Franz Kafka

[Faceless]

Ive just finished Metamorphosis and previous to that the Trial. My appetite has been wheted and I cant get enough of this guys stories. The concepts are so absurd that they could bring you almost to laughter but it takes a genius to render them in a way that could be taken seriously and further more be so moving. Has anyone else read anything by him around here? If you havent just drop everything your reading and pick something up by him. His descriptions of emotional rejection and the frustrating incomprehensibilty of his worlds of terror hold real truths about society.

;)

[Gunman]

I have been reading Metamorphosis, and i must say that is quite a book. It gets you depressed in a moment.

[I've Defected]

Ive read alot of his works, but what i still cant figure out is the ending of "in the penal colony"

does anyone know why the officer subjects himself to the device with "be just" as the reason? and why does the device malfunction and kil him

[encephalon]

his works are about alienation. Thus the absurd, alien form in metamorphosis. Ever wonder why he focuses on the dissatisfaction with his job?

[Faceless]

Ive read alot of his works, but what i still cant figure out is the ending of "in the penal colony"

does anyone know why the officer subjects himself to the device with "be just" as the reason? and why does the device malfunction and kil him

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why. It suggests that he believes he has himself failed to "be just". Possibly this could have been in his failure to have maintained the harrow as a form of execution or maybe it was in that his ideas of justice became antiquated such that he is now himself unjust.

[I've Defected]

that kind of makes sense, but there doesn't seem to be any event that would make him completly change his ideals.

He was a very strong supporter of the system, seems odd how he would realise how horrible it is without any influence.

[Asmoo]

Have you read "The Trial"? It's so fascinating and disturbing at once. The book is causing me real psychological harm. :o My nerves are still overwrought and I start feeling paranoid...How is it possible that someone can describe the judicial system in such an ingenious way...? Well enough of my enthusiasm...what do you think of it?

:o

[Faceless]

The Trial has to be my favourite novel ever, maybe after 1984. Probably more than likely cos I havent read many novels. It felt like he was a rat in a maze, there was nowhere he could turn to save himself because the orders had already been given. The world to him was totally irrational. Brilliant :D

[Zespris]

Gotta love his works, I read "La metamorfosis" (in spanish) and a collection of short stories by him, I started reading "The Castle" and forgot it on a plane, which got me kicked out of the local library even though I found it, so I could not read more of him.

His worlds, seem so... wierd. They are so perfect, and at the same time so disturbing, every time I finished a short story, I thought 'What was this about?' and most of them did not come to have any sense to me, apart from the ones in the world they took place. I imagine those worlds are just reflections of society, in a surrealist way.