Introspection and the Dream of the Microcosmos

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“The dream reveals the reality. This is the horror of life, art terrifying. ” — Kafka

Certainly for most of its existence, KAFKA-one most perplexing and important writers of the twentieth century has lived in a dangerous collusion with Orb sleep. For something Jean-Paul Sartre once said that “Kafka shows us the human life perpetually disturbed by a transcendence impossible, and this is because he believes that there is such significance. Their universe is, at par, fantastic and strictly true. ‘

Another peculiar character of Franz Kafka is the poetic essence of his prose, which has relied Hermann Hesse: “Kafka has nothing to say as a theologian or philosopher, he speaks always as a poet.”

Kafka himself even wrote: “All that is not literature disgusts me.” And something essential: never stopped looking, hard, really. ”

The dream reveals the reality “: this is the tremendous and profound truth that he came to grasp. And this knowledge led to the perception of sleep and the magnificent breadth of consciousness. This achievement earned him because it was a man with a spiritual power that allowed him to engage an intimate relationship with the inner man. Kafka was a careful observer of his mental activity. Owed nothing to study psychoanalysis or Freud texts.

For Kafka, of course, introspection was not due to a reflective process but to the pressure of his sickly feeling of guilt that it was sinking, inch by inch, into an abyss that could lead to the vortex of delirium psychopathic. The obsessive introspection was a factor in him, threw him in a swamp of torture which was slowly sinking while expanding, so, what would the distance away from the tangible world.

In 1922 (just 39 years of age) this alienation reached its critical point Kafka making uneasy about his mental health. On January 16 he wrote: “Last week I was in a state of despondency, depression, as I had never happened. Unable to sleep, unable to spend the night awake, unable to support life-or-more precisely during life. Dos disagree pendulums, the pendulum is delivered inside a diabolical persecution, inhumane, the pendulum moves outside the faltering pace of its usual place. thing that can happen is that these two worlds separate, or even is tironeen each other in a dreadful manner. There are many reasons to produce this frenetic pace of the inner life, the most obvious is the insight … that does not give rest to any idea, pursues every idea and drives up to surface before being cast, in turn, by a new phase of introspection from the moment it has become idea. ”

And on the same date Kafka adds: “Loneliness, which was largely provided in part tied-and I looked (but it would be nothing but a tie?) -, That loneliness lost any misunderstanding and will now to reach its end. Whither shall I lead? hypothesized imposing tighter is that you can drive me to madness, ”

This crisis did not lead to madness, as Kafka feared, but the disease: that same year became the first symptoms of his tuberculosis. Being aware of his illness, he wrote to his friend Max Brod: My head gave quotes my lungs behind my back. ”

Kafka wrote, through his works, but as regards the human world … the vicissitudes of his inner world. This ongoing experience arising from its internal shocks was the shaper of his writings. Kafka came to realize the dream world not by being immersed in the field of psychoanalysis of Freud but because of his intuition, his perceptive power, and all enriched by his personal suffering.

Lascivious couples copulating under the watchful eye of the law, the fight with anonymous tyrants, the intricacies of a process and endless absurd, tragicomic bureaucrats and corrupt officials, the transfiguration monster of a man in a kind of beetle: all this was designed as a symbolic representation of the time of Kafka allegorical elements but were closely related to his inner life. His novels and stories are satirical blasts that highlight the grotesque aspects of human society, and this is because the dream itself-is usually a caricature of life, and is a true allegory. “Metamorphosis” is, without doubt, one of the most shocking stories of horror and grotesque ever written. And Kafka has been projected onto us, readers, the fear and anguish of the insect become fully lucid, but because of its plain writing, direct, clear, almost conversational say, transmuting so awful that dream in reality more believable .. . despite its appearance of absurdity throbbing.

The wealth of Kafka’s literary work confirms, too, that the symbols called “universal” are not the essential matter of artistic creation, since, in themselves, are sterile elements. Only when they are animated by a personal experience and acquire the vibration emanating from the senses even creating atmospheres where there is endless ambiguity and suggestion … Ios symbols can deeply move and excite.

Referring to the dream, Kafka described himself as “a citizen of that other world.” He was not a transient visitor Sleep orb. not arise from these nebulae with a load of vague reminiscences or by circumstantial asaetado amnesia, Kafka was a lifelong resident of that ghostly universe. Her eyes glow emitted a secret that conveyed their stories-and-night vision enriched by Sleep adventures in it were palpable. Even the texts of their own dreams, which was scoring on their cards-are amazing for the accuracy of the details.

A tangible Kafka made his intimacy with the dream world, you could lose ties with what he called “the other world”, which meant a real danger. His writing was the link between the two worlds and was making it impossible to get lost in the darkness of insanity. His own writings we transcribed the sensations emanating from that danger as well as the anguish caused by failures, lack of communication between humans and the slow agonizing death motivated by the erosive action of boredom and loneliness.

Kafka’s talent led him to not worry about the difficulties associated with how to enter the Sleep orb. For it never was a language problem, how to express in writing all that which was shaking inside. His prose is not distorted ever, it had a logic, a naturalness, an argument so clear and true in the real or imagined events that we had … that rendered even more delusional and seemingly absurd in an irrefutable truth. This is why Thomas Mann once said of the prose style of Kafka: “His style is thorough, curiously explicit goal net and correct.”

By taking the dream as a model for their own accounts, what did: nothing less than to create, remarkably, the conditions of the forms of representation of the experience of what is almost unknowable, that is … the unconscious. Thus, Kafka-uniting the particular signs of the structure of their dreams to the narrative technique that is inherently able to produce their stories more wonderful effects of sleep itself.

The pure quality of sleep that conveys Kafka in most of his stories and novels, where the infinite and the labyrinthine play a leading role (the prime examples are his three novels: “the process and” The Castle “and” the Chinese Wall ) – is due in large part to the effectiveness of its procedures that fuse narrative-and-disappear once the reader sensory contact with reality … taking him to meet primitive forms of thought. Kafka removes the barriers between reality sleep since for him (we must insist on this) sleep is a facet of reality. Kafka goes from one state to another with the same imperceptibility with which transitions from wakefulness to the numbness.

In his stories, Kafka takes us abruptly, without interval, joint action (entering the office, hang a coat or hat) to the shocking sight of a monster. We go well with the character Kafkaesque dream in Orb, without realizing it, just as we never know at what time I fell asleep. We lose our self by Sleep. And the same thing can happen to us that some of his characters to cast us out of bed, terrified, in a long-flight-by empty corridors, through endless galleries mazes leading to end.

With an unusual narrative mastery, Kafka takes the reader, without transition. towards the core of the dream and the irrational.

Kafka makes us grasp and feel the reality of events and fantastic beings, in the same way that what happens in our dreams we find something really lived. In the story “The Metamorphosis” that he felt no “seems” is an insect but endowed with the consciousness of a man who reasons, analyzes, understands what is absolutely unprotected, defenseless, alone, unable to communicate with anyone. And how awful (and remarkable) is that we identify with the monster almost suffer the same afflictions. This dream is a true representation of the most successful metaphors of world literature and reveals the magnitude of the creative faculties of Kafka in terms of what we can call good, just his “dream technique.” The study of the relationship between the artistic, literary and poetic and dream … has led me to this conclusion: the narrator-whether it is a true demiurge, a creator is undoubtedly an artist, a poet, and, as Lamb said: “The poet daydreams.’s not possessed by his issue, it dominates. ”

Kafka feared sleep with horror brought about by his nightmares. But when he did sleep, on many nights the appearances presented to him. … waking re-emerged and became ghosts that haunted-similar to sleep-which were the very source of several of his stories, including “The Verdict”. When asked what was the meaning of “The Verdict” and he said: “It is the specter of a night. It’s just-verification and therefore a full-spectrum exorcism.” Thus, by creating literary-used as ritual and magical operation-attenuated Kafka torture of his hallucinations.

If there is a unique document to analyze the relationship between dreams, the projection of the same in the brain of the dreamer in the waking state and literary transfiguration, that document is the Journal of Kafka, where the writer reveals his true alchemy of the word by which transmutes the disturbing vibration of your dreams in the precious metal, shocking, their narratives.

The characters who wander through Kafka’s stories and novels are a true reflection of their marginalization of affectivity suffered since childhood, particularly due to misunderstanding and despotism of his father. This led to an introversion that, in turn, threw him into isolation extremely harmful. The character of Kafka’s works are more than living beings … mimic the living. They are a sort of: human heartbeat abstractions, somewhat like the characters ghostly dreams.

Tuberculosis, which in the last years of his life brought him down to the annihilation, also influenced his creative process because their psyche is altered not only by his nightmares but also by the fear of death. Its pages cause us great sadness and he manages to identify with their trouble drawing us into the deepest regions of his ego … where we see reflected, as in a mirror, our own self. Kafka does not speak much of the world around us, it makes us become aware of the strange world we inhabit.

Kafka’s uniqueness lies-by extension-in-perceptible us through his writing-piercing anguish of everyday life, the horrible claws of the routine, stupidity and triviality always threatening, the mystery hidden seemingly simple things and properties Sleep endless. Therefore was admired and celebrated by Sartre and the existentialists, Camus (philosopher of the absurd), by André Breton and the Surrealists, by Borges (Walker that other labyrinthine paths, and even filmmakers like John Cassavetes and Orson WeIles.

Franz Kafka has been the recipient of disappointments insomniac, the sculptor of shadows shocking. His voice came out of the abyss of subjectivity creepy, product and existential experience strange and sensitive spirit.

Kafka has transferred-through his thought and his literary style-the highest of the fundamental principles that make a humanist worthy of the name: the certainty of being alive. And this message full of pain, loneliness, anxiety, meditation emerges focally towards existential harmony … that is what every human being should aspire.

Chronology of Franz Kafka – 1920 to 1968

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1920. – New intermission in the paper that will last until October 1921. The illness forced him to leave the Workers’ Compensation Institute. Travel to Meran. It is here where he met Gustav Janouch. Principia exchanging correspondence with Milena Jesenká-Pollak, Czechoslovak translator who then called … apparently, love and torment is the same thing in Franz. The body, in fine tune with the soul, it punishes … must penetrate after a relapse and against their wish. In December, in the sanatorium Matliary (High Tatras), Slovakia, befriends Robert Klopstock, and consumptive medical student like him.

1921. – As of mid-year should remain in the sanatorium of the mountains. After his imprisonment, returns to Prague, where on October 15 noted in his diaries that all their notebooks, they had been given a week before Milena. Between now and 1924, writes the stories that will be part of “A Hunger Artist”.

1922. – Start writing “The Castle”, which will end in September. February comes again, and again travels to Prague. In May last is with Milena. He moved to in Planá, where he meets his sister Ottla and again to Prague. During the summer type “Investigations of a Dog”.

1923. – Prague goes towards Müritz in July, with his sister Elli. At some point in the year, it sends the last letter Milena. He tells his best news: Meet Dora Dymant summer camp in a Jewish home in Berlin. Dora is 20 years old and is Jewish-Polish origin. Maybe you know, maybe not, but he gave what he had never met until the present: Peace. Accompanies it. Franz writes “A little woman” and “The Burrow”. Live with Dora the end of September in Berlin. Then move to Grune, Wald street. In Berlin Academy, lectures on Hebrew studies. Winter gives “Construction”. Berlin hopes again. Presents his tales that form editor “A Hunger Artist”.

1924. – Franz writes “Josephine the Singer”, his last text. Health is like sand in the hand … dripping leaves no possibility of recovery. Prague is worsening and again it gets, this is the last time. Sanatoriums and clinics are home. Dora and Robert Klopstock are tirelessly day and night. They live their lives. On June 3, dies in Kierling sanatorium near Vienna. Funerals are the 11 in-Prague Cemetery Straschnitz. “A Hunger Artist” was published after his death. What more could be said. The rest is in their texts.

1931. – Herman Kafka dies, his father.

1934. – Julie Löwy dies, his mother.

1942. – Ottla, his sister died in Auschwitz. The other two also at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps.

1944. – Milena died in another camp. It is also killed by the Nazis Greta Bloch.

1952. – Dora Dymant dies in London. August.

1960. – Felice Bauer Dies

1968. – Max Brod died in Tel Aviv.

Chronology of Franz Kafka – 1910 to 1919

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1910. – Is part of the “circle of intellectuals.” In March five articles published in Bohemia prose. In May, Franz begins to write in his journals with an obsession…   Suffering from insomnia, exhaustion and feeling neglected, suffering from “mental torture”. When the output is not found, the body finds it immediately. Participates in a Yiddish theater company (primitive language of the Jewish refugees in Central Europe, such as the Sephardic Jews regarding Spanish origin expelled by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492). Franz is a frequent customer at a literary cafes, cabarets and ballrooms in Prague. Health starts to slip slightly … Franz decides to become a vegetarian. Does not drink alcohol and does not smoke. Stops using a coat and bathing in icy rivers. In December he traveles to Berlin.

1911. – Between January and February, business travels to Friedland and Reichenberg. Then, when summer comes, arrives in Zurich, later visit Lugano and Milan. Visit Paris with Max Brod. Franz spent a week in the hospital naturist Fellenberg in Erienbach, near Zurich. In October, the company participates again Yiddish theater, shaking Löwy Jizchak friendship with its director. “America” ​​begins to take shape.

1912. – Following his approach to the theater company and friendship with Löwy, he becomes interested in Jewish culture. In February a conference on Yiddish language. March begins more complicated: should take over (arguably against their will) of an industrial establishment belonging to the husband of his sister. The increased workload grows with the frustration. In July, he travels to Weimar with Brod. Goes back to spend a few days in the hospital solitary Fellenberg naturist. Known at this time Ernest Rowohlt publishers and Kurt Wolff, who in December published an anthology of Franz “Contemplation”. On August 13, at the home of Brod, for the first time is to Felice Bauer. She is 25 and lives in Berlin, is a director of the company Lindstrom.Franz writes “condemnation” in September and then “The Fireman”, which will be the first chapter of “America.” In November writes “The Metamorphosis”.

1913. – In contrast to what occurs in literature in 1912, from early 1913 to mid-14, falls vertically. Only works in “condemnation”. Actually, his pen does not sleep, or rest: corresponds with Felice until the eve of Easter. Decides to visit her for the first time to Berlin. Moves between unquenchable longing and sense of failure. Already in spring, publishes “The Sentence” and “The Stoker”. In September he traveled to Vienna, Venice and Riva. It is here in Riva, where he met a Swiss woman, with whom he has a brief affair. In November he meets Greta Bloch, Felice’s friend, with whom he corresponds with. it is something that is never very clear. Franz has a son with Greta Bloch, son he ignores his existence (and ignores forever). And indeed his only son dies at age seven. Greta Bloch died in May 1944 at the hands of the Nazis.

1914. – Berlin again, like last year, at Easter. You agree with Felice Bauer although this commitment will last until July. First of many. Meet Ernest Weis, poet and playwright, who travels the Baltic Sea (Hellerau, Lübeck and Marnenlst). In these times, maintains a warm relationship with Max Brod. In October he writes “In the Penal Colony”. Begins “The Trial” and winter type “Before the Law”, a story that will be part of “The Process”. Culminates “America”, which will not be released until 1925.El Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife died in an attack in Sarajevo on June 28. Responsible Austria to Servia and sends an ultimatum urging her to allow the Austrian police involved in the investigation of the attack. Serbia opposes and mobilizes troops. World War I begins.

1915. – Franz receives “The Stoker” Fontane prize. It is several times in Baldenbach Felice. She wants a normal life. He can not give it to her. He can not even sleep at night … he works during the day (or rather, meets the world) and at night, lives and dies in each letter. Breathe when you write and dies each dawn as an insomniac. He moves home several times and travels to Hungary with Elli. In November sees the light “The Metamorphosis”. In December begins writing “The village schoolmaster.” Conquest of Warsaw is from the Baltic by the offensive austrogermana. They reach Eastern Galicia. Tsar Nicholas assumed the supreme command of the Russian troops.

1916. – In July, she meets Felice in the resort of Marienbad. In the summer again pendulum between marriage and loneliness. He writes the stories that are then “A Country Doctor”.  In winter, the annoying noise leads to relocate Alchemist street in Prague.

1917. – During the first months of the year, he writes one of the stories that will be part of “The Great Wall”, it is titled: “The Hunter Gacchus”. Starts learning Hebrew. In the spring type “Construction of the Great Wall.” July: new engagement to Felice Bauer. In August his sufferings beginners pulmonary tuberculosis is diagnosed in September. He refuses to enter the hospital as soon as the disease is diagnosed. Gets three months of sick leave and takes the opportunity to travel to Ottla house, with his sister, in Zürau. Reads Kierkegaard quietly, knowing existentialism and angst on paper and in life. Completed his studies in Hebrew Bible and read avidly. Writes “Papers on Eighth” and interrupts his diary suddenly. The September 21 Felice visit again … The October 1 sends the last letter. In December sailing the waters of the loss … Felice definitely breaks after a meeting in Prague. A year later he marries Felice who believes he has found the balance that he always looked for, as if that might mean something.

1918. – As of July remains with his sister in Zürau. Travels to Prague and Turnau. In November, Wohryzeck meets Julia, daughter of a synagogue custodian. Writes “A society of working poor” social project ascética.En Russian federal democratic republic proclaimed Marxist-Leninist. William II abdicated in November and gives way to the German republic. On 11 November, Germany signed the armistice which then accepts Austria. Dissolve the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Czechoslovakia was proclaimed independent.

1919. – In January is in Schelensen: resumes his diaries. He reunites again with Felice Bauer in the spring. In May published “In the Penal Colony”, then “A Country Doctor”. In November writes “Letter to My Father”. Winter brings Schelensen again with Max Brod and there he writes “Aphorisms”. Arguably this year end was the beginning of Franz Kafka’s disease, a fact that makes him frequenting the hospitals.

Chronology of Franz Kafka – 1901 to 1909

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1901. – High school and concludes after an attempt at chemistry, he then  undertakes the study of law at the German University of Prague. Then continues with Germanic studies and later with art history studies. In those days, he meets Oskar Pollak, with whom he corresponded until 1904.

1902. – Spends his holidays in Liboch and Triesch (the house of his uncle who was a doctor Siegfried Lowy rural). In autumn he attends a lecture on Schopenhauer dictated by a certain Max Brod. This meeting is the start of a friendship that transcends the usual limits imposed by death. Brod will eventually mirror Kafka, insistent on the publication of his writings, official biographer and literary executor.

1903. – This year Franz working on a novel (now lost forever) called: “The boy and the city.” Attend courses and discussions with Anton Marty.

1904-05. – Spends his holidays in Zuckmantel. He begins to spend time with Marx Brod and Felix Weitsch Oskar Baum. He starts writing “Description of a Struggle”.   He meets a woman who would, by his own admission, be one of the only two women he had true intimacy with. He becomes influenced by the German poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

1906. – In June he completes a Doctorate in Law at the University of Prague next to Alfred Weber. He works for a few months in the law firm of his uncle Richard Lowy.

1907. – Writes “Preparations for a wedding in the countryside”.  Visits Zuckmantel and again in August. He starts working in the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.  Which causes him to put in some excessive hours at work causing the anxieties about his writings.

1908. – Between February and May, he attends a course on labor insurance Commercial Academy in Prague.  In late July, he is working part-time in the Insurance Companies – Workers’ Compensation of the Kingdom of Bohemia. He works day and night consumed in the sound of the candle where the wax drips on his desk and he is forced to ignore his life’s destiny. He is thrown into asking about his life is it about living or earning it?.

1909. – Published in the journal Hyperion, eight fragments in prose. In September he spends his holidays in Riva and Brescia with Max and Otto Brod. He writes “The airplanes of Brescia”. It relates to anarchist circles, but he himself stays away from political struggles.

 

Chronology of Franz Kafka – 1882 to 1899

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1882. – Hermann Kafka, born in 1852, marries Julie Löwy, born in 1856. Brewing family, Julie has an important economic position. Hermann is also Jewish family but its economy is not as strong as that of Julie. Born in the small town of Wossek (southern Bohemia) and moves to Josefstadt Jewish Ghetto, Prague, after reaching adolescence. Julie is an educated woman of remarkable elegance. When they marry, Hermann opened a fancy goods trade not without the help of Julie’s family. The fortune begins to smile in the economic sense.

1883. – They move to Maisel Street, near the ghetto. Their first child was born there, July 3 Franz in Prague (then, Austrian city). The house is humble and does not take much time to move again. The next house is not far from it, in Werizelplatz. On a date unclear born Georg Franz brother dies 15 months is approaching socially tarde.Hermann the Czechs of German origin who are part of that era of high society and slowly separated from Judaism. Franz is a practicing Jew. Only the necessary doses. Not only the warmth affects religious, Young also pendula between Czech and German. Sumémosle to this the constant changes of address according to economic changes or improvements. Direction is always opposite to the ghetto. Imagine how the young Franz can make friends … Die Another brother Franz nacer.Finalmente shortly family moved to Circle Street and open a haberdashery.

1889. – Born Elli, first sister of Franz. This began studying at primary school next to the meat market. The overall turnout is German Jewish. Miss Bailly, coming of Neuchâtel was the first teacher.

1890. – Valli born, second sister. Franz is shy. I wanted to be invisible. With all that said mixture is normal not to compromise with the Germans and the Czechs at the nearby school (which attacked the Germans out of school). Not even sided with the Jews. The best place to stay is himself. The secure site.

1892. – The third sister is born: Ottla.

1893. – Starts secondary school studies in a Bachelor of Humanities Institute of Prague German-Altstadt. He remained until 1901. He’s a good student. It stands out especially in geography as well as feel difficulties in mathematics. He speaks Czech, despite being a diligent student of German (which was their main language).

1897. – It paralyzes the functioning of the Council of the Austro-Hungarian and organized a movement of union with Germany. It imposes bilingualism and Bohemia and Moravia a crisis erupts.

1899. – It aggravates the situation and repealing bilingualism.

 

Franz Kafka in pieces

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Excerpts from:
- The Process: Franz Kafka. Editorial Andres Bello. Year 1998. 3 rd edition. Pp. 304.
- Dreams: Franz Kafka. Editorial Profile Books. Year 1998. Pp. 116.
- Letter to Father: Franz Kafka. Publishers Mexican States. Year 1999. Pp. 94.
- I’m not a Light: Franz Kafka. Editorial Time. Year 1977. Pp. 89.
- Letter to Father: Franz Kafka. Editorial Profile Books. Year 1998. 108 pp..

Aphorisms (sin Considerations)

“The true path goes through a rope, which is not widespread in high, but on the ground. Seems prepared to trip over that to continue its course”. “All human errors are the result of impatience. Premature discontinuation an orderly process, the artificial barrier erected around an artificial reality. “” From a certain point of no return. This is the point to be attained “” The possession does not exist, there is only the self: the self that aspires to the last breath, to suffocation “.” At one time I could not understand why there was no response to my question, today I can not understand how I could be deceived to the point of asking. But not deceive me, just wondering. ““Only tremor and palpitation was his response to the claim that perhaps had but was not.”

“What we call in the name of universal judgment to judgment, it is only our conception of time, in fact this is a summary judgment.”

“Fortunately, the incoherence of the world seems to be only quantitative in nature.”

Letter to Felice, June 21, 1913

“… But I say, Felice, about a married life in which, at least for a few months a year, the husband returns from the office to 2.30 or 3, eats, sleeps and sleeps until 7 or 8, dinner quickly, walk for an hour, and then start writing until 1 or 2 am. Would you be able to endure all this? Did not know anything about the husband, but is in her room writing ? ‘And go well throughout the fall and winter? And by spring receive half dead man by the door of the desk, to have to watch during the spring and summer and recovers for fall and winter? Is this a possible life? Maybe, maybe possible, but you must be thinking about it until the last shadow of a doubt. “

Reflections on sin, pain, hope and the true path(1917-1919)

Ravens claim that a single crow could destroy the heavens.Undoubtedly so, but the fact proves nothing against the heavens, for the heavens do not mean anything other than the impossibility of crows.

Kafka’s Dreams

Daily, May 6, 1912.

“I dreamed recently: I was traveling with my father in Berlin, on the tram. Feature great city consisted of countless traffic barriers, at regular intervals, erect, striped and bicolor, blunt. Aside from that, almost everything was empty but there was a considerable crowd of such barriers. arrived in front of a gate, got out of the tram inadvertently walked through the gate. Behind it rose a steep wall, my father climbed almost dancing, was flying legs, found it so easy to climb. obviously implied a lack of consideration the fact that not help me in the least, as I reached the top with infinite effort, on all fours, back many times as if the wall had become steeper for me. was also unpleasant were covered with human excrement, which hit me hanging flaked throughout the body, especially in the pecho.Yo watched the sloping face, and ran his hand them over. When I finally got up, my father, who came from the interior of a building, I jumped into the neck, kissed me and hugged me. wore my frock fashioned short, padded internally as a sofa, that I remembered. “This Dr. von Leyden!It is an extraordinary man, “exclaimed repeatedly. But had not gone to visit him in his medical condition, but as a person worth knowing. Felt some fear that forced me to come to me also, but this did not happen. Behind Me, on the left, I saw a man who had his back to me, sitting in a room constructed of glass almost. turned out that this man was the secretary of the Professor, that my father actually had only spoken to him, and not with the Professor in person, but had somehow come to understand perfectly, through the secretary, the merits of Professor, so that in every way had as much right to judge the teacher as if he had spoken personally. “

Daily, August 30, 1912.

“This afternoon, while lying in bed, someone quickly turned a key in the lock, I briefly locks throughout the body, as in a masquerade ball, here and there, with brief intervals, opened or closed one locks “.

Letter to Felice Bauer of November 17, 1912.

“The other night I dreamed, is the second time. A postman brought me two certified yours and handed me one in each hand with a superbly accurate motion jumping arms like pistons of a steam engine. Were magic cards. Could extract few leaves without envelopes would never emptied. I was in the middle of a staircase and was forced, no offense, throwing leaves on the steps and read if I wanted to extract more of the envelopes. All up and down stairs was covered with bunches of leaves and paper elastic, slightly overlapped, sent a loud murmur. “

Letter to Felice Bauer of March 28, 1913.

“The window was open and my fantasy disconnected every fifteen minutes I jumped out the window, continuously, then came the train and a wagon after another passed over my body lying on the sleepers and deepened and widened my two pits: the neck and legs. “

Letter to Felice Bauer of August 6, 1913.

“I had a real overnight attack of madness, I could not control my thoughts, all dissolved until among my high anxiety came to help me figure of a black hat as commander Napoleonic relied on my conscience and forcefully kept tight. Meanwhile my heart beating beautifully, then threw the blanket, even if the window was wide open and the night was pretty cool. “

Daily, October 15, 1913.

“Desperate. Today, in the afternoon semisleep: This pain will eventually become a head explode. And just at the temples. Al imagine this, what I really saw was a gunshot wound, just around the edges of the hole were open outwards, with sharp edges when broken violently as a can “.

Daily, May 27, 1914.

“Yesterday the white horse appeared to me for the first time while I was sleeping, I have the impression that came to my head, turned to the wall, ran over me, and jumped out of bed, then lost.”

Daily, August 6, 1914.

“Seen from the point of view of literature, my destiny seems simple enough. Desire to represent my inner life has shifted fantastic everything else, and it’s terribly exhausted and exhausting it is. Nothing else can ever settle.”

Milena Letter of August 7, 1920.

“Tonight I killed. Someone, a relative, during a dialogue that I remember, that meant however that this or that were incapable of something-a relative, then ironically ended by saying:” So maybe Milena “-. Responding ripped through it I do not know how, then came home excited, my mother ran behind me and in the hallway like a conversation took place, at last, red with rage, shouted: “If someone named Milena with malicious intent, such as parent ( my father), I’ll kill him too or kill me. “Then I woke up, but was not even a real sleep or awakening.”

Fragments of notebooks and loose sheets.

“I saw, from the window of a small room that came in the middle of the boat, a hand that came to greet me and the strong face of a woman, framed by a black lace handkerchief, which looked out to watch.” Mom? ” , and smiled. “If you said it.“You are much younger than Dad,” I observed.“Yes,” she said, “much younger: he could be my grandfather and you my husband.”“You know,” I said, “is impressive sailing at night, alone in a boat, and suddenly discover there’s a woman on board.”

Letter

“I am a closed, taciturn, unsociable, discontent, without all that constitutes unhappiness for me as it is only a reflection of my goal. From my way of living at home can take a deduction. Live with family bonísimas and loving people, stranger than a stranger. With my mother I have not changed in recent years more than twenty words a day on average, with my father, nothing more than a greeting. With my married sisters and my brothers do not speak all, without this meaning that you are angry with them. The reason is simply this: I have absolutely nothing to say. Whatever is not literature disgusts me and causes my hatred, because it bothers me or is an obstacle for me, at least in my opinion. “

September 23, 1912 Daily.

“This story of the sentence I have written in one sitting on the night of 22 to 23, from ten in the evening until six o’clock. It was hard work to get my legs stiff from sitting underneath the desk . Such a terrible effort and the joy of seeing how the story would unfold before me, how was moving over the waters. Several times in my back tonight with my weight loaded. How everything can be said, how for everything, for the most strange occurrences, there is provided a huge fire, which consumed and reborn. Behind the window was blue. passed a car. Two men crossed the bridge. At two last consulted his watch. When the maid went through first time through the anteroom, I wrote the last sentence. turned off the lamp daylight. Such weak heartaches. mediated That tiredness disappeared overnight. tremulous My entry into the bedroom of the sisters. reading aloud. Previously, the stretched to the maid and said: “I have written so far.” immaculate appearance of the bed, as if they’d fix it. Conviction confirmed that in writing my novels I am writing in the hollows dishonorable. Only then can be written only in context. well, with that full opening of the body and soul … “

Prague, November 9, 1903 Letter to Oscar Pollak

“Long time no write. This happens to me this: God does not want me to write, but I have a need for it. So there is a constant tug of war, but ultimately God is the strongest, and there it Unfortunately more than you can imagine. within me many forces tied to a stake which may be born a green tree, while released could be helpful to me and to the State. complaints But it does not follow one of millstones , let alone when one is fond of them. “

Letter to Father

“Please, Dad, understands what I say, all these details would not have mattered alone. Depressed me only for the fact that you, the man who so greatly influenced my life, however, did not observe imposed commandments. therefore subdivided it the world into three parts: one, in which I lived, the slave under laws that were invented only speak for me and I, on the other hand, without knowing why-never could be satisfactorily meet: after a second world, infinitely far from mine, where you lived, engaged in rule, issue orders and upset because of his failure and finally a third world, where he lived the rest of the people, happy and without orders and obedience “.” Early on you prohibías me the word.’ll always remember threatening “Not a word of reply” and raising his hand at the same time. When it comes to your business, you are an excellent speaker and I bought in your presence a way of speaking choppy, stuttering, and even that was too much for you ultimately I kept quiet, perhaps first by stubbornness and later, because your presence could not think or talk “.“You told me:” Not another word, “and thus wanted to silence opposing forces me you were unpleasant. But this influence was too strong for me, I was too obedient and completely speechless, I hid from you and only dared move when you were so far away that you can, at least directly, and it was not enough. “

“Between us there was really no struggle, I was immediately liquidated, what remained was escape, bitterness, sadness, fighting.”

conversation with a Czech journalist, Gustav Janouch

“You take too much trouble for ephemeral things. For the most part these modern books are pale reflections of the everyday. Was extinguished too soon. Should read more old books. Classics. Goethe. Extrovierte The old inner value, the imperishable. I character has only novelty is passing thing. Today is beautiful, tomorrow seems ridiculous … Maybe it’s the path that literature “.

Conversation with Drunk

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The text has been taken from a 1977 edition of the publishing and bookstore Goncourt. The German translation of Oscar is Caeiro.

When I left short steps to the front door I was taken by surprise by the sky with moon and stars and big dome and the main square with town hall and church image of Mary.

I walked quietly from the shadow into the light of the moon, I unbuttoned my overcoat and warmed me, then raised his hands, and I silenced the noise of the night and began to reflect:

‘But what is it, really do like existierais. You want me to believe that I am unreal, standing here on the floor comically green? But still, long ago you were real, oh heaven! – And you, square, have never been real.

It’s true; you’re still above me, but only when I leave in peace. ”

-Thank God, moon, moon’re not, but perhaps it is remiss of me than you, the call moon, moon keep calling you. Why you’re not so proud if I call

“forgotten paper lantern with a funny color.” And why did you withdraw almost completely if I call ‘image of Mary’, and I do not recognize your attitude menacing image of Mary, if I call ‘yellow moon shines light’. ”

“But you do not seem real that does well if we reflect on you, you lose value and health.”

“Oh God, what has to be advantageous to learn from reflecting the drunk!”

“Why have you been all quiet. Believe that there is no wind. And the houses, which often roll over the square as if mounted on small wheels, have been well fixed. Still … still … No line looks thin, black, that once separated them from the ground. ”

And I started moving. And I walked unhindered three times around the large square, and as I did not find any drunk, walked, without slowing down and without feeling tired, toward the alley Karl. My shadow moved, often smaller than me, next to me on the wall, as if in a gorge between the wall and the bottom of the street.

When I passed the building of the firefighters heard a noise coming from the small square, and when I turned around I saw a drunk who was standing at the gate of the source: his arms raised horizontally and hit the ground with feet, which were shod with wooden slippers.

First I stood, my breathing to calm down, then went to him, took off the hat from his head and introduced myself:

“Good night, delicate gentleman, I am twenty-three, but I have yet to be named. But you surely come with a name and even singable amazing in this great city that is Paris. Totally unnatural smell of the Paris court slippery it envelopes you “.

“You have seen with your eyes colored surely those great ladies who are already on the high terraces and bright, turning on her slender waist ironically, while the tip of the tail painted her dress, also extended on the ladder, remains still on the sand of the garden. ”

“Not true, on long beams, scattered everywhere dressed up fraques servants dared cut gray and white pants, legs placed around the beams, but the trunk is often thrown back and the side, they have to raise rope gigantic gray canvas and lay on top, because the great lady like a cloudy morning. ” As he burped, I said almost aghast: “Really, it’s true, you come from our Paris, Paris stormy, alas, this enthusiastic hail?”

When he returned to burp confused said: “I know, it gives me great honor.” And I buttoned overcoat with fast fingers, then spoke with fervor and shyness:

“I know, you do not consider me worthy of an answer, but I would have had to spend an unfortunate life if I had not questioned today.”

“Please, sir elegant, it is true what you told me. Are there people in Paris has just adorned costumes, and there are houses that are merely portals, and it is true that in summer days the sky is fleetingly blue, embellished only by compressed white puffs, all of which are shaped like hearts? ‘And is there a cabinet of wax figures with large turnout, in which trees are only the names of the most famous heroes, criminals and lovers, small signs hanging? ”

“And then this news! This news manifestly false!”

“It is not true: the streets of Paris were suddenly branched, are restless, does not it? There always is everything in order, how it would be possible! Suddenly an accident happens, people gather, from the side streets, over characteristic of large cities, which only slightly touches the pavement because of the disappointment all are curious, but also fear, breathe fast and advance their little heads. But when they touch each other, lean much and apologize: “Sorry … was unintentional … The crowd is great, forgive, I beg you … It was very awkward for me … I admit it. My name is … My name Jerome is Faroche, spice merchant in the Rue du Cabotin … Let me invite you tomorrow for lunch … Also my wife is going to have a great taste … So speak, while the alley is deafened and smoke chimneys falls between houses. Right. And ever be possible in a lively boulevard of a neighborhood, two cars stopped aristocratic. Servers seriously open doors. Eight noble mountain huskies run down dancing and barking and jumping on the road. And then he says that are stylish young Parisians dressed.”

Her eyes were tightly closed. When I stopped, put both hands in his mouth and pulled the lower jaw. His suit was all stained. Perhaps he was expelled from a still life and did not realize it yet.

Maybe this break was small, very quiet, which is between the day and night, when the head, without the wait, hang, neck, and when everything without us noticing, stand still because we do not observe, and then disappears. While we were alone with the body bent we turn later, but we no longer see anything and you feel no air resistance, but inwardly we cling to remember that at some distance from us is roofed houses and, thank God, chimneys angled through the darkness which enters houses, for the attic to the most different rooms. And it is fortunate that tomorrow will be a day in which, incredible as it is, you can see everything.

At that time the drunk raised his eyebrows, so that between them and eyes came a gleam, and intermittently explained: “Yes, indeed … I’m sleepy effect, so I sleep … I have indeed a brother in Wenceslas Square … I’m heading there, as there alive, because there I have my bed … I’m going … Only, in fact, not know his name or where he lives … I seems that I’ve forgotten … But no matter, because even really know if I have a brother … Now I’m, in fact … Do you think I will find it?

I replied without thinking: “That’s for sure.
But you come from abroad and their servants not to be home. Let me take you. ”

No answer … Then I reached my arm to hang him.

Critical Essays Kafka’s Jewish Influence

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Prague was steeped in the air of Jewish discovering and composing until the communal and political turmoil of the collapsing Austrian domain put an end to its traditional feature.  According to Kafka, Prague was a heritage crossroads even then. Pulsating with life, the town made many a lingering myth throughout the subsequent centuries, and they, in turn, supplemented to its heritage fertility. The myth of the golem is likely its most well known: golem (“clay” in Hebrew) was the first chunk of inanimate issue that the famed Rabbi Loew, known for his teachings as well as his alchemistic pursuits, supposedly awakened to actual life in the late sixteenth years. This myth fathered a entire genre of publications in writing in the haunting, atmosphere of Prague’s Jewish ghetto. It is this backdrop, medieval originally, but with several layers of subsequent cultural impulses superimposed on it, that pervades the world of Franz Kafka, supplying it with a very genuine” setting of what is usually and misleadingly renowned as “Kafkaesque unrealness.”

One of the unresolved stresses that is characteristic of Kafka’s work happens between his early (and growing) awareness of his Jewish heritage and the realization that up to date Central European Jewry had become nearly wholly assimilated. This tension stayed alive in him rather apart from his situation as a famous member of the Jewish-German intelligentsia of Prague. The difficulty worried him all the more exactly because his family clung to Jewish customs only in a superficial way. Although perhaps of a more orthodox backdrop than her husband — and therefore not rather so eager to attain total assimilation into gentile humanity — even Kafka’s mother made no large effort to cherish Jewish ways. On one grade, then, Kafka’s animosity in the direction of his dad and his entire family may be clarified by his climbing on interest in his Jewish heritage which they did not share.

Kafka seemed drawn to Jews who had sustained their cultural identity, amidst them the foremost were those of Yiddish descent coming from Poland. He attended their performances in 1911, coordinated evenings of reading Yiddish publications, and was drawn into fierce contentions about this subject with his father, who despised traveling actors, as did the Jewish establishment of Prague. It was at that time that Kafka began to study Hebrew. As late as 1921, although, he still complained about having no firm knowledge of Jewish history and belief.

What fascinated Kafka about the diverse constituents of this group was their firmness of faith and their resistance to being absorbed into the culture of their gentile natural natural environment. There are numerous notes and journal applications which issue to Kafka’s awareness of the absolutely vital distinction between Western and Eastern Jews in relation to this issue. Kafka felt a large affinity with the chassidic tradition (chassidic means “pious” in Hebrew; it was an vintage conservative action within Judaism which came to flower afresh in the eighteenth years in eastern Europe). Kafka adored very much their ardent, this-worldly belief, their veneration of ancestry, and their cherishing of native customs. He evolved a mighty contempt for Jewish artists who, in his estimation, too eagerly succumbed to assimilation and secularization.

Kafka was especially involved in Zionism, the action founded by Theodor Herzl (The Jewish State, 1890) to terminate the dissemination of Jews all over the world by promoting their town in Palestine. Zionism preached the ancient Jewish conviction that the Messiah would arrive with the re-establishment of the Jewish state, and Kafka’s yearn for such a Jewish state and his enthusiasm to emigrate should be documented. Kafka published in a Zionist publication, designed several journeys to Palestine (which never materialized because of his deteriorating health), and was most enthusiastic about the solidarity, the sense of community, and the simplicity of the new kibbuzim.

While it is factual that Kafka’s friend Max Brod influenced him in carrying the ideals of Zionism, it is incorrect to state that without Brod’s leverage Kafka would not ever have evolved an interest in the action. His Hebrew teacher Thieberger, a friend and scholar of Martin Buber, was furthermore a foremost influence on Kafka. Thieberger emphasized Jewish responsibility for the entire world and accepted that everybody is witness to everyone additional. Oddly sufficient,Kafka’s father’s stable exhortations to “lead an active life” may have supplemented to his growing esteem for the Jewish pioneer ways.

Another source of Kafka’s growing interest in Jewish custom was, of course, his sickness, the very sickness that kept him from bearing out his plans to emigrate to Palestine and reside there as an artisan. The more Kafka became cognizant of his closeness to the end, the more he delved into the study of his identity. A year before his death, he begun attending the Berlin Academy of Jewish investigations, and it was during that identical year, 1923, that he contacted Dora Dymant, who was of chassidic background and further accented his search and love for his Jewish roots.

It is clear that Kafka’s interest and love for the various facets of Jewry are not only an attempt on his part to make up for past omissions in this issue. They are,  the outcome of his devout concerns — devout” in the wider sense of the word — that is, devout by temperament, religious in the sense of ceaselessly seeking and longing for grace.

The Concern of The Father

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Some say the word derives from the Slavic Odradek and try to clarify on this basis, the formation of the word. Others believe that it comes from German, and that is only influenced by Slavonic. The uncertainty of both interpretations, however, is rightly conclude that neither is correct, because none can find a way.

Of course no one would deal with these issues if there were really a being called Odradek. At first glance it looks like a flat spool of wire, star-shaped, and in fact also seems to have the wire twisted, but these are just pieces of wire torn, old, knotted and tangled with each other also, of types and colors of the disparate. It is not, however, only a spool, but from the center of the star tick a small stick oblique, and this stick if it adds another at right angles. With the aid of a stick and the other side with the latter with a radius of the star, all can stand on two legs like.

It is tempting to believe that such a creature have ever had any form appropriate to a purpose, and that it is now simply broken. But it seems that is not the case, at least not if it finds no sign, you do not see added or fractures that could indicate something like that, the whole thing seems certain foolish, but in its kind concluded. On the other hand, one can not say anything more precise because Odradek is extraordinarily moving and does not get taken.

He lingers now on the roof, now in stairways, corridors hours, hours in the lobby. Sometimes you do not see for months, apparently moved to other houses, but then invariably back in our house. Sometimes, when you leave the door is right there under leaning on the railing of the stairs, and we would like to talk to him. Of course you do not ask difficult questions, but it is – already its smallness leads to this – as a child. “What’s your name?” You ask. “Odradek” he says. “And where do you live?” “Homeless” he says, and laughs, but it’s just a laugh as may issue those without lungs. Sounds about like the rustle of fallen leaves. For the most part, with this the conversation ends. Besides, these responses can not always be obtained, often remains silent for a long time, such as wood which seems to be done.

I wonder what will happen to him in vain. Maybe you can die? All that dies has had before a kind of purpose, a kind of activities on which it is worn; this is not the case of Odradek. Maybe one day will then roll again down the stairs dragging its threads rolled out of the way of my children, and my children’s children? Of course, does no harm to anyone, but this idea, which can also survive me, gives me almost a pain.

The Great Wall of China

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This interpretation, which has been ready by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, BC, Canada, is in the general population area and may be utilized by any individual, in entire or to some extent, without consent and without charge, gave the origin is affirmed, discharged November 2003.

The Great Wall of China was completed at its northernmost area. The development work climbed from the south-east and south-west and united right now. The arrangement of constructing in segments was in addition accompanied on a modest scale inside the two extraordinary armed forces of laborers, the eastern and western. It was completed in the accompanying way: assemblies of around twenty specialists were shaped, every of which needed to assume an area of the divider, around five hundred metres.

A neighboring assembly then manufactured a divider of comparative length to meet it. In any case subsequently, when the areas were thoroughly united, development was not proceeded any further at the close of this thousand-metre area. Alternately the gatherings of laborers were transported off again to manufacture the divider in totally distinctive districts. Characteristically, with this strategy numerous imposing crevices went out, which were filled in just slowly and inefficiently, a large portion of them not until after it had as of now been reported that the constructing of the divider was done right.

Actually, there are stated to be crevices which have never been raised in to any detectable degree, granted that would be just a statement which undoubtedly has a place right around the countless legends which have emerged concerning the structure and which, for distinct folks anyhow, are unrealistic to demonstrate with their particular eyes and as per their particular norms, in light of the fact that the structure is so monstrous.

Notwithstanding, from the beginning one may think it might have been more invaluable in each course to assemble in persistent areas or anyhow enduring inside two prevailing segments. For the divider was considered an insurance opposite the folks of the north, as was usually published and generally known. Be that as it may by what means can insurance be given by a divider which is not manufactured consistently?

Truth be told, not just can quite an impressive divider not secure, yet the structure itself is in consistent risk. Those parts of the divider left standing deserted specifically districts might effectively be devastated over and over by the travelers, specifically by the aforementioned in those days who, agonized over the fabricating of the divider, adapted their spot of habitation with inconceivable speed, such as grasshoppers, and accordingly conceivably had a far better for the most part perspective of how the development was progressing than we did, the folks who assembled it.

Nonetheless, there was no other way to complete the development with the exception of the way it happened. Keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend this, one must acknowledge the emulating: the divider was to be an assurance for a considerable length of time; in this manner, the key essentials for the work were the most cautious development, the utilization of the building savvy of all known a long time and individuals, and a continuing feeling about private obligation in the makers.

Obviously, for the more modest jobs one might utilize oblivious day laborers from the individuals—the men, ladies, and youngsters who offered their aids for great cash. Anyway the supervision of even four day laborers needed a proficient man, a well versed master in development, somebody who was equipped for the purpose of feeling sympathy profound in his heart for what was at stake here. What’s more the higher the test, the more terrific the mandates. Besides such men were as a matter of fact ready—if not the swarms of them which this development might have utilized, at any rate in awesome numbers.

They did not set regarding this work heedlessly. Fifty years soon after the begin of development it was published all through the entire district of China which was to be encased inside the divider that building design and in particular stone work were the most vital ranges of learning, and the lot else was distinguished just to the degree that it had some association to the previously mentioned. I still recollect so great how as little kids who might barely stroll we stood in our instructor’s small arrangement and needed to build a sort of divider out of stones, and how the educator got together his cover and ran opposite the divider, indigenous making the whole lot cave in, and after that reprimanded us so far for the powerlessness of our development that we ran off in all headings wailing to our folks. A minor episode, however a sign of the spirit of the times.

I was lucky that at twenty years of age, when I passed the last examination of the most minimal school, the development of the divider was simply beginning. I declare lucky since numerous who previous had achieved the most elevated breaking point of instruction ready to them for quite some time had no clue what to do with their learning and meandered around uselessly, with the most magnificent engineering arrangements in their heads, and an awesome a hefty portion of them simply went downhill from that point. In any case the ones who irrevocably got to function as directors on the development, regardless of the possibility that they had the most minimal rank, were actually worthy of their position.

They were artisans who had given much thought to the development and never quit considering it, men who, right from the first stone which they sunk into the ground, had a feeling about themselves as a feature of the divider. Such artisans, obviously, were determined not just by the longing to do the fill in as thoroughly as would be prudent and yet by anxiousness to see the structure standing there in its finish last superbness. Day laborers don’t experience this fretfulness. They are determined just by their pay. The higher administrators and, in fact, even the center administrators, see enough from their different viewpoints on the development of the divider to keep their spirits energized. Yet the subordinate administrators, men who were rationally far above their little, more trifling undertakings, needed to be coddled in different ways. One night, for instance, gave them a chance to lay one raising piece on top of a different in an uninhabited area of the mountains, many miles from their homes, for months or even years around then. The awfulness of quite a hard errand, which night might it be finished even in a long human lifetime, might have