For autistic Kafka admirers

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Asked if he was a Zionist Kafka gave this answer:
"What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself, and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe."

I don't know if he was Aspie, but he was the typical alienated, tortured Jewish soul, that's for sure. My family come from the same place as his, so I know.

One of his last tales The burrow is the most perfect description of the life of an autistic and an extraordinary piece of literature. All his characters are alone, struggling vainly to find some quiet corner where "to breath". There is never the research of a relationship, but only the desperate attempt not to be excluded.

heh funny quote.

i loved his "metamorphosis"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis

When I try to live out Kafka's life in my head, I remember how all of us need to learn a little more compassion for each other.

I fail to understand how anyone can embrace the abject stupidity and ignorance that is labelled religion. In it's own arguments it is self defeating.

The Metamorphosis read like an autistic dream. The boy sitting alone in his room afraid to show his father his true nature and feeling despicable.

I like how his stories evoke such strong emotions without using overt language. All the descriptions are quite matter-of-fact, even the internal dialog, yet I get a weird sense of knowing exactly how the character is feeling. I probably can relate most to “the burrow”.

Kafkaesque topic

Hi, Greentea. (I am writing this on daughter's computer because mine is acting down again!). You might even be related to the K-man, whom I admire very much, as I have studied him off and on for over twenty years.

I have just finished reading a book called What You Should Know About Kafka Before You Waste Your Lifeby James Hawes. Below I have analyzed the part of his book that deals with his expose of why Franz continues to fascinate and inspire us. There are some direct quotes as well.

The Kafkaesque Appeal: An Analysis of Special K (by Susan G, based on Hawes expose)

- Comic/tragic atmosphere in his stories, due to his brilliant use of the German Language
- Kafka understood the tension between our yearning for the past and fear/awe of the future, and this is a theme in all his literature/diaries. (The 'present' will be dealt with as the final point in my analysis.)
- The reader identifies with the protagonists in the stories (empathy) that we accept them, warts and all, including their delusions--then we become absorbed into each protagonist's life (eg, K, Gregor, The Hunger Artist)
- Kafka intertwines realsim with dramatic nightmarish imagery, which facillitates acceptance of the bizarre tortuous ride of the story
- Kafka's Hasidic storytelling style emphasizes/identifies the chasm between the world we desire and the world we are in. In this chasm is Sartre's Nothingness, if you understand existentialism and spot this in the stories.
- The stories have the "feeling of literature, but they simply refuse to deliver what we expect of literature." p.226 (quote)
- Because of the above statement, there is not a good end to the adventure, so the winner is not the protagonist, whose end is usually unclear and rather unpleasant. Here Kafka is a realist, not an idealist
- We sympathize with the protagonists who do not get what they expect (justice). In this way they cannot go back or forward. Then they live in a sort of present hell (Hell is other people! [Sartre]) This is a lesson for us. Read my conclusion!

In conclusion, how do we break free?? How do we find the door, both figuratively and literally? Kafka's protagonists do not find that door, or they find it shut/locked (there is similar imagery in Steven Spielberg's movies). But in real life, each of us must alone find an individual door that is made for us. And each of us has always had the key (like Dorothy's ruby slippers!). (My key imagery!! !) But Kafka does not tell us--each must find our own way. His stories never give us the end we would really like. So he leaves us hanging (cliffhanger) and we can choose (existential choice) to be open to this choice as it has the potential to be the end (or is it beginning? Even Kafka kept us hanging by puzzling us as to whether he was beginning, end (or by extension, perhaps middle?) or none of those! He wishes us good luck on our quests, and if it takes a lifetime to find the door(s), then so be it.

Awesomely excellent topic, Paolo.

For Kafka readers there should be so much to say and explore that it would take many books.
(And of course there are hundreds of books about K.). Some observations.
K. is not always alone. Yes he always looks for someone who may protect him. The cook in America, Frieda, Pepi, Olga in "the Castle", Leni in "The trial". Characteristically he has some form of casual sex with many of them, more on the prodding of the woman than by his own initiative. He never tries do defend or protect these women. And he is even ready to betray them. Here he lacks character, even if he is pretending to have status and rights. There are many relationships here with Robert Walser's characters ("The Assistant"). But Walser's characters are modest, they never pretend, they try to make the most of their lack of status and power.
In the repetitiveness (particularly in "The Burrow") there is some sort of musical attitude, the stories are "infinite" variations on the theme of defense and defeat.
Only in “the Burrow”, and in the “Hunger artist” K. is absolutely alone. But even when he interacts with many characters (as in America) he is in fact alone.

I have found now a Kafka quotation that I like much:

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."