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Franz Kafka
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Didi_Gogo
New Member
Aww. My book cover is all lame and normal. Oh well, I can't complain. My friend bought it for me... used.
Has anyone seen the episode of Home Movies where Duane asks Brandon to help him film a rock opera about Franz Kafka? Funny stuff.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Amerika.
Very obviously an early work - not only is it unfinished (especially noticeable towards the end, where it doesn't so much end as just stop) and not as quintessentially Kafka as his later works, but you really notice him developing the identity of the novel as it goes on. From a simple short story about a hapless immigrant, to an often hilarious litany of shatuponing at the hands of a system of fixed structures (including the German language itself), to a beautifully absurd final chapter that seems like the start of the novel it might have been. My guess is he never finished it because he realised he'd have to go back and re-write the whole thing from the beginning to incorporate the stuff he came up with as he wrote it. What's there is still worth reading, though.
3/5.
Very obviously an early work - not only is it unfinished (especially noticeable towards the end, where it doesn't so much end as just stop) and not as quintessentially Kafka as his later works, but you really notice him developing the identity of the novel as it goes on. From a simple short story about a hapless immigrant, to an often hilarious litany of shatuponing at the hands of a system of fixed structures (including the German language itself), to a beautifully absurd final chapter that seems like the start of the novel it might have been. My guess is he never finished it because he realised he'd have to go back and re-write the whole thing from the beginning to incorporate the stuff he came up with as he wrote it. What's there is still worth reading, though.
3/5.
SFG75
Well-Known Member
Is Frank Kafka overrated? The Atlantic
beer good
Well-Known Member
Nope. (And the "Is X overrated?" question remains just as stupid as ever.) But from what I read of that article before my eyes glazed over, it seems to argue more that Kafka experts are overrated.