O Kafka My Kafka! thy prophecy has been done,
The world has fallen to the dogs, they stole away our sun,
The end is near, the signs i hear, the masses all still sleeping,
While we become the fools in debt, your words are ice, unbending:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the numbness, toil and strife
Where on these pages my Kafka writes
Still killing me to life
This is my homage to the writer. Heavily inspired by (only a few changes to) the poem "O Captain My Captain" by Walt Whitman. See the poem at www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15754
I had only heard of Kafka before we had his novel "The Trial" in our MA course. I did not attend much of the lectures then but I read it and little did I know then how much impact it would have on me. The novel was harrowingly bleak, disturbing at times and very disjointed (he had not finished the novel before he died) and the protagonist, Josef K (now you know the inspiration behind my moniker: the surname K has been used by many other authors as well) resonated with me deeply. Here was a man who led a sheltered bourgeois life before he was arrested one day accused of a crime of which he didn't know he commited. The matter-of-fact narration, the suffocating landscapes and the weirdness of it all left me completely bewildered, but nevertheless divinely purged after I finished it.
Then I read his other stories: "The Metamorphosis" coming first to mind. I will not budge when I say that this is the MOST PERFECT story ever written. There are so many layers, so horrific yet so beautiful. It is one of the few times when I can say that I emerged a different person after reading it. I had moments of epiphany, glorious and yet so brutally true. I can read it again and again, and it will speak to me in ways i will never comprehend before. This is art at its best. There is no moment of stasis: it leaves you in a state of chaotic whirlpool of emotions leaving a catharsis at the end, but always thirsting for more. This is what Franz Kafka does for me. He is THE genius of the 20th Century (many great writers agree with me :D). His alienation, awareness of his mortality, his doubt in his abilities, his impulsion to write without regards for the consequences, his terminally un-Jewish Jewishness: all of it is so real. Yet his life was not a bed of roses: he lived and died hard. Would i have taken a Kafka afterworld if offered to me? My heart says yes, my head says no. Maybe its better to be cocooned in our superficial existence. Or maybe not; I'll never know.
When i joined Mizoram University last year for my M.Phil I looked at the new course syllabus for MA and found that they had offered a course on European writings (Kafka, Camus, Grass et al) as an optional paper for 3rd or 4th Sem students. Like a kid buying a new toy I eagerly asked the head if they were teaching the course (I was willing to sit in every class just for the joy of the experience) but I was disappointed to find out that due to teacher shortage and other reasons, they were only doing Pop Fiction from that paper. I have deep respect for pop culture and I do not mean to degrade the course but given a choice between studying Kafka and Camus or a Mills & Boon novel and Barbara Cartland... (you know where I'm getting at). I find it sad that MA students will not have a choice to opt for the paper even if they want to (whether any of them will want to is another matter) but I sincerely hope that they will put the course up for study sooner rather than later. And when they do, I will be there (provided they allow me to sit) to revisit those very moments of humanity.
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This is precisely why you should finish your PhD ASAP and go work at the Univ. We too had only the choice of American Lit. and though I'm thankful that it introduced me to Alice Walker(and through her Zora Neale Hurston)I wanted a chance to sample European lit too. I have never read Kafka- in fact, Ibsen seems to be the only European writer I'm familiar with, and that's a shame. I actually envied the present MA batch their new course but I see now that they too have been limited because of staff shortage. So get out there and complete your PhD NOW.
ReplyDeleteKafka chu chhiar ve chhin teh ang, if I get hold of his books. He sounds a bit obscure though, em?
LOL at your plans for me, although its flattering. There is no way on God's green earth that I'm gonna walk in the univ and teach anytime soon. Im thinking of empaneling in other universities.
ReplyDeleteYes you should read Kafka, in fact everyone should. But will he speak to you as much as he did to me that i don't know coz everyone's constitution is different. My hoes are going to give me his other novels "Amerika" and "The Castle" as my birthday gift so im eagerly waiting.
I will not say that he is obscure. The language (or the translation) is quite easy to read: no flowery dense lines. But it is the deadpan manner of writing and the strangeness of the things they convey that makes one think a lot. They defy any easy interpretation. Apparently, Albert Einstein, after returning a Kafka novel loaned to him by Thomas Mann, said "I couldn’t read it for its perversity. The human mind isn’t complicated enough." :D
Whoa, Kafka? Now that's deep! We used to have a copy of his Trial around the house once but I have to confess I read it rather casually so it didn't impact me too much. I suspect male readers relate better to Kafka because a male friend used to wax lyrical about him too years ago. Is there a line towards the end of The Trial which goes sth like "He died with the mucus rattling in his throat"? Somehow that phrase has stuck with me through all these years. It could be by some other writer too, not sure. Anyway, though Kafka might not be obscure, he makes for heavy reading and I'm not surprised the MZU faculty are shying away from teaching him. Pop fiction sounds a lot less intimidating to me too :) Btw, speaking of pop fiction (and M&Bs etc), does anyone else agree that the TDH (tall, dark and handsome) prototype began with Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice? :D
ReplyDelete@Miz Calliopia:Also rich, cynical,moody, and popular with the ladies apart from being TDH..haha, def'ly M&B prototype..
ReplyDeletewhich effectively means the "ideal" man is a feminine construct, a product of the female gaze. and they accuse us men of objectifying women. shessh!
ReplyDeleteOMG! i van duh un thin tak mmm tried reading Kafka but there was a Barbara Cartland novel next to it soo, i grabbed it instead n while u were having the bleaky influence fm. Mr. K, i fell in love wit the image of a TDH guy...n nagged my bf so he cud b one Tall=okay2 Dark=u cud try tanning urself?? Handsome=10 here,dont change ;)n now i have the perfect guy...
ReplyDelete@miss Z: the line you quoted was not from "the trial". there are different translations but my best bet if that if it was kafka it is most probably "the metamorphosis" where "from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath" according to mine. i actually know quite a few women who love kafka, but maybe not as much as those who love barbara cartland :D
ReplyDelete@Al" Of course all ideals are constructs. They wouldn't be ideal otherwise
ReplyDeleteBarbara Cartland - been there, done that when I was about 12!
ReplyDeleteYour post somehow made me recall Gabriel Garcia Marquez' 'One Hundred Year of Solitude' which I recently read. The blurb on the back cover said "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race" - clearly a literary over-hype especially after having personally laboured through it. A rather 'kafkaesque' book. But it was, to me, a fascinating, though sometimes frustrating, read with its looong paragraphs which seemed to go on and on. But it had a strange gripping style about it and I ended up finishing it in one go (which means I did not read other books in between :)). Some reviewer/critic who wrote that the novel does not have a single wasted sentence (or something to that effect) did have a point.
ReplyDeleteI too have never read Kafka but after reading this post, I will surely be looking out for one when I next visit a bookstore.
Thanks for a great post and blog.
@ruolngulworld: i was thinking of writing about marquez as he is my favourite author along with kafka, so i was pleasantly surprised to see your post. I read Solitude just after i finished by 12th boards and i admit that i initially found it very difficult as an 18 yr old but i could understand the pathos and found so many resemblences with mizoram's history i felt Marquez was directly addressing our problems. we had chronicle of a death foretold in BA and again solitude in MA and after 'studying' them i could appreciate him more. but i feel a too serious 'study' of a text kills a lot of the joy of reading it sometimes.
ReplyDeletesolitude is a magnificient book: simply perfect from beginning to end, even though it is of an epic length which makes reading in one go a bit difficult (kudos to you for doing that). kafka takes a lesser time to read (except for The Trial, Amerika and Castle they are all short stories) which makes the experience more contained within the reading, but not necessarily more accessible.
much appreciation.
you are so right about serious 'study' of a text killing the joy of reading. which is why i read all and any book that catches my fancy, for pleasure. i try to include books that are 'must reads' from famous authors, classics, etc. but i find that my taste is more towards light, humorous books, autobiographical books, travel, etc. and not really the 'heavy' stuff. though, it must be said, the 'heavy' ones (at least the ones i've managed to finish) give you real satisfaction and make you think. there are, however, some really hyped writers whom i've tried but never been able to finish. such as salman rushdie. i tried his 'midnight's children' once and got to page 20 or so with great difficulty and just couldn't continue. maybe my state of mind at that time didn't let me appreciate his kind of writing. i dunno. i haven't read any of his works, and have no intention of doing so any time soon. speaking of indian writers, there are those like vikram seth's epic length 'a suitable boy' which i never thought i'd like but finished almost in one go. and i just love the writings of naipaul, amitav ghosh, arundhati roy, jhumpa lahiri......
ReplyDeletenow i've started to ramble :D but i must add an author whom i only 'discovered' recently - japanese writer haruki murakami. i've only read 3 of his books, 'norwegian woods', 'south of the border, west of the sun' and 'a wild sheep chase' and they were superb - dreamlike, fantastical, magical and surreal. just googled him and learned that he was awarded the franz kafka prize for his novel 'kafka on the shore'. so some kafka connection there. i'm beginning to think i'll really like kafka!
John, I've read Murukami's Norwegian Woods and agree with you on the "surreal" description. I enjoy Indian writers a lot too esp the early Amitav Ghosh. His Shadow Lines is so beautifully structured. Rushdie I find kind of laboured. Never read Suitable Boy. Oh and I bought Solitude a few years ago but still haven't finished it. Internet (and FB-ing) effect :p
ReplyDeleteive been meaning to read murukami too but i guess it will have to wait for now. i agree with both of you about rushdie. "midnights children" was an inferior version of "solitude" IMO. didnt do much for me. although he addressed a lot of issues with the novel, i feel he has fallen into the trap in his later works where once you are very comfortable with your life and the success, your writings become more trivial. My first Rushdie novel was in fact, "Fury". Although i admire his complete mastery of English, the novel was too elitist for my liking.
ReplyDeletei admit i dont share much liking with the two of you about indian writings. never have read outside my university cirriculum heheheh.
reeeallly like ind writers too...@al enge i an re?where art thou?in that god forsaken place? ure going 2 pune? visited out little ofis 2day n the solitary compu was sitting ol alone wit nothing else arnd. wit u gone, i think the room is starting 2 rot. cmptr cu passwrd la om xui a hmang ta lo xui hehe
ReplyDeletethrow me a lifeline jamie. this is my last week in baroda but i think im going crazy: crazy temperatures, bad food, bad water, no good sleep etc etc. the books i am reading are not helping either (trauma, death, suicide) i seriously need detoxifying ASAP. yup i am bound for pune unless something very urgent happens. comp kha chu rosie/ziri'n password an hria. lo chei fai roh heheh. mahse i hmang poh a ngai kher nang i heard that u got called for the interview. congrats molh2. any news? keep me updated.
ReplyDeleteThou art the Mizo who shall exult our race in the hallowed halls of ... wherever they give out the Nobel Prize. Thou art the progeny of a land that will tell its children stories about you..
ReplyDeleteOk, hows that for a supportive sis? All this is gonna pay off, trang fan2 rawh.. Gandhi went to S.Africa where its much hotter. non-sequitur? I think not
intervw was a disaster, made a cmplete fool of myself served me right 4 taking it 2 lightly in the pre-intrview period. the intrvw was a mental torture, had 2 squeeze my knwldge of lit out n couldnt cumup wit any satisfctry ans. no hope there.JRF moneyah inngat ta mai hehe MZ said u n i hv 2 help the dept out nxt yr.exciting huh??
ReplyDeletewhat Kafka did for you, Kundera did for me.
ReplyDelete