franz kafka

[kafka 1917, via wikipedia]

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while reading David Graeber‘s the utopia of rules.. Maria Popova‘s kafka’s remarkable letter to his father pops up:

http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/05/franz-kafka-letter-father/

because I could neither think nor speak in your presence.

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On every side I was to blame, I was in your debt.

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True, one could always get protection from her, but only in relation to you.

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It is, after all, not necessary to fly right into the middle of the sun, but it is necessary to crawl to a clean little spot on earth where the sun sometimes shines and one can warm oneself a little.

[just go re\read the whole thing as it’s why i’m adding this page]

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Franz Kafka (Jewish name: אנשיל, Anschel; 3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-language writer of novelsand short stories, regarded by critics as one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. Most of his works, such as “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”), Der Prozess (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent–child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, labyrinths of bureaucracy, and mystical transformations.

[..]

Kafka trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education, obtained employment with an insurance company. He began to write short stories in his spare time. For the rest of his life, he complained about the little time he had to devote to what he came to regard as his calling. He regretted having to devote so much attention to hisBrotberuf (“day job”, literally “bread job”).

[..]

Unlike many famous writers, Kafka is rarely quoted by others. Instead, he is noted more for his visions and perspective….Harry Steinhauer, a professor of German and Jewish literature, says that Kafka “has made a more powerful impact on literate society than any other writer of the twentieth century”. Brod said that the 20th century will one day be known as the “century of Kafka”.

Michel-André Bossy writes that Kafka created a rigidly inflexible and sterile bureaucratic universe. Kafka wrote in an aloof manner full of legal and scientific terms. Yet his serious universe also had insightful humour, all highlighting the “irrationality at the roots of a supposedly rational world”. His characters are trapped, confused, full of guilt, frustrated, and lacking understanding of their surreal world. Much of the post-Kafka fiction, especially science fiction, follow the themes and precepts of Kafka’s universe. This can be seen in the works of authors such as George Orwell and Ray Bradbury.

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kafka [film 1:34, filmed in 91]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_MmwyazJBk

5 min – when a document gets lost… damages my credibility..

23 min – on lone wolf – looking bad to those under you.. work is just to be done.. there’s more than that.. and on writing – find a more athletic hobby – put some color in your cheeks

27 min – doubt authorities.. they’re authorities that’s reason enough

38 min- you never thought it a horrible double life in which there is no escape from humanity (working here).. response: no. kafka: i envy you.

40 min – why were you fired.. they don’t need reasons anymore.. small men with small ideas

44 min – that the police have allegiance to something other than truth

48 min – form boss – you’re too sensitive

paperwork everywhere

49 min – what’s the point of keeping records if they’re not available for inspection

1:05 – official channels.. i get nowhere with official channels

1:13 – trying to come up with a more efficient person – they do what they’re told.. first physiology then ideology

1:15 – accidentally sent the wrong piece of paper

1:16 – people who are in a position to object – or people who are already guilty of one thing or another

1:19 – dr: a crowd is easier to control than an individual.. a crowd has a purpose.. purpose of an individual is always in question.. kafka: that’s what you’re trying to eliminate isn’t it – everything that makes one human being different from another.. but you’ll never reach a man’s soul… with your lens.

dr: that depends on which end of the microscope you’re on – doesn’t it.

1:28 – boss: my superiors have no obligations to explain their directives to me.. and certainly not to you. kafka: i just thought today might be different. boss: why should today be different

1:29 – he starts writing – dearest father.. i

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from Sherry Turkle‘s reclaiming convo p 67:

kafka – you need not leave your room. remain sitting at your table and listen. you need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet , and still, and solitary. the world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.

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from Robert Neuwirth (@RobertNeuwirth)’s shadow cities

241

a cage went in search of a bird – franz kafka

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fb share from mankind project [https://www.facebook.com/theManKindProject/photos/a.480091578627/10156882514798628/?type=1&theater]

Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.

Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot.

Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.

‘Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.’

This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.

When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained ‘My travels have changed me.’

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said:
‘Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.’

—Kafka and the Doll, The Pervasiveness of Loss

another version of the story shared on fb by kevin c via [https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=476837404446343&set=a.212065264256893]

At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, walked through the park in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully.

Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.

The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying “please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”

Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka’s life.

During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.

Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned to Berlin.

“It doesn’t look like my doll at all,” said the girl.

Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: “my travels have changed me.” the little girl hugged the new doll and brought her happy home.

A year later Kafka died.

Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:

“Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”

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