The Metamorphasis - Any thoughts?

[j]

I read Kafka's The Metamorphasis in college. I was recently thumbing through my college lit book and came across it again. Since it had been about 5 or 6 years since I had read it, I decided to read it again.

It's a very interesting work, and a quick read (its only like 100 pages or so). Anyone think that Kafka was making a doublestatement (for all you 1984 readers, a little Newspeak) about first workers and second family?

j

[Valkyrie]

Yes, I think that was the message of that excellent short story. It was completely imbued with a Marxist tone. Have you ever read The Trial? That one also was very 1984-esque as well.

[Conghaileach]

The show "The Prisoner" (ones of my favourites) is said to have been directly influenced by both "1984" and "The Trial".

[Sherief]

I didnt as much see the marxist undertones as i did the existentialist bits, but then again, maybe I just wasn't looking for them. I'll have to pick it up sometime and re-read

[Anonymous]

I dont think soo, he writed taht book because he felt like the men on the book, he thpoufght he was a scum bag to his family, and he felt he was a aberration on the family, and if you remember after K die his family celebrated, the same felling Kafka thought his family had with him (if you read "letter to his father" you will understend what i mean!)

[j]

I think I am trying to read a little bit too far into it. I guess my point is that the main character (i forget his name) was a worker and his whole life was about working. He felt like a slave to the working world and shunned by his family at the same time. Perhaps because of his work he could not spend enough time earning the love of his family........I don't know, I might be trying too hard.

j

[deadpool 52]

Genius, fucking genius.

[Valkyrie]

No J, I don't think you're reaching. I also see Marxist alienation in it- no doubt.

[Lefty]

kafka was a genious in the sickest sense of the word. He is one of my favorite writers.