buddha quaffing bourbon

^thanks for the tip, Julia. i can't watch/listen to lectures, my attention wanders too much, but i usually like Butler. keep us posted?

i somehow can't find the exact quote i was looking for, but Walter Benjamin has many great thoughts about Kafka. here's one of them, and it echoes everyone's thoughts on how open to interpretation K's work is. keep in mind that Kafka was notorious for quadruple-checking his manuscripts to make sure he hadn't given his readers any hints. some writers don't like their thoughts to be put into boxes. "At times [Kafka] seems to come close to saying with Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor: “So we have before us a mystery which we cannot comprehend. And precisely because it is a mystery we have had the right to preach it, to teach the people that what matters is neither freedom nor love, but the riddle, the secret, the mystery to which they have to bow―without reflection and even against their conscience.” […] Kafka had a rare capacity for creating parables for himself. Yet his parables are never exhausted by what is explainable; on the contrary, he took all conceivable precautions against the interpretation of his writings. One has to find one’s way in them circumspectly, cautiously, and warily." Julia, i hope you enjoy it! most of his works are available online at schulzian dot net, but again Wieniewska's translations are better.

i'm only a dabbler in Kafka. his longer works i find tedious, but i made it through some of his short stories including this one, which i found passable, and a volume of Diaries, which i very much enjoyed. In Middle German, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" ...and there's more on the Wikipedia page for Metamorphosis, under the Translation section. and there are even more ways to translate the story's meaning, as mentioned: verminous transformation could symbolize isolation, but to leave it at that is dangerously reductive! if Kafka is still relevant it's because his theme has more depth than the "oh no, modern society, alienation, woe unto me" line that was already overplayed by 1915. here are a couple of quotes i happened to save, which iirc are from somewhere in the Diaries: "Hatred of active introspection. Explanations of one's soul, such as: Yesterday I was so, and for this reason; today I am so, and for this reason. It is not true, not for this reason and not for that reason, and therefore also not so and so. To put up with oneself calmly, without being precipitate, to live as one must, not to chase one's tail like a dog." and, "Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached." playing roach's advocate, suppose we imagine these to be the narrator's thoughts, which brought about his transformation? it lends a certain poignancy, and makes for a happier ending, if the wings he had all along were death to the cleanly and sterile world of his family, which didn't sound much more enticing than a bug's life... someone said there is no solid evidence for this, and of course there is not, but with some authors, it's best to destroy all the solid evidence you can find, as you would a, hmm, bug? btw if anyone wants more wonderfully disconcerting short stories of the eerie and alien, i recommend a collection called The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz (trans by Wieniewska is best) man it's been a while since i was part of any kind of a literary debate, feels good.

i usually have at least 3 going at once. i like to think of it as cross-pollination. for those that doubt the merits of this, behold, Kim Kardashian + Kierkegaard = When love awakens, it is older than everything else. Hold on to classic pieces. You never know when they will make a comeback. @KimKierkegaard doesn't get better'n this

Shock Value by John Waters is an excellent autobiography which i would recommend to anybody not burdened with a virtuous streak or weak stomach. from the opening paragraph: To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about. If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation. But one must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste. ... To understand bad taste one must have very good taste. on hold for me at the liberry: All I Need is Love, by Klaus Kinski (!); and, on the subject of statesmen, the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, who would make a much better drinking buddy than Lincoln, in all likelihood. though who i'd choose between Franklin, Kinski, and Waters, i'm not sure.

hello, i can't find any fellow bookworms where i live, so i'm turning to the virtual world, where i have heard worms abound i think that: good authors are perverse, untrustworthy, often lubricious; bad authors, noncommittal, whingeing, safe it is immensely satisfying to stop reading a book after 50 or so pages an author you may not have heard of and may want to look up is Robert Walser, in particular his Berlin Stories looking forward to contributing!