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R. Crumb's Kafka
Part illustrated biography, part comics adaptation, R. CRUMB'S KAFKA is a vibrant biography that examines this Czech writer and his works in a way that a bland texbook never could! R. CRUMB'S KAFKA goes far beyond being explication or popularization or survey. It's a work of art in its own right, a very rare example of what happens when one very idiosyncratic artist absorbs another into his worldview without obliterating the individuality of the absorbed one. Crumb's art is filled with Kafka's insurmountable neuroses. They are all there: Gregor Samsa's sister, the luscious Milena Jesenska, the Advacate's "nurse" Leni, Olda and Frieda, and the ravishing Dora Diamant-drawn in that mixture of self-command, tantalizing knowingness, and sly sexuality, that amazonian randines and thick-limbed physicality that is Crumb. . . Crumb's idiosyncratic illustrations add a new dimension to the already idiosyncratic world of Kafka.Includes adaptations of "The Judgment," "The Trial," "The Castle," "A Hunger Artist," and "The Metamorphosis."
Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
David Zane Mairowitz
22books32followersMairowitz is a writer who studied English Literature and Philosophy at Hunter College, New York, and Drama at the University of California, Berkeley.
He is the author of the plays "The Law Circus" (1969 and "Flash Gordon and the Angels" (1971). Other works include "BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1965-70," "The Radical Soap Opera: Roots of Failure in the American Left," "Kafka for Beginners" and "Introducing Camus."
He is the author of the plays "The Law Circus" (1969 and "Flash Gordon and the Angels" (1971). Other works include "BAMN: Outlaw Manifestos and Ephemera 1965-70," "The Radical Soap Opera: Roots of Failure in the American Left," "Kafka for Beginners" and "Introducing Camus."
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February 9, 2021
كافكا أقل إبهارًا من بروست
وأقل ابتكارًا للأفكار من جويس
لكن رؤيته أشدّ قسوة، أشدّ ألمًا، وأكثر كونيّة من غيرها
هذه النزعة الكونية لدى كافكا سببها أنه يبدأ من المطلق دائمًا. من أماكن غير مسمّاة
أغلب شخوصه تسير دون وصف، وأماكنه كذلك، تبدو ذابلة ومهدّدة، وتظهر وكأنها في كابوس
جيمس جويس وپروست ينطلقان من التفاصيل إلى المطلق
وكافكا ينطلق من المطلق إلى التفاصيل. وهذا ما يعطي قارئه انطباعًا يشعره بأن شيئًا خارقًا للعادة يحدث، ولكنّنا لا نتمكن من تحديد ماهية هذا الشيء
جيرمي آلدر&جوزيف إپستين
------------
الكتاب برغم ترجمته الرديئة ممتع
والطريقة التي صمم بها تجعل قرائته لذة في ذاتها
فما بالنا وكافكا هو المحتوى بكوابيسه وعذاباته وعظمته
كان استعارة مكتبة قضيت معها وقتا لا ينسى
أنصح به كل عشاقه
October 9, 2024
The works of can be intimidating—even though none has the gigantism of ’s or ’s novels. Indeed, Kafka has a reputation for being both impenetrable and disturbing. And for that reason, many readers deny themselves one of the most extraordinary experiences literature can offer. This comic book aims at making Kafka more accessible and inspiring.
The most exciting thing about this volume is that it brings together an unexpected couple: Kafka and Robert Crumb, one of the last decades� most captivating and iconoclastic graphic artists. So, don’t expect an embalmed or hagiographic picture of the Czech author. Kafka was both a tormented and a zany character, and Crumb, also zany and tormented, manages to convey these two aspects of his personality very convincingly, with touches of humour and eroticism.
Also, Crumb doesn’t transpose any of Kafka’s stories or novels into comic form in their entirety. Still, this book presents many wonderful, heavily hatched, Indian ink illustrations of some of his most famous works, such as , several of his , , , and . David Zane Mairowitz’s facing biographical text is also quite informative.
Would you like to know more? Join me at
The most exciting thing about this volume is that it brings together an unexpected couple: Kafka and Robert Crumb, one of the last decades� most captivating and iconoclastic graphic artists. So, don’t expect an embalmed or hagiographic picture of the Czech author. Kafka was both a tormented and a zany character, and Crumb, also zany and tormented, manages to convey these two aspects of his personality very convincingly, with touches of humour and eroticism.
Also, Crumb doesn’t transpose any of Kafka’s stories or novels into comic form in their entirety. Still, this book presents many wonderful, heavily hatched, Indian ink illustrations of some of his most famous works, such as , several of his , , , and . David Zane Mairowitz’s facing biographical text is also quite informative.
Would you like to know more? Join me at
October 12, 2017
Kafkaesque
What does it mean anyway?
Does it really only describe the soul-crushing bureaucracy and authority?
I'm convinced there's more to it. It's an adjective that's so hard to delineate.
You first have to read a book written by Kafka to really grasp the essence of this word.
The gloom, the doom, the abuse, the injustice, the powerlessness, the inescapability, the claustrophobic feeling, the labyrinthine feeling, the absurdity, the self-abasement... The word Kafkaesque conjures up all these feelings.
And then I suggest you read his , to really understand the most important cause of Kafka's battered soul.
I also highly recommend this excellent, illustrated biography of Kafka, which is a very accessible but profound introduction to Kafka's life and work.
Kafkaesque, essentially, means Kafka. And only he can explain it to you.
What does it mean anyway?
Does it really only describe the soul-crushing bureaucracy and authority?
I'm convinced there's more to it. It's an adjective that's so hard to delineate.
You first have to read a book written by Kafka to really grasp the essence of this word.
The gloom, the doom, the abuse, the injustice, the powerlessness, the inescapability, the claustrophobic feeling, the labyrinthine feeling, the absurdity, the self-abasement... The word Kafkaesque conjures up all these feelings.
And then I suggest you read his , to really understand the most important cause of Kafka's battered soul.
I also highly recommend this excellent, illustrated biography of Kafka, which is a very accessible but profound introduction to Kafka's life and work.
Kafkaesque, essentially, means Kafka. And only he can explain it to you.
January 6, 2025
Great introduction to Kafka with pictures by R. Crumb! Can't think of a better combination! Really would like to see R. Crumb do GN of complete Kafka works; can only imagine how great The Trial as GN would be! Some things just go together - like peanut butter and jelly - and Kafka/Crumb is that kind of combination!
March 21, 2023
Una de las cosas más gratas que puede haber para un lector que admira profundamente a un escritor es encontrarse con biografías realmente apasionantes en las que uno descubre los costados más desconocidos de estos grandes genios de la literatura mundial.
En mi caso, me gusta mucho buscar biografías que realmente me aporten satisfacción, orgullo y alegría; de esta manera fui consiguiendo muchas, algunas de ellas, valiosas o difíciles de encontrar.
Esta biografía está escrita por el estadounidense David Zane Mairowitz conjuntamente con el afamado ilustrador Robert Crumb, debo reconocer que es maravillosa, en primer lugar porque mientras uno la lee, comparte datos de la vida del genial autor checo como de sus obras más importantes.
Algo similar sucede con una que tengo de Poe, escrita por el autor español Jordi Sierra i Fabra e ilustrada por Alberto Vázquez. Copio el link para quien pueda conseguirla porque está ilustrada de manera exquisita en donde Poe aparece siempre con cabeza de cuervo: /review/show...
En el caso de esta, creo que las ilustraciones, que son dignas de la obra de Kafka y que representan gráficamente la esencia del autor hubieran sido realmente apreciadas por él. Agrego algunas fotos para que tengan una idea de lo buenas que son.
Si les gusta este tipo de libros no duden en comprarlo, porque valen mucho la pena.
En mi caso, me gusta mucho buscar biografías que realmente me aporten satisfacción, orgullo y alegría; de esta manera fui consiguiendo muchas, algunas de ellas, valiosas o difíciles de encontrar.
Esta biografía está escrita por el estadounidense David Zane Mairowitz conjuntamente con el afamado ilustrador Robert Crumb, debo reconocer que es maravillosa, en primer lugar porque mientras uno la lee, comparte datos de la vida del genial autor checo como de sus obras más importantes.
Algo similar sucede con una que tengo de Poe, escrita por el autor español Jordi Sierra i Fabra e ilustrada por Alberto Vázquez. Copio el link para quien pueda conseguirla porque está ilustrada de manera exquisita en donde Poe aparece siempre con cabeza de cuervo: /review/show...
En el caso de esta, creo que las ilustraciones, que son dignas de la obra de Kafka y que representan gráficamente la esencia del autor hubieran sido realmente apreciadas por él. Agrego algunas fotos para que tengan una idea de lo buenas que son.
Si les gusta este tipo de libros no duden en comprarlo, porque valen mucho la pena.
September 26, 2017
9/26/17 I re-read this because of Greta, with whom I (slightly) disagreed about Kafka's letter to his father. I wanted to see again what Mairowitz thought of this relationship, and he confirms for me what Greta believes that his relationship with his father was entirely abusive, and was the key (hateful) relationship informing everything he wrote. He never got over it. What I didn't talk about below is how incredibly neurotic he was, and depressive, suicide-obsessed, and so driven to self-loathing that he imagined himself and/or his main characters as turning into--not just the bug of The Metamorphisis--but various creatures. I also didn't talk about his completely dysfunctional relationship with women (maybe his mother and sister were exceptions, as refuges for him). He may have loved one woman--Milena--and possibly a second, Dora. Sexuality was completely not available for him for reasons that are not completely clear. I really liked this book, this time, and yes,need to read all of Kafka again soon.
10/27/14: This is kind of a typical, straightforward, get-to-the-heart-of-him sort of literary/critical biography about the relationship between Kafka's life and writing. Mairowitz provides enough detail about his life to satisfy your biographical need (what was he really like?!) without being too pithy and reductive. Kafka himself wouldn't have done a memoir this way, and neither would Crumb. A straightforward telling of a life is not today as interesting a way to go or philosophically as supported as it once was.
Still, if you love the tortured, anguished Kafka as I always have, it's a great short reminder about his great works and their relationship to his life, bolstered by the wonderful art of Crumb, who knows something of anguish and self-loathing and family dysfunction. Two American Jews, Crumb and Mairowitz, both superb artists, the latter doing the words, the former the visuals, tell their story about a European Jew, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, that had a profound effect on them and Jews and non-Jews (like me) everywhere. I thought it was great to revisit Kafka through Crumb's visions of Kafka, especially.
10/27/14: This is kind of a typical, straightforward, get-to-the-heart-of-him sort of literary/critical biography about the relationship between Kafka's life and writing. Mairowitz provides enough detail about his life to satisfy your biographical need (what was he really like?!) without being too pithy and reductive. Kafka himself wouldn't have done a memoir this way, and neither would Crumb. A straightforward telling of a life is not today as interesting a way to go or philosophically as supported as it once was.
Still, if you love the tortured, anguished Kafka as I always have, it's a great short reminder about his great works and their relationship to his life, bolstered by the wonderful art of Crumb, who knows something of anguish and self-loathing and family dysfunction. Two American Jews, Crumb and Mairowitz, both superb artists, the latter doing the words, the former the visuals, tell their story about a European Jew, one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, that had a profound effect on them and Jews and non-Jews (like me) everywhere. I thought it was great to revisit Kafka through Crumb's visions of Kafka, especially.
April 23, 2022
The art of Robert Crumb meets the life & times of Franz Kafka; the perfect marriage of form and function. If you're a fan of both, prepare yourself for a brain-gasm.
September 21, 2019
Two favourites, Kafka and R. Crumb - why look further? Informative with the sarcastic humour fully intact. - “K himself was slowly becoming the adjective, which would be known by many more people than would ever read his books.� Imagine this - a country where a decade after his death none of his books were available to the public. But, take heart because in 1990’s Prague Kafka is no longer banned. �...you can buy a Kafka tee shirt on every street corner in the tourist quarter, or his image on porcelain plates or arisinal wood carvings. You can take a Kafka tour and visit all the Prague landmarks where his ghost walks. Soon, like Mozart in Salzburg, you’ll be able to eat his face on chocolate.� Right out of the American mould. Do you think he’d be laughing?
February 6, 2023
Commercial for R. Crumb’s Kafka
(with apologies to Reeses’s)
”Hey! You got your Kafka in my R. Crumb!�
“YOU got your R. Crumb in my Kafka!�
“IT’s DISTURBING!!�
R. Crumb’s Kafka � two dIsturbing tastes in one book!
R. Crumb illustrating Kafka’s graphic biography is pure genius. The tortured writer who’s name became an adjective combining oppressive, complex, bizarre, and nightmarish into the single word —Kafkaesque � is the perfect subject for Crumb’s unsettling comic style.
David Zane Mairowitz provides the text, examining the influences that shaped Kafka and his work. It reads like a greatest hits of neurosis. He was oppressed by a cruel and domineering father. He was an outsider twice over � culturally German and German speaking in a Prague burgeoning with Czech nationalism, and Jewish without the solace of practicing the religion or feeling a community connection. (The Prague ghetto put its stamp on Kafka’s work � he described it as, “my prison cell � my fortress.�) And, of course, there were issues with relating to women. (This is a massive understatement.)
Interwoven with these personal details are examinations of Kafka’s work. The Judgement, The Metamorphosis, The Burrow, The Penal Colony, The Trial, The Castle, A Hunger Artist, and Amerika all are examined and disturbingly illustrated by Crumb.
Kafka was a man who sought annihilation. He fantasized baroque ways of killing himself. Dying, he requested that his manuscripts be burned. That last wish was denied him, and thus he bequeathed a legacy of brilliant fables of alienation to the world. This graphic rendering of that tortured life and legacy should be required reading for anyone interested in those dark fables.
(with apologies to Reeses’s)
”Hey! You got your Kafka in my R. Crumb!�
“YOU got your R. Crumb in my Kafka!�
“IT’s DISTURBING!!�
R. Crumb’s Kafka � two dIsturbing tastes in one book!
R. Crumb illustrating Kafka’s graphic biography is pure genius. The tortured writer who’s name became an adjective combining oppressive, complex, bizarre, and nightmarish into the single word —Kafkaesque � is the perfect subject for Crumb’s unsettling comic style.
David Zane Mairowitz provides the text, examining the influences that shaped Kafka and his work. It reads like a greatest hits of neurosis. He was oppressed by a cruel and domineering father. He was an outsider twice over � culturally German and German speaking in a Prague burgeoning with Czech nationalism, and Jewish without the solace of practicing the religion or feeling a community connection. (The Prague ghetto put its stamp on Kafka’s work � he described it as, “my prison cell � my fortress.�) And, of course, there were issues with relating to women. (This is a massive understatement.)
Interwoven with these personal details are examinations of Kafka’s work. The Judgement, The Metamorphosis, The Burrow, The Penal Colony, The Trial, The Castle, A Hunger Artist, and Amerika all are examined and disturbingly illustrated by Crumb.
Kafka was a man who sought annihilation. He fantasized baroque ways of killing himself. Dying, he requested that his manuscripts be burned. That last wish was denied him, and thus he bequeathed a legacy of brilliant fables of alienation to the world. This graphic rendering of that tortured life and legacy should be required reading for anyone interested in those dark fables.
May 10, 2024
Ein Comic / eine Graphic Novell u.a. mit Fließtext, welches einen groben Abriss über Kafkas Leben und Wirken zeigt.
Es nimmt Bezug sowohl auf Seine Werke als auch auf sein Leben.
Die Zeichnungen sind schlicht und zu Teilen mystisch gehalten. Als Ergänzung haben mir diese wirklich gut gefallen. Die Covergestaltung spricht mich sehr an. Das Portrait zeigt Franz Kafka in grün und schwarz gehalten. Es wirkt geheimnisvoll und sehr düster. Kafkaesk eben.
Manchmal hätte ich mir noch etwas mehr Fließtext gewünscht, aber dafür gibt es dann ja noch andere Sekundärliteratur. Bevor ich in einige Werke Kafkas einsteige, möchte ich noch „Brief an den Vater� lesen und die ARD Serie zu seiner Person schauen. Ich denke, dass ich mir damit ein gutes Grundgerüst über ihn als Persönlichkeit geschaffen habe.
Ich denke, dass dieses Taschenbuch für all diejenigen gut ist, die über die Person Franz Kafka ein wenig erfahren möchten. Für mich ein gelungener Einstieg .
Es nimmt Bezug sowohl auf Seine Werke als auch auf sein Leben.
Die Zeichnungen sind schlicht und zu Teilen mystisch gehalten. Als Ergänzung haben mir diese wirklich gut gefallen. Die Covergestaltung spricht mich sehr an. Das Portrait zeigt Franz Kafka in grün und schwarz gehalten. Es wirkt geheimnisvoll und sehr düster. Kafkaesk eben.
Manchmal hätte ich mir noch etwas mehr Fließtext gewünscht, aber dafür gibt es dann ja noch andere Sekundärliteratur. Bevor ich in einige Werke Kafkas einsteige, möchte ich noch „Brief an den Vater� lesen und die ARD Serie zu seiner Person schauen. Ich denke, dass ich mir damit ein gutes Grundgerüst über ihn als Persönlichkeit geschaffen habe.
Ich denke, dass dieses Taschenbuch für all diejenigen gut ist, die über die Person Franz Kafka ein wenig erfahren möchten. Für mich ein gelungener Einstieg .
March 28, 2020
Η αισθητική του συγκεκριμένου Graphic Novel ή πιο σωστά του Comic Book Biography είναι απολύτως ταιριαστή με το θέμα του. Είναι υπέροχα σκοτεινή, δραματική και καταφέρνει να επικοινωνήσει την ουσία από τα βασικότερα έργα του του Kafka (μάλιστα ο σκιτσογράφος Robert Crumb δεν διστάζει να απεικονίσει το έντομο στη Μεταμόρφωση) ενώ παράλληλα διηγείται κάποια κεντρικά σημεία από τη ζωή του συγγραφέα (εστιάζοντας κυρίως στη σχέση του με τις γυναίκες που ερωτεύτηκε και την προβληματική σχέση με τον πατέρα του) καθώς και την ιστορία του εβραϊκού ghetto της Πράγας. Η συγγραφή του κειμένου είναι από τον David Zane Mairowitz, ο οποίος έχει γράψει επίσης και το Introducing Camus σε συνεργασία με τον σκιτσογράφο Alain Korkos.
Κάτι που μου έκανε ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση και το οποίο θίγεται στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι η έννοια του αφομοιωμένου Εβραίου (assimilated Jew):
"Όπως όλοι οι αφομοιωμένοι Εβραίοι, ένα από τα πράγματα που έπρεπε να "αφομοιώσει" ήταν μια ποσότητα "υγιούς αντισημιτισμού". Οι περισσότεροι Εβραίοι εκείνης της εποχής (και κάθε εποχής) απορροφούσαν την καθημερινή απειλή του αντισημιτισμού και την έστρεφαν εσωτερικά ενάντια στους εαυτούς τους. Ο Kafka δεν αποτελούσε εξαίρεση σε αυτά τα αισθήματα της εβραϊκής αυτοαποστροφής".
Υπάρχουν πολλοί τρόποι να προσεγγιστεί το έργο και η προσωπικότητα του Kafka, υπάρχουν πολλές και διαφορετικές ερμηνείες σχετικά με τα γραπτά του. Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο, μέσα στις 177 σελίδες, του δεν εμβαθύνει βεβαίως, αλλά χρησιμοποιώντας πικρό, μαύρο χιούμορ και σκοτεινές - συχνά βίαιες και αποτρόπαιες - εικόνες καταφέρνει να αποδώσει επιτυχημένα την καφκική ατμόσφαιρα και το κλίμα της ζοφερής εποχής όπου μέσα της διαμορφώθηκε η καφκική ιδιοσυγκρασία.
Κάτι που μου έκανε ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση και το οποίο θίγεται στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι η έννοια του αφομοιωμένου Εβραίου (assimilated Jew):
"Όπως όλοι οι αφομοιωμένοι Εβραίοι, ένα από τα πράγματα που έπρεπε να "αφομοιώσει" ήταν μια ποσότητα "υγιούς αντισημιτισμού". Οι περισσότεροι Εβραίοι εκείνης της εποχής (και κάθε εποχής) απορροφούσαν την καθημερινή απειλή του αντισημιτισμού και την έστρεφαν εσωτερικά ενάντια στους εαυτούς τους. Ο Kafka δεν αποτελούσε εξαίρεση σε αυτά τα αισθήματα της εβραϊκής αυτοαποστροφής".
Υπάρχουν πολλοί τρόποι να προσεγγιστεί το έργο και η προσωπικότητα του Kafka, υπάρχουν πολλές και διαφορετικές ερμηνείες σχετικά με τα γραπτά του. Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο, μέσα στις 177 σελίδες, του δεν εμβαθύνει βεβαίως, αλλά χρησιμοποιώντας πικρό, μαύρο χιούμορ και σκοτεινές - συχνά βίαιες και αποτρόπαιες - εικόνες καταφέρνει να αποδώσει επιτυχημένα την καφκική ατμόσφαιρα και το κλίμα της ζοφερής εποχής όπου μέσα της διαμορφώθηκε η καφκική ιδιοσυγκρασία.
October 9, 2019
I picked this up in a well known antiquarian institution in central Oxford earlier in the summer and I’m so glad.
Probably THE most visceral, politically incorrect dissection of Kafka in print.
If you read one book *about* Kafka in your lifetime, let it be t h i s
Probably THE most visceral, politically incorrect dissection of Kafka in print.
If you read one book *about* Kafka in your lifetime, let it be t h i s
October 8, 2024
I absolutely adore Franz Kafka as an author (and in fact consider many of his tragic heroes such as Joseph K. of The Trial and Gregor Samsa of The Metamorphosis as massively spiritually and emotionally speaking to me). But no, I have to admit that I really have not at all enjoyed the 2007 graphic novel Kafka, finding both David Zane Mairowitz' text and Robert Crumb's artwork as leaving rather much to be personally desired. For yes, while David Zane Mairowitz' general textual introduction to Franz Kafka is sufficiently informative and covers his often tragic biography (including Kafka's work as a writer, as an author and how he was ALWAYS really unsure of himself and of his literary abilities) decently and in a generally well enough researched manner (although the absence of an included bibliography in Kafka is rather ridiculous and a huge huge intellectual shortcoming for me), frankly and considering how much animosity Kafka always seemed to have felt towards ALL religions (and yes, this also and definitely includes Judaism), I do rather take umbrage with the main textual focus of Kafka seemingly being Judaism, and with author David Zane Mairowitz in my humble opinion also rather desiring us readers to believe that everything regarding Franz Kafka's life and in particular regarding his doom and gloom attitudes, his self loathing, his inability to fit into standard Central and Western bourgeois society was somehow totally and almost solely connected and related to not only Judaism but in particular to anti Semitism (and that Kafka's self hatred and his almost total lack of self esteem was thus and according to Mairowitz simply because of him being Jewish).
I mean, yes, Franz Kafka's writing (both his shorter fiction and his novels), it ALWAYS shows a huge amount of alienation and an inward turning anger and frustration often bordering on major animosity. But really, if you know about Kafka's family and in particular how verbally and emotionally abusive Franz Kafka's father always was towards his son (whose artistic temperament and sensitivity the father not only would not but also did not seemingly even remotely want to understand), well and in my opinion, the main reasons for Franz Kafka's mental health issues etc. (but also what made him such a great writer), these totally and utterly were and should be considered major family dysfunction, parental abuse, neglect and disrespect and therefore not from where I am standing primarily anti-Semitism (and that to and for me David Zane Mairowitz actually with the way he focuses Kafla seems to inadvertently kind of absolve Kafka's father by making or at least by trying to make the horrible abuse and emotional terror Franz Kafka’s father was constantly visiting upon his poor son as somehow being part and parcel to anti Semitism and not due to the fact that he, that Kafka's father was basically a total and unredeemable massive and all encompassing ASSHOLE).
In other words, just because Franz Kafka was often self hating in his life and in his work, this is (in my opinion) not because of Judaism and not because of anti-Semitism tainting everything around Kafka, including his family, not to mention that I also have to wonder how Kafka himself would react to such an assessment. And come on, many individuals who have experienced emotional abuse and neglect show signs of self hatred regardless of their religion or ethnic identity, and for Mairowitz to try to claim in Kafka that Franz Kafka's emotional issues, that his fragility and internal anger were being influenced mostly and kind of even only by Judaism alone, this seems more than a bit ludicrous and yes has also rather made me quite annoyed and angry. Combined with the fact that I also just do not consider Robert Crumb’s black and white cartoon-like illustrations all that aesthetically pleasing for my eyes (as I do find the featured artwork for Kafka much too busy, too parodistic and too exaggerated, although I do seem to be the minority here), sorry, but for me Kafka has been majorly disappointing as a graphic novel and thus only a two star rating at best (with neither David Zane Mairowitz� text and Robert Crumb’s images working at all well for me).
I mean, yes, Franz Kafka's writing (both his shorter fiction and his novels), it ALWAYS shows a huge amount of alienation and an inward turning anger and frustration often bordering on major animosity. But really, if you know about Kafka's family and in particular how verbally and emotionally abusive Franz Kafka's father always was towards his son (whose artistic temperament and sensitivity the father not only would not but also did not seemingly even remotely want to understand), well and in my opinion, the main reasons for Franz Kafka's mental health issues etc. (but also what made him such a great writer), these totally and utterly were and should be considered major family dysfunction, parental abuse, neglect and disrespect and therefore not from where I am standing primarily anti-Semitism (and that to and for me David Zane Mairowitz actually with the way he focuses Kafla seems to inadvertently kind of absolve Kafka's father by making or at least by trying to make the horrible abuse and emotional terror Franz Kafka’s father was constantly visiting upon his poor son as somehow being part and parcel to anti Semitism and not due to the fact that he, that Kafka's father was basically a total and unredeemable massive and all encompassing ASSHOLE).
In other words, just because Franz Kafka was often self hating in his life and in his work, this is (in my opinion) not because of Judaism and not because of anti-Semitism tainting everything around Kafka, including his family, not to mention that I also have to wonder how Kafka himself would react to such an assessment. And come on, many individuals who have experienced emotional abuse and neglect show signs of self hatred regardless of their religion or ethnic identity, and for Mairowitz to try to claim in Kafka that Franz Kafka's emotional issues, that his fragility and internal anger were being influenced mostly and kind of even only by Judaism alone, this seems more than a bit ludicrous and yes has also rather made me quite annoyed and angry. Combined with the fact that I also just do not consider Robert Crumb’s black and white cartoon-like illustrations all that aesthetically pleasing for my eyes (as I do find the featured artwork for Kafka much too busy, too parodistic and too exaggerated, although I do seem to be the minority here), sorry, but for me Kafka has been majorly disappointing as a graphic novel and thus only a two star rating at best (with neither David Zane Mairowitz� text and Robert Crumb’s images working at all well for me).
April 21, 2019
ملخص كتاب (أقدم لك: كافكا)
(على الكتاب أن يكون الفأس التي تكسر البحر المتجمد فينا) فرانز كافكا
يُعد الروائي النمساوي فرانز كافكا (1883-1924) من أبرز أدباء القرن العشرين ولاسيما في مجال الرواية النفسية. حيث تفنن كافكا في تصوير قلق الإنسان ومخاوفه، ومحاولاته العبثية للوصول إلى طريق الخلاص. وصفه أصحابه بأنه كان يعيش وراء حاجز زجاجي يفصله عن الواقع رغم وجوده فيه. وكان كافكا ينظر لنفسه وللعالم والحياة البشرية بنظرة سوداوية. وقد عرف عنه بأنه مفكر مغترب عن جذوره وعن أرثه والبيئة المحيطة به وقد امتازت كتاباته بالتأملات الذاتية الخصبة والغموض وصعوبة التفسير.
عاش كافكا في الحي اليهودي في براغ الذي امتاز بوجود المعابد اليهودية والأحياء العشوائية المكتظة باليهود الفقراء. عايش خلال مراحل حياته المختلفة الحاخامات، الحكائيين، الممثلين، المشعوذين والمنجمين الذين أثروا كثيرا في ذاكرته الاجتماعية بما تداولوه من أساطير وتعاليم وفولكلور متوارث. وقد عانى اليهود آنذاك من معاداة السامية حيث كان يطلق عليهم لقب العرق الأجرب وتداولت حولهم إشاعة القتل التعبدي والتي يتهم فيها اليهود بقتل المسيحيين واستعمال دم الضحية كبديل للماء في عجن خبز عيد الفصح اليهودي. وقد أدت مشاعر العداء هذه لموجات من الاضطهاد والمقاطعة الموجهة ضد اليهود. كان شعور كافكا إزاء هذه العدائية يتمثل في كراهيته لذاته وانكفاءه للداخل مبتعدا عن هويته قائلا (ما الذي يربطني باليهود. لا يوجد ما يربطني بنفسي) وقد وصف سلوكه هذا بأنه (القدرة على ابتلاع خوفه من الآخرين وتحويل هذا الخوف ضد نفسه بدلا من أن يكون ضد مصدر الخوف).
على الصعيد الأسري، عانى كافكا من الخوف من والده ذو الشخصية القوية العنيفة، كما خاف من المعلمين ومن كل السلطات العليا الذين كان يبدي لهم الاحترام خوفا من سلطتهم وبطشهم ولم يتمرد اطلاقا وإنما حول خوفه إلى تحقير للذات فاعت��ر نفسه مخطئا يتوجب عليه الاعتذار والندم. إضافة لذلك كان كافكا يفتقر للثقة في ذاته ويحمل صورة سلبية عن ملامحه وجسده. عانى كافكا من كثير من الأمراض خلال حياته وتوفي في النهاية بمرض السل قبل أن يحقق حلمه بالهجرة إلى فلسطين.
من أهم روايات كافكا: المسخ، تحريات كلب، رهبان الحبس، الجحر، في مستوطنة العقاب، المحاكمة، القلعة، فنان الجوع. �
(على الكتاب أن يكون الفأس التي تكسر البحر المتجمد فينا) فرانز كافكا
يُعد الروائي النمساوي فرانز كافكا (1883-1924) من أبرز أدباء القرن العشرين ولاسيما في مجال الرواية النفسية. حيث تفنن كافكا في تصوير قلق الإنسان ومخاوفه، ومحاولاته العبثية للوصول إلى طريق الخلاص. وصفه أصحابه بأنه كان يعيش وراء حاجز زجاجي يفصله عن الواقع رغم وجوده فيه. وكان كافكا ينظر لنفسه وللعالم والحياة البشرية بنظرة سوداوية. وقد عرف عنه بأنه مفكر مغترب عن جذوره وعن أرثه والبيئة المحيطة به وقد امتازت كتاباته بالتأملات الذاتية الخصبة والغموض وصعوبة التفسير.
عاش كافكا في الحي اليهودي في براغ الذي امتاز بوجود المعابد اليهودية والأحياء العشوائية المكتظة باليهود الفقراء. عايش خلال مراحل حياته المختلفة الحاخامات، الحكائيين، الممثلين، المشعوذين والمنجمين الذين أثروا كثيرا في ذاكرته الاجتماعية بما تداولوه من أساطير وتعاليم وفولكلور متوارث. وقد عانى اليهود آنذاك من معاداة السامية حيث كان يطلق عليهم لقب العرق الأجرب وتداولت حولهم إشاعة القتل التعبدي والتي يتهم فيها اليهود بقتل المسيحيين واستعمال دم الضحية كبديل للماء في عجن خبز عيد الفصح اليهودي. وقد أدت مشاعر العداء هذه لموجات من الاضطهاد والمقاطعة الموجهة ضد اليهود. كان شعور كافكا إزاء هذه العدائية يتمثل في كراهيته لذاته وانكفاءه للداخل مبتعدا عن هويته قائلا (ما الذي يربطني باليهود. لا يوجد ما يربطني بنفسي) وقد وصف سلوكه هذا بأنه (القدرة على ابتلاع خوفه من الآخرين وتحويل هذا الخوف ضد نفسه بدلا من أن يكون ضد مصدر الخوف).
على الصعيد الأسري، عانى كافكا من الخوف من والده ذو الشخصية القوية العنيفة، كما خاف من المعلمين ومن كل السلطات العليا الذين كان يبدي لهم الاحترام خوفا من سلطتهم وبطشهم ولم يتمرد اطلاقا وإنما حول خوفه إلى تحقير للذات فاعت��ر نفسه مخطئا يتوجب عليه الاعتذار والندم. إضافة لذلك كان كافكا يفتقر للثقة في ذاته ويحمل صورة سلبية عن ملامحه وجسده. عانى كافكا من كثير من الأمراض خلال حياته وتوفي في النهاية بمرض السل قبل أن يحقق حلمه بالهجرة إلى فلسطين.
من أهم روايات كافكا: المسخ، تحريات كلب، رهبان الحبس، الجحر، في مستوطنة العقاب، المحاكمة، القلعة، فنان الجوع. �
September 10, 2019
Flaneur Yayınları'ndan sevgili Servet İnandı'nın "Muhakkak oku!" dediği bir çizgi roman, kitaptı. Gerçekten de her çizgisi, anlatısı sizi alıp o dönemin Çekoslavakyasına, Prag'ına ve özellikle Kafkaların evine götürdü. Çok başarılı buldum. hatta Kafkaesk havası o derece başarılı ki hüzünden boğuldum.
October 4, 2019
يستعرض الكتاب حياة كافكا والأحداث من حوله وقسوة والده وتاثير ذلك عليه وعلي اعماله
اعجبني طريقة عرض الكتاب المصورة
تحدث ايضا عن اعماله لكن يعيبه بالطبع حرق القصة او الرواية خاصة انه حرقها حتى النهاية 😡 لكن اعتقد بحسب ذاكرتي ساكون نسيت الأحداث المحروقة 😬😂😂
تحدث عن المسخ والحكم والمحاكمة والقلعة وفنان الجوع والحجر وامريكا
وعلاقته بميلينا ورسائلهم وخطيبته التي لااذكر اسمها
اعجبني طريقة عرض الكتاب المصورة
تحدث ايضا عن اعماله لكن يعيبه بالطبع حرق القصة او الرواية خاصة انه حرقها حتى النهاية 😡 لكن اعتقد بحسب ذاكرتي ساكون نسيت الأحداث المحروقة 😬😂😂
تحدث عن المسخ والحكم والمحاكمة والقلعة وفنان الجوع والحجر وامريكا
وعلاقته بميلينا ورسائلهم وخطيبته التي لااذكر اسمها
December 5, 2023
عنوان فارسی این کتاب میشه کافکا مختصر و� مفید.
این کتاب رو من در دوران نوجوانیم خوندم زمانی که در به در دنبال کسی بودم که بهم بگه این پسرک نحیف رنگ پریده چی میخواد تو کتاباش بگه.
تا این که یه روز توی هایپراستار این کتاب رو دیدم و برام مثل گنجی بود که خودم تنهایی کشفش کردم ،چی بهتر از این که یه چیزی پیدا کردم که خلاصه و راحت، کتاب ها و زندگی کافکا رو تحلیل کنه تازه مصور هم باشه.
یه دور خوندمش و دیدم ای بابا مثل این که من همین متن راحت شده رو هم نمیتونم درست بفهمم .بعدش دیگه رفت ته کتاب خانه ام.بعضی اوقات هم رندوم چندتا از صفحاتشو� میخوندم ببینم الان میفهمم چی میگه یا نه و میدید� نه واقعا اونقدری که فک میکرد� دوسش ندارم .
تا اینکه اتفاقی دوباره دیدمش و شروع کردم به خوندنش ، از اونجایی که مصور عه کلا یه روز طول کشید بخونمش و اینبار دیگه مث دفعه های قبل نبود کاملا روان و راحت خوندمش و تازه الان متوجه شدم چقدر اطلاعاتی که از کافکا میده دم دستی و سطحی ایه .شما تو این کتاب با افکار کافکا آشنا نمیشی� صرفا کمی از زندگینامش� میخونین همراه با خلاصه ایی از کتاب های معروفش .
اما واقعا تصویرگری قوی داره و تمام اون حس وحشت و ناامیدی توی کتاب های کافکا رو منتقل میکن� .
این کتاب رو من در دوران نوجوانیم خوندم زمانی که در به در دنبال کسی بودم که بهم بگه این پسرک نحیف رنگ پریده چی میخواد تو کتاباش بگه.
تا این که یه روز توی هایپراستار این کتاب رو دیدم و برام مثل گنجی بود که خودم تنهایی کشفش کردم ،چی بهتر از این که یه چیزی پیدا کردم که خلاصه و راحت، کتاب ها و زندگی کافکا رو تحلیل کنه تازه مصور هم باشه.
یه دور خوندمش و دیدم ای بابا مثل این که من همین متن راحت شده رو هم نمیتونم درست بفهمم .بعدش دیگه رفت ته کتاب خانه ام.بعضی اوقات هم رندوم چندتا از صفحاتشو� میخوندم ببینم الان میفهمم چی میگه یا نه و میدید� نه واقعا اونقدری که فک میکرد� دوسش ندارم .
تا اینکه اتفاقی دوباره دیدمش و شروع کردم به خوندنش ، از اونجایی که مصور عه کلا یه روز طول کشید بخونمش و اینبار دیگه مث دفعه های قبل نبود کاملا روان و راحت خوندمش و تازه الان متوجه شدم چقدر اطلاعاتی که از کافکا میده دم دستی و سطحی ایه .شما تو این کتاب با افکار کافکا آشنا نمیشی� صرفا کمی از زندگینامش� میخونین همراه با خلاصه ایی از کتاب های معروفش .
اما واقعا تصویرگری قوی داره و تمام اون حس وحشت و ناامیدی توی کتاب های کافکا رو منتقل میکن� .
August 22, 2021
Enter Kafka’s world through the art of R. Crumb. Oh, I’m sorry enter the world of R. Crumb through the master story telling of Franz Kafka. Both artists are equally revealed through this comic book.
Opening line of the Trial, ‘I am not permitted to tell you�. Proceedings against you have begun and you will be told everything in due course�, of course the speaker is lying. Nothing will be revealed in due course while the proceedings against you proceed on their predetermined certain path. A wickedly funny statement in this comic book, ‘Kafka would read sections of the Trial to friends while laughing hysterically�. It takes an R. Crumb or a Franz Kafka to fully appreciate the paradox of existence and not laugh inwardly as they laugh visibly and does one really believe that Kafka or Crumb have friends?
Everything that ever was or anything that ever will be comes about from what came before it as interpreted by the current and weighted by the expectations of the future and to understand Kafka one must understand his times and what world he was thrown into and just note, for example, his three sisters will be brutally murdered in death camps by the Germans after his death and the world that he was thrown into with all of its absurdities and contradictions formed what he wrote and thought just as this graphic novel artist reveals himself as he reveals Kafka and his stories, and our current world suffers from the same background while no one worthy of your consideration is ‘permitted to tell you…Proceedings against you have begun and you will be told everything in due course�.
Kafka and Crumb give more than they take and for a brief moment one cracks the paradox of existence while reading this comic book with an added bonus of learning about pre-war and post-war Prague, Germans, Czechs, Golem’s, Ghettos, and displacement inherent in being strangers in a strange land, or in other words, just being human pretending that we belong and that we are learning in due course.
Opening line of the Trial, ‘I am not permitted to tell you�. Proceedings against you have begun and you will be told everything in due course�, of course the speaker is lying. Nothing will be revealed in due course while the proceedings against you proceed on their predetermined certain path. A wickedly funny statement in this comic book, ‘Kafka would read sections of the Trial to friends while laughing hysterically�. It takes an R. Crumb or a Franz Kafka to fully appreciate the paradox of existence and not laugh inwardly as they laugh visibly and does one really believe that Kafka or Crumb have friends?
Everything that ever was or anything that ever will be comes about from what came before it as interpreted by the current and weighted by the expectations of the future and to understand Kafka one must understand his times and what world he was thrown into and just note, for example, his three sisters will be brutally murdered in death camps by the Germans after his death and the world that he was thrown into with all of its absurdities and contradictions formed what he wrote and thought just as this graphic novel artist reveals himself as he reveals Kafka and his stories, and our current world suffers from the same background while no one worthy of your consideration is ‘permitted to tell you…Proceedings against you have begun and you will be told everything in due course�.
Kafka and Crumb give more than they take and for a brief moment one cracks the paradox of existence while reading this comic book with an added bonus of learning about pre-war and post-war Prague, Germans, Czechs, Golem’s, Ghettos, and displacement inherent in being strangers in a strange land, or in other words, just being human pretending that we belong and that we are learning in due course.
February 11, 2018
ألسنا نحن، الكائنات البشرية، مثيرون للشفقة إلى درجة السخرية الهزلية ؟!
الكتاب جيّد في المجمل بالرغم من انحدار مستوي الترجمة لكن حمدًا لله قرأت الكثير عن كافكا ..
الكاتب هنا يستعرض جانبًا كبيرًا من حياة كافكا بدءًا من طفولته المؤلمة
و يحكي عن قصة المسخ
" يستيقظ جريجور سامسا ذات صباح بعد أحلام مزعجة ، ليجد نفسه قد تحول في فراشِه إلي حشرة هائلة الحجم" أشهر أفتتاحية رواية فى تاريخ الآدب الحديث"
ثم قصته العظيمة الحكم
و يمر علي المحاكمة
ثم يمر علي القلعة و أمريكا و قصتين في منتهي الجمال فنان الجوع و في مستعمرة العقاب ,
الكاتب عرض الاعمال في طريقة شيقة و جذابة
ارشحه للجميع
انكمشت حياتي ومازالت تواصل الانكماش !
من أجل الكتابة أحتاج إلى عزلة، ليس مثل زاهد، هذا لا يكفي، وإنما مثل ميت.
إن البهجة التي يخلقها وجودك تجعلني أحتمل أي شيء.
حتي لو لم تقرأ كافكا من قبل فربما ترى صورة عامة لأعماله هنا في هذا الكتاب
الكتاب جيّد في المجمل بالرغم من انحدار مستوي الترجمة لكن حمدًا لله قرأت الكثير عن كافكا ..
الكاتب هنا يستعرض جانبًا كبيرًا من حياة كافكا بدءًا من طفولته المؤلمة
و يحكي عن قصة المسخ
" يستيقظ جريجور سامسا ذات صباح بعد أحلام مزعجة ، ليجد نفسه قد تحول في فراشِه إلي حشرة هائلة الحجم" أشهر أفتتاحية رواية فى تاريخ الآدب الحديث"
ثم قصته العظيمة الحكم
و يمر علي المحاكمة
ثم يمر علي القلعة و أمريكا و قصتين في منتهي الجمال فنان الجوع و في مستعمرة العقاب ,
الكاتب عرض الاعمال في طريقة شيقة و جذابة
ارشحه للجميع
انكمشت حياتي ومازالت تواصل الانكماش !
من أجل الكتابة أحتاج إلى عزلة، ليس مثل زاهد، هذا لا يكفي، وإنما مثل ميت.
إن البهجة التي يخلقها وجودك تجعلني أحتمل أي شيء.
حتي لو لم تقرأ كافكا من قبل فربما ترى صورة عامة لأعماله هنا في هذا الكتاب
May 24, 2015
I have a confession to make...I've never read a Kafka book.
I know, it's shocking. So why am I even reading this graphic biography of the man? The main reason I picked this up is because of how beautiful it was. Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz have done a fantastic job putting together a history of Kafka by giving us pages of beautifully illustrated material.
Of course I know who Franz Kafka is, and I've heard a lot about him. I know his books, I know what he's written, and I even know some of what his books talk about. However, I never realized how dark and twisted he actually was until I read this brief biography of him. His thoughts and feelings illustrated in pictures was a brilliant touch to this haunted man. I loved that we even got summaries of his famous works in the form of drawings as well.
I don't think I was drawn to Kafka very much as a person, although I did enjoy this book, but he left me feeling unmoved with him, his life and his death.
That being said, it did make me want to pick up one of his books and start reading them, for no other reason than the fact that he was a good writer.
I know, it's shocking. So why am I even reading this graphic biography of the man? The main reason I picked this up is because of how beautiful it was. Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz have done a fantastic job putting together a history of Kafka by giving us pages of beautifully illustrated material.
Of course I know who Franz Kafka is, and I've heard a lot about him. I know his books, I know what he's written, and I even know some of what his books talk about. However, I never realized how dark and twisted he actually was until I read this brief biography of him. His thoughts and feelings illustrated in pictures was a brilliant touch to this haunted man. I loved that we even got summaries of his famous works in the form of drawings as well.
I don't think I was drawn to Kafka very much as a person, although I did enjoy this book, but he left me feeling unmoved with him, his life and his death.
That being said, it did make me want to pick up one of his books and start reading them, for no other reason than the fact that he was a good writer.
May 18, 2021
Una revisión a los tormentos del autor y a lo retorcido de algunas de sus obras más célebres. Mediante una visión que mezcla biografía con narrativa, se puede aprender sobre la mala relación entre Kafka y su padre, aparecen cartas de amor verdadero y otras que esquivan a su destinataria, el autor se revela como un trabajador sobresaliente que incluso mejoró las condiciones de vida de muchos trabajadores y se introduce el contexto social de la Praga del momento.
Por las páginas también asoman resúmenes de sus principales obras, como "La metamorfosis", "El castillo", "El proceso" o "En la colonia penitenciaria". En todo momento, la obra indaga en las obsesiones más oscuras de un autor capaz de crear insólitas pesadillas, a la vez que peleaba contra su propio mundo interior. Sin ser tampoco una obra exhaustiva, aporta una visión dinámica de Kafka al entrar y salir constantemente de sus libros y cartas.
Por las páginas también asoman resúmenes de sus principales obras, como "La metamorfosis", "El castillo", "El proceso" o "En la colonia penitenciaria". En todo momento, la obra indaga en las obsesiones más oscuras de un autor capaz de crear insólitas pesadillas, a la vez que peleaba contra su propio mundo interior. Sin ser tampoco una obra exhaustiva, aporta una visión dinámica de Kafka al entrar y salir constantemente de sus libros y cartas.
March 17, 2016
I am always pleased and happy to know more about you my dear Kafka.
Although Kafka could be my favorite writer of all time, I never gave a book or a novel of his A full five stars. I still can't figure out why?
Why always there is something between him and I that makes me feel so close to him but yet so angry and disturbed at him, What kind of magic he has that makes me lose control of my emotions and flounder as A raging sea ? Reading a book for Kafka is like going on a ride to discover more things I don't want to know about the human condition but I just can't hold my curiosity.
Kafka I think you are the axe for the frozen sea within me, I am always happy to dig down deep through you and search for me there, that's why I was so happy with this book.
Thank you David Zane for Introducing us to FRANZ KAFKA...
Although Kafka could be my favorite writer of all time, I never gave a book or a novel of his A full five stars. I still can't figure out why?
Why always there is something between him and I that makes me feel so close to him but yet so angry and disturbed at him, What kind of magic he has that makes me lose control of my emotions and flounder as A raging sea ? Reading a book for Kafka is like going on a ride to discover more things I don't want to know about the human condition but I just can't hold my curiosity.
Kafka I think you are the axe for the frozen sea within me, I am always happy to dig down deep through you and search for me there, that's why I was so happy with this book.
Thank you David Zane for Introducing us to FRANZ KAFKA...
Read
September 2, 2021This was an interesting collaboration, but does not measure up to Crumb's best one....
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/review/show...
November 5, 2012
In his diaries, Kafka imagined his demise in many creative ways. For example, razor thin slices of him cut off with a butcher knife. Or being dragged with a noose around his neck.
I believe Max Brod may have had it right when he claimed Kafka's works were part of an elaborate search for an unreachable god. Especially with the inaccessibility of higher authority in The Trial and The Castle.
He was born and lived in Prague all but the last 8 months of his life. He called the city "a little mother" with "claws." He was Czech-born but a German speaker and a Jew. So finding a cultural identity was difficult. He grew up in one of Europe's oldest ghettos amid mystics, Zionists, visionaries, Kabbalists, astronomers, and astrologers. In the Kabbalah, the letters of the Hebrew were endowed with magical powers.
The Golem is sort of a Jewish Frankenstein monster. A man named Rabbi Loew is supposed to have given life to a lump of clay by writing the Hebrew sign EMETH or TRUTH on its forehead. The Golem then protects the ghetto. Since it can't work on a Saturday, the Sabbath, the rabbi must remove the first letter Aleph every Friday night. That leaves Mem and Taw which together spell METH or DEATH. When the rabbi forgets to do this one Friday, the Golem destroys and must be killed by erasing the letters. Supposedly the ashes of the creature were left in the attic of the Altneu (old-new) Synagogue where they remain for all eternity, which includes today.
Kafka refers to the ghetto as "my prison cell--my fortress." Wire fences were even put up around it.
Kafka did not show much interest in Judaism as a religion but he did show interest in Hasidism. That movement was founded in Poland in the 18th century by Baal-Shem-Tov. What influenced the stories of Kafka was the idea that mystical values was to be found in the everyday details of life. That's where God was easily contactable.
Every horror imaginable was attributed to Jews, including vampirism. It was believed that to make their Matzos (unleavened bread eaten at Passover), Jews used Christian blood instead of water. When Kafka was 16, a Christian girl was found with her throat slashed. The cry went up that she had been "made kosher." A shoemaker was sentenced to life in prison without any evidence. Boycotts and destruction of Jewish businesses ensued. Many Jews turned this hatred inward. Kafka was no exception.
Kafka: "A picture of my existence . . . would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow . . . stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night."
Kafka did not want the insect of The Metamorphosis to be seen. I have always felt that Gregor Samsa never really turned into an insect, rather he just could not go on with his life.
Kafka followed the advice of the American Horace Fletcher who believed the panacea for all illness was mastication: chewing each bite of food at least ten times. This had to have angered his father.
Kafka often had concerns about his manliness. He was frail and lacked confidence. He worked on developing his body, but probably did not eat right. He thought of marriage or leaving for Palestine. Basically, he spent most of his life at home with his parents.
He had relationships with four women. Three of them were mostly by letter: Felice Bauer, Grete Bloch, and Milena Jesenska. He could never make any work out for a marriage.
He worked for an insurance company. He helped reduce the rate of industrial accidents in Bohemia. He supposedly saved hundreds of lives, especially in the lumber industry. Working though required him to write at night.
Opening line of The Trial: "Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning." When Kafka read passages of The Trial out loud to his friends, it has been reported that he laughed out loud.
Kafka's great unfinished novel The Castle is one of those books where the idea alone makes it great. It could never really have an "ending" because it represents the neverending search for an unknown god.
Kafka describes the first sexual experience of his life in a letter to Milena. It was a young shopgirl who did "something slightly obscene (not worth mentioning)." It was then he realized "that disgust and dirt were a necessary part" of the experience.
In 1922, tuberculosis forced him to retire from his insurance job. He found a strange peace in the last months of his life. He met Dora Diamant (1904-1952). He moved to Berlin in 1923 with the 19-year-old. They dreamed together of moving to Tel Aviv and opening a restaurant. In April 1924, he moved to a sanatorium near Vienna. He wanted morphine for his pain. As he said, "Kill me or else you're a murderer." Three days later, Milena wrote in his obituary that he was "a man condemned to regard the world with such blinding clarity that he found it unbearable and went to his death."
While he was dying of starvation and illness, he finished off his great masterpiece "A Hunger Artist." The hunger artist explains the reason why he does what he does "because I could never find any food I liked. If I had found any, believe me, I wouldn't have made all this fuss. I'd have stuffed myself the same as you or anybody else." Words that may apply to Kafka as well.
"A Hunger Artist" was one of the few stories Kafka exempted from his instructions to Max Brod to destroy. Jean-Louis Borges pointed out that if Kafka really wanted the works destroyed, why didn't he just do it himself. Brod did not comply. The drafts are a true mess, however. More scholarship is still being done.
Manuscripts in the hands of Dora Diamant were destroyed by Nazis in her apartment. Lost forever.
Milena Jesenska and Kafka's three sisters died in concentration camps. Lost forever were their stories.
I believe Max Brod may have had it right when he claimed Kafka's works were part of an elaborate search for an unreachable god. Especially with the inaccessibility of higher authority in The Trial and The Castle.
He was born and lived in Prague all but the last 8 months of his life. He called the city "a little mother" with "claws." He was Czech-born but a German speaker and a Jew. So finding a cultural identity was difficult. He grew up in one of Europe's oldest ghettos amid mystics, Zionists, visionaries, Kabbalists, astronomers, and astrologers. In the Kabbalah, the letters of the Hebrew were endowed with magical powers.
The Golem is sort of a Jewish Frankenstein monster. A man named Rabbi Loew is supposed to have given life to a lump of clay by writing the Hebrew sign EMETH or TRUTH on its forehead. The Golem then protects the ghetto. Since it can't work on a Saturday, the Sabbath, the rabbi must remove the first letter Aleph every Friday night. That leaves Mem and Taw which together spell METH or DEATH. When the rabbi forgets to do this one Friday, the Golem destroys and must be killed by erasing the letters. Supposedly the ashes of the creature were left in the attic of the Altneu (old-new) Synagogue where they remain for all eternity, which includes today.
Kafka refers to the ghetto as "my prison cell--my fortress." Wire fences were even put up around it.
Kafka did not show much interest in Judaism as a religion but he did show interest in Hasidism. That movement was founded in Poland in the 18th century by Baal-Shem-Tov. What influenced the stories of Kafka was the idea that mystical values was to be found in the everyday details of life. That's where God was easily contactable.
Every horror imaginable was attributed to Jews, including vampirism. It was believed that to make their Matzos (unleavened bread eaten at Passover), Jews used Christian blood instead of water. When Kafka was 16, a Christian girl was found with her throat slashed. The cry went up that she had been "made kosher." A shoemaker was sentenced to life in prison without any evidence. Boycotts and destruction of Jewish businesses ensued. Many Jews turned this hatred inward. Kafka was no exception.
Kafka: "A picture of my existence . . . would show a useless wooden stake covered in snow . . . stuck loosely at a slant in the ground in a ploughed field on the edge of a vast open plain on a dark winter night."
Kafka did not want the insect of The Metamorphosis to be seen. I have always felt that Gregor Samsa never really turned into an insect, rather he just could not go on with his life.
Kafka followed the advice of the American Horace Fletcher who believed the panacea for all illness was mastication: chewing each bite of food at least ten times. This had to have angered his father.
Kafka often had concerns about his manliness. He was frail and lacked confidence. He worked on developing his body, but probably did not eat right. He thought of marriage or leaving for Palestine. Basically, he spent most of his life at home with his parents.
He had relationships with four women. Three of them were mostly by letter: Felice Bauer, Grete Bloch, and Milena Jesenska. He could never make any work out for a marriage.
He worked for an insurance company. He helped reduce the rate of industrial accidents in Bohemia. He supposedly saved hundreds of lives, especially in the lumber industry. Working though required him to write at night.
Opening line of The Trial: "Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one morning." When Kafka read passages of The Trial out loud to his friends, it has been reported that he laughed out loud.
Kafka's great unfinished novel The Castle is one of those books where the idea alone makes it great. It could never really have an "ending" because it represents the neverending search for an unknown god.
Kafka describes the first sexual experience of his life in a letter to Milena. It was a young shopgirl who did "something slightly obscene (not worth mentioning)." It was then he realized "that disgust and dirt were a necessary part" of the experience.
In 1922, tuberculosis forced him to retire from his insurance job. He found a strange peace in the last months of his life. He met Dora Diamant (1904-1952). He moved to Berlin in 1923 with the 19-year-old. They dreamed together of moving to Tel Aviv and opening a restaurant. In April 1924, he moved to a sanatorium near Vienna. He wanted morphine for his pain. As he said, "Kill me or else you're a murderer." Three days later, Milena wrote in his obituary that he was "a man condemned to regard the world with such blinding clarity that he found it unbearable and went to his death."
While he was dying of starvation and illness, he finished off his great masterpiece "A Hunger Artist." The hunger artist explains the reason why he does what he does "because I could never find any food I liked. If I had found any, believe me, I wouldn't have made all this fuss. I'd have stuffed myself the same as you or anybody else." Words that may apply to Kafka as well.
"A Hunger Artist" was one of the few stories Kafka exempted from his instructions to Max Brod to destroy. Jean-Louis Borges pointed out that if Kafka really wanted the works destroyed, why didn't he just do it himself. Brod did not comply. The drafts are a true mess, however. More scholarship is still being done.
Manuscripts in the hands of Dora Diamant were destroyed by Nazis in her apartment. Lost forever.
Milena Jesenska and Kafka's three sisters died in concentration camps. Lost forever were their stories.
November 30, 2024
Un classico, che belle illustrazioni. Crumb rispettoso di Kafka ne interpreta visivamente la narrazione
October 22, 2024
Besser als die Kafka Serie vom ZDF
May 1, 2024
Nettes Comic über Kafkas Leben und Werk. Für Fans sicherlich eine Überlegung wert.
August 9, 2014
The mythos (and thousands of volumes of accompanying thought) surrounding Franz Kafka’s oeuvre can make him an intimidating and overwhelming author for the uninitiated. As a testament to the formative nature of his works (within the realm of modern literature), his surname has entered the contemporary lexicon � Kafkaesque - to denote byzantine bureaucracy. And yet -- despite the attention and consideration heaped upon The Trial, The Metamorphosis, etc. -- Kafka is ultimately an accessible writer. Though he delves into the fantastic, the concerns and difficulties in his stories are anything but unusual: he addresses common, even quotidian, anxieties about purpose and control.
I adored Robert Crumb’s Kafka: his distinct illustration style, vacillating between caricature and grotesque, is befitting the subject. The text author, David Mairowitz, is skilled at distilling complex themes into approachable subject matter: he and Crumb seamlessly move between biography and literary criticism throughout the graphic novel. Without much (or any) prior experience, the reader will glean a thoughtful overview of the cultural, historical, and intellectual underpinning guiding Kafka’s repertoire.
(Summaries and basic analyses of The Trial, The Metamorphosis, Amerika, The Castle, "In the Penal Colony," and "The Hunger Artist" are interspersed throughout -- a strong selection of his most famous works).
The two creators work well together, and their contributions are complementary. Crumb’s artistry is absolutely perfect for capturing Kafka’s pervasive neuroses and obsessions; the exaggerated details and features evoke the thematic anxiety in Kafka’s short stories and novels. The autobiographical elements of Kafka are, so far as my knowledge goes, accurate portrayals of his relationships and personal idiosyncrasies and behaviors � especially the contradictions of his internal self-perception (manifest in his letters, diaries, and writing) and his external daily life.
I adored Robert Crumb’s Kafka: his distinct illustration style, vacillating between caricature and grotesque, is befitting the subject. The text author, David Mairowitz, is skilled at distilling complex themes into approachable subject matter: he and Crumb seamlessly move between biography and literary criticism throughout the graphic novel. Without much (or any) prior experience, the reader will glean a thoughtful overview of the cultural, historical, and intellectual underpinning guiding Kafka’s repertoire.
(Summaries and basic analyses of The Trial, The Metamorphosis, Amerika, The Castle, "In the Penal Colony," and "The Hunger Artist" are interspersed throughout -- a strong selection of his most famous works).
The two creators work well together, and their contributions are complementary. Crumb’s artistry is absolutely perfect for capturing Kafka’s pervasive neuroses and obsessions; the exaggerated details and features evoke the thematic anxiety in Kafka’s short stories and novels. The autobiographical elements of Kafka are, so far as my knowledge goes, accurate portrayals of his relationships and personal idiosyncrasies and behaviors � especially the contradictions of his internal self-perception (manifest in his letters, diaries, and writing) and his external daily life.
December 16, 2018
Tolles Buch. Kafkas Wunder: kein Leser kann die richtige Bedeutung finden. Warum? Weil solche Interpretation schliesst etwas dass muss offen bleiben. Literatur, Psychologie, Religion und die dialektische Destruktion der Sprache werden vermischt in Kafkas Bücher und Leben. Mairowitz und Crumb haben diesen Kern verstanden.
February 20, 2022
3* za przewspaniałe ilustracje Crumba, jego styl niesamowicie pasuje do kafkowego świata. Za to treść okazała się wielkim rozczarowaniem, bo ani to biografia, ani sensowne streszczenie prac. Starter pack dla kogoś, kto o Kafce niemal nic nie wie.
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