Franz Kafka: Chronicler of Darkness
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Credits:
Host - Simon Whistler
Author - Morris M.
Producer - Jennifer Da Silva
Executive Producer - Shell Harris
Business inquiries to biographics.email@gmail.com
Other Biographics Videos:
Otto Skorzeny: The Most Dangerous Man in Europe
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Robert Hanssen: The FBI Mole who Spied for the KGB
• Robert Hanssen: The FB...
Source/Further reading:
Highly-detailed bio (via the Kafka Museum in Prague): kafkamuseum.cz...
www.biography....
www.britannica...
www.kafka.org/i...
Max Brod: www.britannica...
Kafka and Felice Bauer: lithub.com/kaf...
Meeting Felice: www.theguardia...
The Judgement: www.thoughtco....
Letter to his father (some extracts): www.brainpicki...
The fact that Max Brod sorted out all Kafka's papers and organised his work into full-fledged stories in such a short period of time while also leaving his name off the cover of all the books, makes him a true friend and a real hero
Like August Derleth with Lovecraft's works!👻
Plot twist. He actually was the author.
@@The_Real_H can't tell if ur joking or not hahaha, I'm researching on kafka, cre to elaborate?
Kind of. He did get all the money and he did write endings to works that never had any (claiming he Kafka told him how they would end). But yet, we wouldn't have anything without him and Kafka wouldn't be known today.
@@toomuchquixotry-angad7408 It is true and there is a weird documentary that makes it seem like the story isn't true.
He's right up there with people like Van Gogh, who lived such miserable lives only to be marveled at long after anyone could help them see better things.
Aye, that tragic state of events has plauged many great creators and artists.
Ill never forget the first time i read "A Confederacy of Dunces" and then decided to look up what other great works John Kennedy Toole published only to discover that it was published posthumously by his mother and that the neon bible was worth a read but was written as a teenager and was more interesting as a taste of his particular flavor of the medium rather than a glimpse of future genius.
I was genuinely bummed out.
I love "A Confederacy of Dunces" so much that I buy copies and give them to people. Toole's tragedy was that he was a gay man in a time when, more than now, society was really horrible to gay people. He wound up killing himself after which his mother went to publisher after publisher to try to get the book published. The book was rejected many times until she did find a publisher and it then went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. A heartbreaking background to the funniest book I've ever read.
From the book's forward: "The tragedy of the book is the tragedy of the author -- his suicide in 1969 at the age of thirty-two. Another tragedy is the body of work we have been denied."
@Joe Frang Maurice Sendak?
Also Lovecraft.
Art seems like a bad career choice imo
Van Gogh was a drunk pervert whose work wasn't famous until years after his death.
When I read Kafka for the first time, it was a mandatory class in school. I expected it to be super boring. But as an angsty, bullied, lonely teenager with a jerk as a father, I felt like he was there sitting next to me. I felt understood for the first time really.
Fantastic, man. Same here.
I like to think I'm just like Kafka. Minus his intellect, writing ability, religion, career, disease, and friends. Other than that it's like looking in a mirror.
That way I’m very similar to Kafka as well haha. Who knows, you might possess something special to give to the world like Kafka too, you just don’t know it.
@@aditi1729 That ship has sailed. :)
There will be many more like him. Our modern world will see to that.
Hahahaha, you so funny!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻💚💚💚👏👏👏👏🙏🙏😘
same though he has inspired me to work more with my little stories c:
it’s weird how a smart melancholic man that lived long before i have had made me feel less lonely
all this to say we’re not alone!! and, i think you’re not giving yourself enough credit!! :)
Brilliant sentence:
"To say Kafka found this job crushingly dull was to overstate how exciting it was."
Beautiful writing!
Imagine all the great writers that might be known, but their writings were actually burned and thus we will never know what we missed out on.
That is why conservative or liberal, elitest or populist, whatever side of the fence you may be on, censorship is the enemy of us all. Whether you believe that 'one of the duties of the government is to protect it's people from verbal assault,' or 'We have a duty to society to preserve order by implementing standards that are acceptable-first the left's rationale for censorship, followed by the right's-both are wrong. I would rather be offended every day then see anyone censored. Whether we live with 'The Anarchist's Cookbook The Turner Diaries, etc. anything is preferable to censorship.
Aw, that is sad to think about
@Joe Frang TROLL
@Joe Frang I can.
@Joe Frang I can but I won't.
11:00 I cant remember who said it, but introverts don't like to be alone, they like to be left alone.
Edit: It was Audrey Hepburn
Can confirm. I prefer being left alone usually but I don't like being alone. Being alone sucks
Absolute truth
Being alone yet having someone at reach. I am the same way
Totally identify with that mindset.
Yes, that's me. I will remember this quote. Thank you.
I think Kafka's pattern of fleeting infatuations with various women shows just how broken he was. He wanted connection so badly, but didn't have the psychological resources to maintain a stable relationship.
Although he was a visionary and has become a literary giant, he was also just an ordinary man, whose life was tragic in ways that are common and familiar to us all.
I think this is what makes Kafka's literary works so powerful: beneath all their surreal horror and dark absurdity lies the all too familiar pain of simply being human.
Reading this post it suddenly occurred to me that, if he were born in the last few decades, he probably would've wound up shouting his pain into the void and being dismissed as an angry incel, because that's the culture we live in now, which is in itself rather Kafkaesque.
@@johnkidby7948 YES!!! The true horror of the nightmare is that it never acknowledges it's a nightmare.
Also, the rest of his family (including his beloved sister), and Jesenská (maybe his only girlfriend that he really loved) all died in the concentration camps during WW2. At least he didn't live to experience that.
That's so sad.
Sadness.
Kafka: Burn everything.
Brod: Nope...
I
You, sir, are a brilliant storyteller.
You mean his writer is. 😜😏
He is a very good narrator tho
Very well said
Talks too fast for me to understand.
It's heart wrenching to think his mother was too bullied by the Father to counter act the negativity that was ritually done to their son. It seems Kafka definitely desired intimacy but was broken. Thanks for sharing such a informative and sad story. 🤗🤗
Where is the mom, cos I haven't heard a single thing about her.
I agree with Biographics’ comment that Kafka’s novel, The Trial, is essentially a Rorschach test that we all interpret in relation to our own lives. So on that note, I have always interpreted that novel as describing a futile attempt to defy death.
Like all of life, Joseph K was condemned to death the day he was born, and like most of the rest of us, he spent the rest of his life trying to appeal that sentence, of course, to no avail.
I read metamorphosis in my early years it kind of changed the way I looked at depression. Kafka had a special kind of magic.
Just finished reading it for my composition 2 class!!
I was first introduced to the works of Kafka through 'The Metamorphosis' I found it deeply moving and profoundly changed by it. Thank you Franz!
1:15 - Chapter 1 - Early years
4:25 - Chapter 2 - Description of a struggle
7:25 - Chapter 3 - The metamorphosis
10:30 - Chapter 4 - A little woman
13:55 - Chapter 5 - Kakfa's judgement
16:55 - Chapter 6 - A hunger artist
20:25 - Chapter 7 - The man who re appeared
I know this quote from him. “Truth is what every man needs in order to live, but can obtain or purchase from no one. Each man must reproduce it for himself from within, otherwise he must perish. Life without truth is not possible. Truth is perhaps life itself.”
- Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was ahead of his time probably more than most poets
I suspect Kafka had 'a bit' of Aspergers
The nazis denied truth and faced ruin. The list of nazis who committed suicide speaks for itself... Life without truth is suicidal.
Schmick Aussie just like American soldiers now
@@franciscosamir5256 I'm not sure what you mean about American soldiers?
"The shared grave"
Oh good god!! That's just horrifying!!
Can't even escape in death. This guy couldn't catch a break.
But his name goes on top! It looks as if HE were the man of the house. Take that, dad!
@@anthonyconde7604 Franz is the man yes he is
@@LambentLark he deserves his own grave
Put him next to Orwell
Man, a father like this, makes me glad my father was decidedly absent in my life. I’d rather nobody at all, than someone who actively despised me, who is supposed to look out for me.
Seems appropriate that in the end his father is seen as a boorish failure of a parent and yet his son is seen as a brilliant intellectual. Take that...dad.
I read "the trial" as a law student recommended reading and noted the Kafka has a phd in jurisprudence...a rare thing even today.
Later in legal practice I could see through the eyes of clients because of Franz Kafka.
I know you have many requests but Fjodor Dostoevsky would be amazing to hear about
One of my favorites Russian author with Gogol
It's Fyodor Dostoevsky.
@@kushanshah8040 there's many ways english language translates his name. some say Fyodor DostoYevsky, som Dostoevsky, or Dostoievski.. doesn't matter to me as long as you appreciate his work.. oh yeah and it's actually Фёдор Достоевский :))
Andrei Vasilachi Well, I'm taking a Russian's word for it! And yeah, I love him. I recently read 'Crime and Punishment' and I'm looking forward to reading his other work.
@@kushanshah8040 Crime and Punishment is brilliant, one of his best-if not the best. His best, is arguably Brothers Karamazov, but it's even longer than Crime and Punishment :)
For a fascinating look at Franz Kafka the man, I highly recommend "Gespräche mit Kafka," by Gustav Janouch, the son of Kafka's insurance company boss in Prague. It has been excellently translated into English under the title "Conversations with Kafka." And by the way, unlike most German-speakers in Prague at the time, Kafka also put a lot of effort into learning Czech, at which he became fluent. (He was also studying Hebrew, since he hoped to emigrate to Palestine, as Simon Whistler mentions in this video.)
519DJW Don’t most Kafka critics question the validity of much of that work?
@@johnwheatleywhite484 Are you referring to Gustav Janouch's account? Actually, I had never heard of anyone questioning the validity of his work, but I may be mistaken, since I've only read Janouch's book, and am not a "Kafka scholar." Where have you read of doubts about the veracity of what Janouch wrote?
Loved it. Loved him during my angst ridden teens. Understood him during my adulthood. Thanks!
My favorite short story of his is "Before the Law". Like two pages long but succinctly depressing
Check out "Poseidon", that one was a good chuckle.
So sad. Reminds me of Van Gogh.
"If you've ever suffered from an anxiety disorder, you'll know that 'suffer' is exactly the right word to use." Mmmmmmmhm!
...Yeah; dear Simon....
@Calladium Petals You are incredibly, factually, hurtfully wrong. You're repeating an archaic and ignorant stereotype that hurts millions of people for no reason other than your refusal to admit people might can feel things you haven't, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. The tiniest, tiniest, TINIEST bit of research into the subject proves you overwhelmingly, fundamentally wrong. It's a physical, physiological reaction to a condition created within the brain after encountered severe or prolonged trauma. It's like you are saying people with allergies are just making it up for attention. I'm just flabbergasted people can still be this ignorant about such pervasive and abundant problems. So you are saying all those soldiers who come back form the war with mental health problems from the intense stress of killing people and being constantly shot at... are *just faking it?* Do you just wake up in the morning trying to find damaging and hateful opinions that make you look like a privileged, isolated little brat?
Also, the drugs people take for anxiety medication aren't even the kind you "get high" on, on the occasion drugs are used they are mood stabilizers. It's just so profoundly ignorant to to think someone, let-alone millions of people, would fake a massive, life crippling condition to get a drug that only would help them if they had that condition and do nothing else. *Not to mention the physical reactions of anxiety are litterally impossible to fake and don't exist in people without it.*
@@ThrottleKitty I was going to take my warm sensitive man mask off and make a comment, bur I've changed my mind! LEAVE ME ALONE!
Yeah, it sucks because you achieved huge goals but one thing can happen that destroys everything you built.
The closest physical approximation to the dread it causes me is the dull, almost imperceptibly growing pain that my wisdom teeth caused me. It got so intense and when I finally got relief it was a whole world of difference. It slowly cripples you and you don't even realize there's something wrong. Thank God for therapy and meds lol.
On the subject of existentialism and Absurdism I would be fascinated to see biographics episodes on Satre and Camus.
Me too!
Also I would like to see an episode on Dostojewski
Agree! Especially Satre.
Yasss!
Camus can do, but Sartre is smartre
“Gregor Samsor awoke one morning to discover he had been turned into a giant cockroach. Nah, too good!” The Producers
On a trip to Prague I visited Kafka's house - and his grave site. Also I never stomp on cockroaches 'caus, y'know, just in case! My favorite story is still The Burrow - the most paranoid thing I've ever read!
I recently read Max Brod's biography of Kafka. Yes, there were down moments in Kafka's life, but Brod says he was not as depressed as many made him out to be. Often he actually enjoyed life.
The drawing he made were cute . He was down but not out .. he still had some agency I believe despite TB .. His Museum in Prague was very bright and beautiful.. it’s actually dark inside the museum 😂.. but he stands out brightly when you see all his love interest and crazy intelligent books .. he was comical.. my favorite
@@dougzitek2358 Visiting Prague is on my bucket list. I would especially want to visit the Kafka museum.
I understand Kafka actually saw many of his writings as comical.
Excellent explanation of Kafka s life. I still shudder at the picture of his shared grave. How fitting though.
Franz Kafka: "I LOVE YOU AND I WANNA MARRY YOU AND SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH YOU"
...5 hours later...
Franz Kafka: "YOU KNOW WHAT, I BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS WHOLE MARRIAGE THING AND ITS NOT YOU, ITS ME"
Bauer:
"Kafka,
Fuj.
(Yikes)
S pozdravem~
(Warmest Regards~)"
"You'll know that Suffering, is the right term to use" dang that hit me
never heard it phrased like that before, it's perfect
His father's description sounds like he was an ouvert narcissist.
Yes!!! One of the channels' that I look forward to most putting out content
His father stole his life away what a shame
💔
@james83925 or maybe his genius would have flourished in another writing style.
@james83925 and yet again, it is a shame. Kafka lived in hell and died in hell, and felt his life was as horrible as any of his writings protagonists.
@illegit You're being antisemitic, you must not generalise about a whole culture/group of people, especially calling Jewish people 'peculiar', it's wrong.
Well, he rather let him, didn't he?
Terribly sad how so many of history’s greatest artists lived horrible lives and only get recognized for their great work after their death. If only they saw how much their work resonates with so many people around the world and how much they’re admired. But then again as sinister as it may sound, I think artists in general create their best work in their darkest hours, because it often becomes their only light in that darkness.
We are created and molded by consequences, some not our own
His life was so sad. Had he been a more nurturing father, Kafka might have had a very different life experience.
It was a different time though, casual abuse and cruelty to children was far more common and even acceptable in certain circles. Doesn't make it right though
While his father's was completely odious, I do wonder if he'd have created the same works if he had been happier
This of course isn't to say it was okay
Read about Hitler's father, strangely similar.
Probably one of the only authors I enjoyed while reading in school.
While I appreciate the effort in making the interesting biography, I think you very much over-state his father's cruelties and the sufferings of Kafkas outward life.
He lived very 'normally', like millions of others. It was his MIND that was extraordinary. It was his stark and nauseous perception of the everyday existence of modern man, combined with his unique ability to paint nightmarishly reflective prose.
His true genius was his recognition of the nightmare in the mundane that we FEEL but cannot articulate.
Haven't you ever read the letter to his father...?
I think Kafka's sense of humor is underappreciated. I honestly think he'd be a comic today.
I agree!!!
Reading his works now... never felt so depressed and/or frustrated reading, yet I cant stop. Definitely a good move by his friend to publish his works!!
Beautifully done, as always. Thank you!
A depressing story well told. Thank you!
I know it sounds cold, but the way the violin just stopped playing killed me lol
I thought i was watching Vsauce till he started speaking in an English accent
So right away?
whatsup will
What's Wil doing here? Didn't expect him to pop up in one of Simon's channels...
@@erinlee5936 getting cloud
@@Alucaidt clout?
YES, THANK YOU! I have been waiting for this biographic for so long! Kafka is such an amazing author and a fascinating person. He is truly life changing, my favorite author
I bought an interesting mug in Prague with Kafka's image half in black and half in white on it. Every time I drank from it, I lifted it up and shouted "alienation"! Kafka was one of the greatest writers of all time.
Sounds pretty weird. But cool.
Weird flex but ok :D
"When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous bug. He lay on his armour like, hard back and saw, if he raised his head a little, his arched abdomen divided up into rigid bow-like sections on top of which the blanket, ready to slide off completely, could barely hold on. His many legs, miserably thin compared to the size of the rest of his circumference, flickered helplessly before his eyes."
Headed to Iraq, the first time, our plane was stranded in Prague. The women, even most of the beautiful ones, had ankles and the food was all pork sausages. I looked out into the streets and all I could think of was Kafka. And I expected to see huge cockroaches on the street who were formerly humans... Kafka is one of the most im important authors of the XX century.
in german you pleb.
Years ago we saw ballet dancer Baryshnikov do this off Broadway ...all I recall was him crawling on the floor alot . Can't recall much else , except him ocassionally leaning , climbing on this piece of wooden or metal slats .
@108johnny awww,that's sweet...
What would kafka make of the simons predicament? A bleak tale on man's hard labour endlessly churning out facts to an ignorent population. Whipped onwards by ever crueler and demanding shadowey over lords.
01:44 that house is now a shop where can you buy Kafka books, bought Der Prozess there myself.
Other than that Prague is a beautifull city to visit.
Since I first read him Kafka has always been one of my favourite authors. It seems to me that many of his works speak even more loudly than ever before.
one of my favorite authors...im sooo happy you made this simon
Absolutely fascinating, Simon! You have a way of taking a dull bio and bring LIFE to it!
Always waiting for your next upload!
really enjoy your presentations, loving this bio channel and your speaking voice is on point
Keep up the good work 👍
FK had such large, liquid, beautiful eyes. I could stare into them all day.
Madam Vaudelune yea Kafka, Poe and Love craft all had rather large eyes
If indeed the eyes ' are the windows of the soul,' their inner spirits were dark, troubled but infinitely deep and complex, obsidian mirrors that presented a reverse image of the bright world we know. Greatness seldom comes from happiness and satiation. The suffering of them all rends the heart and makes one wish their lives had reflected the delight we feel when we read their works. Ah, but then we would have had no stories.
Glad that Franz shared his battle with illness and darkness.
It is where beauty, resilience, strength to choose to live and find light within eventually.
If only we can threw all stigmas about mental illness and judging each other for those who suffered in silence.
Great video. Thank you.
I don’t like being alone, but the idea of having to be around people is just vulgar.
There is a vast pit of dispare between being alone and being lonely. I have been 100 mi. from any road or man and I was content and engaged with my own company. I have never felt more alone and overwelmed than I did walking in NYC at 5pm. Is it because I am completely socially awkward or that I enjoy my own company and like to let my mind roam unrestrained? Most likely both. The thing is, when everyone else is gone, I am always here.
That’s why I have a dog
@@LambentLark You're not alone. I used to have to go to fucking Manhattan on business, and I never felt more loneliness or depression when doing so. A stinking miserable hovel.
Nice play of words 😄
Edit : vulgar in Latin means from/of the people . That's why i assumed it was a joke. A good one too :)
@@LambentLark You sure you don't have a personality disorder?
Geographic's is an excellent source of material on many famous, and infamous, people!
Hey Simon! It’s really easy to just zone out and watch so many of these biographics videos one after another. I do have a recommendation for a video, I feel the narrative and story of Tokyo Rose is super interesting. I havent ever heard of her till particularly recently, and feel her story needs more light! Thanks again for the content and good work.
He is Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka. He’ll smite you with metal for fists!
(Oh, how i miss Home Movies)
This reminds me, i have a copy of "The Metamorphosis" I need to finally get around to reading.
Here's a reminder to start reading it. 😜
don't forget the others when you're done. the trial and the castle especially.
@@b.griffin317 I'll make certain to add them to the list. I'd imagine I can still find them in print somewhere!
I read it about 30 years ago as part of an English lit course. (It wasn't even one of the required reading subjects) I LOVED IT, and have read it 3 more times since then
It's weird. Fair warning
Can you please do Aldouis Huxley?
I think Brave new world is more relevant now, then ever before
Brendan Cronin, 1984 Orwell.
And his life in general was very interesting, the whole mescalin Thing and so on.
One might even consider a teamup Episode with Orwell and Huxley, as they were rivals/teacher and student
Burma Days is my favorite
Find a copy of Huxleys follow up "Brave New World revisited. It was an update to the first book. Hauntingly prophetic.
"I can foresee man happy in his slavery...." Also is Huxley that would be quite scintillating Huxley is prophetic and darkly beautiful without literature We are all ensnared
I have a footnote:
On the letter to his father, while he /did/ ultimately forego sending it, there's some important nuance which gives Franz's home situation more detail.
When he completed the letter, he actually did give it to his mother with instructions to give to his father. Kafka fully intended to send it and have his reckoning in whatever form it would come. He showed remarkable courage and resolve.
The problem was that his mother, acting like an enabler-- and I think it's reasonable to think that this his mother's passivity must have been an enabling factor of the abuse he suffered in his formative years-- advised him that he shouldn't upset his father with such unnecessary emotional trifles. The letter going unsent was the result of his mother's "why bring this on your poor father now when it's all in the past" flavor of guilt trip, which I'm sure was effective in manipulating his already desperate nerves, particularly in some of the last months of his life.
She talked him out of it, and seeing her lack of support, he never gathered the nerve again.
Imagine telling your obviously dying son to his face not to bring up his bitter, psyche-crushing grievances with his abusive father in possibly his first bid for independence in his miserable life. Now, son, don't bother your father just because you need petty closure.
His complacent mother snuffed out the one chance he'd ever give himself, not just to confront his father, but to even formally /break/ with him and die as his own man. I imagine in a sense he felt like a child forever.
He was cheated equally by both of his parents.
Kafka's tale is as much about outright abuse as it is about the gentler injuries committed by the enablers we love who may also be under their thumbs.
It's easy to see where the Metamorphosis came from. It would be impossible not to feel doomed and unwanted and out of control, like a giant gross cockroach your loved ones would rather ignore and consign to a shadowed room than acknowledge your plight, growing to adulthood in that kind of environment.
The whole world is the Trial, and nobody knows what the Hell they did to warrant being detained.
So well put. Thank you.
I'm very surprised he never made mention of the word named after Kafka: Kafkaesque
Same! Partly why I watched this, in the hope some context would be shone on this
@@Zainab-ox2pq I trust you are being facetious. This, from Kafka's diary, repunctuated, might provide the light you seek "I wrote the last sentence, turning out the light and the light of day. The slight pains around my heart."
I love Kafka. I read "The Castle", and loved it. I think everybody should read it. That said, I don't ever want to read anything by Kafka again. That may sound contradictory, but if anyone should read "The Castle", or, I assume, "The Trial", they will understand what I mean.
That's an incredible reaction. Great art should illicit such a strong reaction.
The only 2 books I loved but NEVER want to read again are the Castle and 1984
I read The Trial thirty years after The Metamorphosis. It was barely long enough. Fantastic writer, but his stories and style can do real damage to your head.
I read both in the same period (that lasted a year or two?). But scratch that: I read all of "The Trial," loved it, of course, then started "The Castle" but only got halfway through. Why, you may ask. Because it was too similar. It felt as though I were reading the same book over again. Nevertheless, highest marks to both (even though I'm not technically qualified to judge "The Castle"). His short stories I treasure even moreso. "Great Wall of China" and "The Starving Artist" come to mind. Haven't read Kafka in, jeez IDK, twenty years? But still one of the all-timers. BTW, If you haven't read "The Plague" by Camus you are truly missing out; the fate of the unpublished wannabe author (minor character) in that tome still blows me away.
@Killary Witch yeah, it was a hell of a year.
Ghostbusters and Gremlins in the same year? Totally crazy!
I went to Prague earlier this year and went to the museum . This really surpasses what I learned at the museum ! Thank you
i just wanna give him a hug
@MILK ULTRA VIOLENCE - he wouldn't appreciate it
You are free and that is why you are lost -franz kafka i believe these words from him highly resonate what our generation is experiencing.
How many channels can you manage, dear lord! And they're all so good!
My Trek to Prague in 2019 was full of highlights. Spending one day chasing Kafka landmarks was a fun and fantastic experience.
Ah yes another one who was ahead his time. One who's time ran out way too quickly.
...i wonder, though, if he might not have seen his "time running out" as being something of an 'escape', at long last...?
Thank you for this. One of my favorite writers. I so identified with, "The Hunger Artist," and strange but true, my sister died of anorexia. My family was like Eugene O'Neill's, "Long Day's Journey into Night."
The statement about your late sister has a bit of dark humor that brings a smile to my lips.
Forgive me, and I'm sorry for you and your family's loss.
@@MareCat31 No forgiveness necessary. I only speak my truth. I do have a grave sense of humor.
WOW Thank you for all you do, really appreciate watching ;)
Kafka will remain an influential source for new writers imo not because of his topic but his flow in which he eases the reader into a situation they do not expect.
You should do an episode about C.S. Lewis. Great man and author!
Thanks for this Simon, having visited Prague a few years ago I always wondered about Kafka's life. So this video was perfect!
You should do biographies of Woody Guthrie and George Orwell
Agreed, please do Orwell
A fictional one of Thier life together
Very much so, Woody is so relevant today
"Metamorphosis" was referenced in the film, "The Producers", as a screen play that wasn't "bad enough" to fail on opening night.
“Prepare to Metamorphosis!”
“Ready Kafka?”
If anyone really wants to get into K's life the bio 'The Nightmare of Reason' by Ernst Pawel is very good.
In his treatise of the life of Franz Kafka, Simon Whistler recalls a quote from Vonnegut: "Kafka's stories exemplify a certain type of fiction. in which the protagonist starts miserable, only to see things get continuously worse."
Vonnegut himself did not aver from putting Kilgore Trout through that identical circumstance in "Breakfast of Champions".
I have read The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika. As well as a few of his short stories, and Letter to My Father. Whistler remarks that Kafka's estimate of his father was "clear-eyed", with which I agree.
Kafka's posthumous notoriety was boosted by praise from Nabokov, and Marquez. I have also read most of Nabokov's books, and one of Marquez (100 Years of Solitude). And 90% of Vonnegut's books.
Last month I started in on a re-read of Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain", but 1/4 of the way through, it seemed to me to be basically juvenile literature. Never a huge Mann fan anyway. I read it once in 1971. Reading The Magic Mountain in 1971 was more or less the culmination of having read two or three of Mann's other novels.
I read The Castle again a few years ago. Probably about the same time that I tore through Hesse' "Das Glasperlenspiel" in about 12 hours.
In Whistler's biography we find that Kafka was unique in a couple of ways. One was that his fame was only achieved after death, unlike most other famous writers. And that the fame that eventually arrived was so substantial and deserved. And if the fame of Vonnegut should increase over time, that would be nice as well.
While I was in Prague I rode the subway to visit Kafka's grave, but the cemetery was closed for the Yom Kippur holiday. Who knew? -kb.
I remember choosing The Trial as the subject of a litterature assignment. My opinion at the time was that Josef k was guilty of existing, simply. It was a terrifying thought. I wonder if I would have a different view of the book now, twenty years later.
We live in a world where honor is a joke and dignity is a sin. I think your opinion of Josef K's guilt was right on the nose...
Man, I just got into Kafka through R. Crumb, and there's nobody better to relate through. Thank you for this video.
Fantastic - beautifully written and perfectly presented..... Are there any plans to cover Cervantes?
That’s a great suggestion!
I’d love to see a video on the life of author Upton Sinclair
Joseph Blumenberg Agree!
Was that the "Muckrakers"?
2:33 music... damn!!! I need to read Kafka's " letters to my father"
This channel is a gold mine - especially during quarantinea
Great video! I guess you could say it’s...
Kafkaesque.
Oh, well done sir.
Everyone: my love life is a mess
Felice Bauer: hold my boney, empty face
Do a bio on George Orwell next
Some of your best work!!!!
Thank you so much again for everything you provided us.
After reading “The Trial” it took me 5 years to recover....totally recommend it, frickin incredible!!
Another great one, what about doing one on the Kray Twins?
If it's chopping off the top of your head then the camera is too close.
The camera is too focused
"Certainly some adjustment needed!" - Robespierre
He didn't need his father or his potential wives. He only needed Brod and he knew it and ultimately Brod didn't let him down 🙏
Honestly I never heard of this dude until this vid. Very interesting
Surely you've developed a vitamin d deficiency living under that rock for so long.
😑
Steven Utter.... 😆 Hilarious comment
I heard about Franz Kafka only last year, in Year 12, when we studied the Berkoff play adaptation of Metamorphosis for our practitioners module. I adored the adaptation, and after reading the story, loved that, too. I really connected with the character of Gregor, and I honestly cried when I got to the end. I'm really looking forward to getting acquainted with Kafka's other works.
And, I just remembered-he died on my birthday. 79 years before I was born, to the day.
This was more rough than Lovecraft.
Lovecraft and Kafka can hardly be spoken of in the same sentence.
So happy I watched this. I once witnessed a conversation between a friend, and a girl we knew. She had mentioned she just started reading Kafka... to which he replied " why are you reading that crap".
Now, I really had no knowledge of his work, but the incident left me with a disdain for him. I am now going to check his work out.
Kafka's life plays out like a determinist novel by Thomas Hardy.
Is Google/TH-cam reading my mind?Out of the blue this morning I think to myself that I've never read Kafka..and lo and behold it comes up tonight as a recommendation LOL.Very interesting.