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'Der Process' - Franz Kafka


sirinrob

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This was a reread for me. I read the critical edition on the Kafka Project website. The critical edition uses Kafka's manuscript as opposed to the version produced by Brod after Kafka's death.

 

Throughout the novel, there is a sense of the little man struggling against the system. It has been frequently asserted that this struggle represents Kafka's own struggle, but from my reading the struggles depicted are a reflection of how people invent their own struggles. There is current of surreal humour present in much of the novel, which I found amusing - especially the chapter with the Uncle/the Advocat and Leni.

 

The description of the legal proceedings, though they seem bizarre and alieniating are based on legal poceedings in Austria and Germany at the time - Kafka was an insurance lawyer and took a keen interest in the legal debates.

 

Josef K comes across as an unpleasant, arrogant buffon. Anyone who he percieves as being socially inferior he treats with comtempt.

 

I'll be rereading this at some point and it will be interesting to see how Jasper Fforde treats this novel in 'Lost in a Good Book'

Edited by sirinrob
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:D It is actually not the main base text for Lost in a Good Book (there's no real Jane Eyre equivalent, though I'd say the closest thing is Dickens's Great Expectations); however the chapter that is based on Kafka's Process is, I believe, better understood by he or she with some knowledge of the original - I for one have not read it, and I dare say I would have found the chapter unintellegible hadn't it been for Kafka lessons at school.

 

As it was, it only made my head spin, but I do believe that was intentional.

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i'm not surprised at your reaction - in my view most people miss the humour, albeit black , in Kafka. I'm reading 'The Missing Man (America)' in the critical edition and its witty, slyly so, but there are dark undertones as well. I*accept your contention that the 'The Trial' is not the underpin to 'Lost in a Good Book' , but im intrigued how Jasper deals with/utilises the material. Once I've read LiaGB, then given my exposure to 'The Trial' and 'Great Expectations' , i'll be in a better position to comment. My intention is to review LiaGB, in my inimitable fashion:smile2:, so your comments/views on that will be enlightening.

Edited by sirinrob
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It's a long time since I read The Trial, probably 20 years now. I remember finding it very dark, but very fascinating. I think I was too much of a teenager to understand it properly, and really need to go back to it in the light of someone (I think Murakami, but can't be sure)'s comments that it was like reading Jeeves and Wooster, except that Joseph K had no Jeeves to rescue him repeatedly.

 

One of the things that'll stop me going back is the memory of crazily long sentences and paragraphs (in some ways reading the book was Kafkaesque - you wondered if you'd ever escape from a paragraph that just kept going and going)...

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