse and worse (in a good way) with no end in sight. Then again, a great novel isn't supposed to give clear answers. A great novel is supposed to ask difficult questions and force the reader to think about them. The Trial is one hell of a great novel, and oddly enough it asks its question all the more effectively by never asking it outright.

What did K do to deserve this? What is he accused of?

Nothing. Everything.

..with no warm rice pudding.


Great review beergood.

 

[PlaypitsPark]

You must put this book in context. It was published postumously, in 1925 (84 years ago!), between the World Wars. Franz Kafka suffered from tubercolosis and he was Jewish - need I say more? Such books have to be read with the mind of the reader pushed back to the age of the writer, not as if they are contemporary books. The past is a different place...

 

[ashmitas]

I dont quite enjoy reading Camus, Kafka or Kundera- I think they demand too much attention and mental reworking. You an just take them for their word..you have to look at underlying meanings.
All that work takes the pleasure out of reading.