Discussion on Franz Kafka's letter to his father

Discussion on Franz Kafka's letter to his father

הכי מושפל • 6 במרץ 2010

Discussion on Franz Kafka's letter to his father.

Foreword. This is an informal, non-sceitific discussion of feelings and thoughts instigated by reading Kafka's text. Although it may sound so, this is not an attempt to judge. Rather, it is a report of some associations and immediate, uncensored thoughts. Some of them are of judgmental nature (with all due respect to his writing achievements, of course).

Whininess. Who could possibly get along with a whiny character such as Kafka? The text is a pile of unmanly self-pity. Endless complaints on trivial things, perceived as crimes, most of which are far from being anywhere near emotional abuse. Kafka would have probably found how to complain in any situation. The choice to fight the fears of annihilation before his father through whines is disappointing. Trivially, there are many other ways in which Kafka could have built a self despite the dominance of his father.

Boring. The letter is boring. It could be that the writer intentionally tried to unease the reader, perhaps make them take some of the burden that he has. This is no excuse though, just a childish abuse, which works only on those who wanted it anyways. The act of promising an interesting text, and then give this without a short disclaimer, is misplaced aggressiveness.

An alpha father. Kafka's father is an alpha. Exactly the kind of man whose urinal I want to be. Teaches his annoying kid how to be strong, solve his own problems, and not be the phlegmatic wuss which arises from the text. Instead of thanking his father for balancing Kafka's irritating personality, he writes abusive letters. Unfortunately I can not identify with anything related to Kafka's father. I always wanted an alpha father, but had just a more or less regular one. I am sure that some of the men at the bath house mentioned in the text would agree with me about the urinal aspiration. Perhaps even Kafka himself.

Self-centered. Clearly Kafka is completely self-centered. I did not see any attempt to consider facts objectively, or to investigate whether he himself could have contributed to the creation of the situation on which he complains. Stories are partial. The alleged delicate soul loses credibility already at the facts. Subjectivity is on the verge of autism. The almost funny contradiction is that Kafka claims authority to decide on good and bad, while not being able to see anything beyond his own shell.

Emotional abuse. Kafka loses credibility on anything related to emotional abuse. If emotional abuse is so undesirable, why does Kafka try to do the same by sending a letter (that would not change anything)? It seems like he knew that his mother would never give the letter to his father, and probably tried to manipulate her emotionally. Sending the letter to his father would have probably gotten Kafka a proper response, with which he is unable to cope. Did we already say a wuss?

Humiliation and torture. Kafka was punished by being left on the balcony during a cold night. Even though he admits that he was annoying and earned the punishment, and that the punishment was effective, it is hard to justify such a punishment. I would ascribe the shocking story to exaggeration. I claim that Kafka was lucky to be punished at the time. If he were not punished, he may have become even more degenerated.

Repulsive physical aspects. Kafka repeatedly repulses me physically by describing his deformed body and mentioning his physical weaknesses. How could he even expect a warm treatment from his father when he is indulges on being invalid? Even if he is weak or handicapped, he is expected to do his best in order to be fit and in healthy shape. It seems like he has no understanding of this important aspect of body and soul. Sadly he assumes that answers to just about everything are to be looked for in words or in the practice of theoretical philosophy, and ends up narrow-minded.

Bad character. Kafka admits that he is not able or willing to put efforts into studying and learning. He assumes that he knows everything and by this shows contempt towards the world outside him. The alleged lack of diligence disappears when he writes. A good character would have tried to learn and combine its merit with values acquired from the outside world. It is therefore hard to feel sympathy with Kafka's alleged suffering. I do not believe him.

Conclusions. Having expected titillation reading a genius' hard-core letter to his father, I was deeply disappointed. Some boring whines that I can not identify with, mixed with repeating unfocused mass and self-centric, know-it-all attitude. Humiliation experiences are unnoticed banalities. Love remains veiled, costing in even more loss of credibility. To sum it up, Kafka is so not.

בעיה בטקסט

tsafon1 • 7 במרץ 2010

תערוך את מה שכתבת מחדש
או לחילופין תתרגם אותו

נחכה

Re: בעיה בטקסט

הכי מושפל • 7 במרץ 2010

אויש איזה מעופף אני

Re: בעיה בטקסט

Morticia • 7 במרץ 2010

I don't know about "unmanly" but your response sure sounds like self pitty to me

עכשיו, אם לרגע נניח לצורך הזה שלך להיות מושפל לצד זה שתמיד תמצא אנשים שפלים מספיק לספק לך אותו ככה סתם,

אפשר להבין מה לא בסדר בטקסט הזה בדיוק???

alright.

צארינה • 8 במרץ 2010

So, i would like to start by saying what a silly puss (or in laymen terms, what an asshole)
you are, stating off the bat that this is not a judgmental piece and then wasting 500 words of your most vile vocabulary on describing how shitty the letter kafka wrote to his dad was.

as to the text itself (yours, not kafka's)- i agree with most of it. i think i best described the letter as Mental Masturbation, when my FRIEND (the poor guy who lent me the book expecting to hear only good things i suppose) was kind enough to ask me about my feelings toward the book.
i think kafka even antagonizes the reader of the letter, knowingly. he may or may not know or expect the reader to feel a certain way, and maybe that's what Kafka did best- making people feel sorry for him/sad about existence/bitter about the unfortunate turns life takes sometimes/utterly hate him for being such an annoying party pooper but also understand him in a way, and also his other characters.
for me, since my father figure was very strong yet, hardly existent, well i became a sort of alfa female, imitating my mother, who lives by that definition. and since i did, i think what i felt reading his letter was mostly, a strong identification with the father, of all. i admired the way he tried to help his son, and felt anger toward the slimy cripple (kafka) who was not grateful for the education his father was trying to give him, and OH the insolence, writing this letter, to boot.

Even though (and read closely- this is how you write comments on a literary piece) i did not feel that i was hiding a little Kafka inside me all these years, while reading it, the letter made me understand HIM, kafka, from his point of view. he made sure that the reader understood the state of mind of every member of the family, and he made me realize that an Alfa who does not try to connect with his pack loses it in the end (the one thing that his father did wrong was to not have connected with him on a deeper scale, or level, hence the whining and bitching). i was able to deduce a lesson from his letter, and in the end it's not whether you like Kafka that counts, rather than what you were able to draw from his writings, and how it affected your take on the world. you could either love him and relate with his character(s), or hate him and ridicule his incompatibilities, but you will UNDERSTAND him, because IT IS a kafkaic world to all of us, at some point or other in our lives.

Bloody • 11 במרץ 2010

TL:DR

WYSWYG

ראובן • 11 במרץ 2010

בלאדי,

ללא ספק אתה נאמן לחתימתך.

חבל, משום שסופסוף יש פה דיון רציני סביב טקסט קלאסי, מה גם באנגלית צחה.
בל נשכח כי צארינה טרחה לכבד את הדיון בתגובה עניינית וצחה לא פחות.
האם גם היא ''ארכנית מכדי שתקרא אותה''? האם לא מגיע לה ממך, קצת יותר מאשר נפיחה?

בהמשך אתייחס עניינית לטקסט ופרשנויותיו.
כרגע קצת חם לי מכדי להגות בקפקא ושאר עבדים גאונים,

R

Bloody • 11 במרץ 2010

העובדה שצארינה הגיבה כאן היא בכלל הדבר היחיד שגרם לי להיכנס
ה-TL:DR התייחס לפוסט המקורי, ואני מעדיף את החפירות הפסאודו-אינטליגנטיות שלי במקומות אחרים. כמובן שיכולתי להתייחס רק למה שהגיברת המכובדת כתבה, אבל זה יהיה בעייתי בלי הקשר.
עם קהל הנוסעים סליחה.

תיקונים

צארינה • 12 במרץ 2010

alpha- instead of alfa,
kafkaesque- instead of kafkaic

too bad we can't edit after posting
or can we?
and too bad this wasn't published in the English forum, might of had more responses from literate entities.

Re: תיקונים

Bloody • 12 במרץ 2010

''might have'' ahem, ahem
I are not illiterate!