December 2019: Kafkaesque

[Jonna]

Join us on December 7th to discuss Kafkaesque, featuring new translations of several Franz Kafka stories, interpreted with dark humor by Peter Kuper.

[Jonna]

Described by a group member as a "master class in the use of black and white," Kafkaesque received an average score of 7.75 from the group. The general consensus was that the visual style and the artwork were greatly superior to the storytelling, which some considered heavy-handed.

We discussed whether the relative weakness of the stories themselves was due to the process of adaptation--certainly Kuper pared some off these tales down to their barest bones--or due to the terseness and complexity of Kafka's story technique. One reader described the short-short stories as fragmentary, similar to flash fiction.

We found unexpected humor in many of these stories, some of them very dark indeed. Readers enjoyed the fact that the story titles were part of the visual landscape of the story, a technique popularized in 80's titles, particularly Swamp Thing.

A few favorites: many readers found "The Burrow" the most relatable of these tales. "The Bridge" was another favorite as well. The black humor in "The Vulture" made it a good place for the collection to end, and stories such as "The Helmsman" and "Before the Law" brought out Kafka's critique of the authoritarian and dehumanizing aspects of society.

Kuper's work for Mad Magazine--particularly "Spy vs Spy"--was fondly remembered, and one reader argued that no one but Kuper could have pulled off such a successful graphic novel adaptation of Kafka's short stories.

[Terry]

Enjoyed the stories very much. Artwork was appropriate for Kafka. The stories have Kafka's anti-authoritarian bent, but in the darkness, there is indeed humor. Sorry I missed this, but I was on set most of the day, since the shooting ran much later than it was supposed to (surprise, surprise).