Franz Kafka, as most of the readers of his works may know, is an eccentric overlay, a kind of subterfuge, used to convey nice things before you have poison thrust into your mouth… 🙂 Yes, reading Kafka is difficult because he does not make any sense to most of the minds who read him. However, if you are curious and lucky enough to establish your tuning with his works, you will be the luckiest person to revel in the most obscure of the human secrets. Kafka is more than an enigma. Kafka is not great. Kafka is ordinary soaked with glimmers of greatness that is more than enough to outshine the genius like Shakespeare.
So, here are the basic preparations you should ensure before you dive into the world of Kafka:
- Be ready for everything that comes your way. Don’t dare to make sense of everything you are shown, forced to read or skip. Just consume every loaf of word-bread thrown to you.
- Don’t apply your mind when you think that the overflow of ideas is getting better of you. Let it pass. Duck. Give respect of the bouncers that Kafka throws in his furious overs.
- There is no place for emotions. Yes, in the first read or even in the nth-read in some of the cases, you should not be able to find out what emotions are being fed to you or you are supposed to experience. Let it pass!
- Expect nonchalant passage of things making no sense at all. This is Kafka – after all! You are only expected to read and forget.
- Kafka is an illusion. A water bubble that no one would love to burst. We are all playing with the idea of greatness that we ascribe to Kafka and you will get to it once you read a few of his short stories.
All the best, dear readers! You have been prepared to read Kafka. Do enjoy!
By a contributor to The Book Blog
