Kafka: Intellectual Emo

There's no argument: Kafka is one of the greatest writers in modern history. His stories are short but powerful, hitting you hard and compelling you to think about them for weeks afterward. I found them dark, abstract, difficult to understand... but fascinating nevertheless.

Famously, Kafka never felt that his writing was worthy of publication and on his deathbed gave all his unpublished stories to a friend to destroy. That friend, Max Brod, couldn't bring himself to actually burn them, however, and instead had them published after Kafka's death. Sadly, Kafka died quite young (he was only 40) from tuberculosis.

I read the Penguin Classics collection of his short stories. The four that I found the most interesting and memorable were: Metamorphosis, The Judgement, In the Penal Colony and A Hunger-Artist.

So disgusting, and yet, so sad! I can't decide if I'd rather hug it or step on it...

The Metamorphosis is probably Kafka's most famous work. Most people have probably heard of this story about a young man who is suddenly transformed over-night into a giant cockroach-like bug. As in most of Kafka's work, the mood is bleak, focusing on the protagonist's alienation from his family and his suffering. I can honestly say I wasn't expecting to feel such strong sympathy for a giant cockroach, but I really did - I actually had dreams about it after reading the story. Despite the strange and abstract premise, Metamorphosis is an incredibly moving tragedy.

The Judgement starts off innocently, with a man contemplating a letter he's writing to a friend, and his relationship with that friend as well as his family and fiancee. But then it changes drastically upon the entrance of the protagonist's father, becoming suddenly much darker. I don't want to give away the ending; but it definitely surprised me and kept me thinking about it afterward. Kafka apparently wrote this short story all in one sitting, and considered it one of the best that he ever wrote. It was also one of the few that was published during his lifetime.

In the Penal Colony was a really creepy short story about a man invited to witness an execution in a foreign land. The amount of time and detail put into describing the execution machine was disturbing. It's easy to empathize with the narrator's unease as the story progresses and becomes more violent. It raised interesting questions about ethics and whether our morals should be flexible or remain unbending in a foreign country, as well as deeper questions about the nature of "justice" and "guilt".

Finally, The Hunger-Artist was about a man who starves himself as a performance for others, rather like a circus performer. In the present in the story, hunger artists are no longer popular and the narrator is reflecting upon his earlier fame. I think that it's an allegory for what artists will suffer for their art, and like a lot of Kafka's protagonists, the artist is isolated and misunderstood by those around him. However, the meaning of the allegory is open to various interpretations, as is the ending - which may or may not be ironic. But it certainly inspires some interesting discussion about the artistic experience.