A Metamorfose - Kafka
I finally read metamorphosis by Kafka. If I knew a bit more about the book I would've read it ages ago. If someone showed it to me before I would know that I was wrong about what I thought it was. The problem was: I knew there's a lot about this book, including a lot of memes, and it's basically a classic. So whenever people talked about metamorphosis I would picture something similar to crime and punishment by Dostoievski (That I haven't read yet but I have this beautiful edition to compare both books), something dense, big, lots of impossible-to-translate-and-keep-the-same-meaning words, lots of words, hard words. But it's the opposite. There was ONE word that was translated but had a translator note to note the original had more than one meaning and so you could derive more about that sentence. It's a one day read and very simply written even with how much you can take from the story.
I do believe you could analize this book in a lot of different ways, some more related to Kafkas life, some more societal, some more modern ways, some more incestuous some more conventinal. Which just shows me how well written it was, you can apply a filter and pick a new meaning from a simple text. Truly it shows me how well written it was, it's still a good read to this day. Very different from what happens with some... more dated stories and even study books (those need to be revised and modernize for other reasons, but I think is good to think about those differences). Of course you probably will benefit of knowing Kafka's life and other texts, or even some translator notes (this edition have some notes that you could skip tho), but you can do without it just fine.
I do believe you could analize this book in a lot of different ways, some more related to Kafkas life, some more societal, some more modern ways, some more incestuous some more conventinal. Which just shows me how well written it was, you can apply a filter and pick a new meaning from a simple text. Truly it shows me how well written it was, it's still a good read to this day. Very different from what happens with some... more dated stories and even study books (those need to be revised and modernize for other reasons, but I think is good to think about those differences). Of course you probably will benefit of knowing Kafka's life and other texts, or even some translator notes (this edition have some notes that you could skip tho), but you can do without it just fine.
Maybe I am one to reach and dream to far away to talk about this things. The curtains were never just blue, and blue was not just a expression of sadness like Van Gogh's blue phase. I could attribute meaning to meaningless things just for the fun of looking like a conspiracy theorist or to stir things up when I bored, but maybe it will make some sense to you. As I said: MAYBE.
If you have no idea about what the story is about (I don't judge people based on what they do or do not know): Our protagonist Gregor, the one member of the family that works to pay the bills, suddenly wakes up one day as an insect (it's not specified which kind of insect). And then we follow with the problems this means to the rest of the family and Gregor.
The one way to see the plot, and one that is usually highlighted, is about work and how it makes us all prisoners. And so the transformation shows Gregor being free from working (because he can't sell stuff being an insect, and money means nothing to an insect). One point that was brought up a lot in my translator notes was about how Gregor saw his sister, in a very incestuous way. He don't want her living her life and marrying, he thinks about sending her to study music and so being a devotee to the arts. The virgin vs an art devotee also appears in The judment which is part of this edition of the book.
But I could argue about how this shows the relation of work accidents and becoming disable because of it. One day you are the breadwinner of the family and then BOOM, you can't work, you need help to rebuild what you know about living your life and how, sometimes even needing complete help from your family. How disable people were hidden in little rooms away from any eyes. How his sister saw him as her responsability to care for, and how it become hard on her because she didn't had any help with it. How he become a thing to her eyes...not Gregor anymore, not a human being.
Another perspective is the family dinamics: How the mother is nurturing but fragile, and is shielded of dealing with her insect-son because of her fragil health. How his father is rigid, and don't show any love for him after what happened. And how Gregor himself become the one taking care of bringing money, after his father business failed. And how his father was right about saving some of the money without telling Gregor, because he was to focused on the goal of paying the family debts he didn't think about the ifs of life. If you have no idea about what the story is about (I don't judge people based on what they do or do not know): Our protagonist Gregor, the one member of the family that works to pay the bills, suddenly wakes up one day as an insect (it's not specified which kind of insect). And then we follow with the problems this means to the rest of the family and Gregor.
The one way to see the plot, and one that is usually highlighted, is about work and how it makes us all prisoners. And so the transformation shows Gregor being free from working (because he can't sell stuff being an insect, and money means nothing to an insect). One point that was brought up a lot in my translator notes was about how Gregor saw his sister, in a very incestuous way. He don't want her living her life and marrying, he thinks about sending her to study music and so being a devotee to the arts. The virgin vs an art devotee also appears in The judment which is part of this edition of the book.
You can see it as a metaphor for what Kafka's thought of his own life even. How he burned his works and leave the unpublish ones to his friend with the instructions to destroy it. His friend ignore it and still published them. Or how his works dealt a lot with fatherly problems and the relation of Kafka and his father.
I felt such a change in the way I could see something after reading the Metamorphosis that I couldn't not write something about it. And I know I am bad at writing, but the only way to get better is...unfurtunately by writing. *sights*
And it did gave me motivation to read more, and give more attention to classics, even if I think they will be difficult. Who knows if I don't decide to talk about another book like that again? Maybe something from a brazilian author this time....