The Trial
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I did not like it and I'm worried
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You definitely missed it. I'm not sure I can explain it to you, either. Try it again in a few years.
Not sure I can help either. But you might start by pondering the paradox: Josef K did not understand why he was accused, but neither did he feel innocent. Why?
Brad, that one is easy.I'm sure if your boss tells you "I'm out for a business trip this week but when I'm back we have to talk about what you did the other day".
Most probably you may think it sounds like you did something wrong?? maybe.
And depending on the type of person you are, you may become paranoic trying to know what the hell was he refering to. You may not remember nothing you did wrong these days but either no other special event, you may feel innocent yourself. You may talk with others and do whatever you want but the only person with the key to put your mind to rest is your boss and till you talk to him, everything is futile.
You will not feel guilty but probably you think you must have fucked it up somehow and be guilty, even if you have no idea why.
In that sense, that's exactly what happens in the trial. And that's why K. always wants to find the high-judges and not seems that interested in lower-level people. Only the people on the top can talk rationally about the issue and put his mind to rest.
If that is how Josef K regards his relationship to the court, then what does that suggest about how he regards the circumstances of his political life? How about his private life?
Suggest nothing special. Here is where I see people going crazy with the book and reading too much into it. Like three years ago a very good friend of mine (who lives in a different country) stop talking to me. In fact will only respond my emails with insults. But I had no IDEA of why. I asked many times, asked his family and friends, noone knew. For one year till I went to his house find him, there was not a single week I would not think once or twice about this and wonder what the hell I'd done.
In many senses this seems similar to the trial. What does this tell of my political life or my private life?
Does not look like relevant questions. Trying to find meaning too hard.
Your friend is an asshole, Jordi. That's why he is not talking. He at least owes you an explanation but doesn't want to give you one because it would only make him look foolish and subconsciously he knows that.
Geoffrey, you are right, he sucks.What I meant is that it feels natural to me to get obsessed and to doubt your own innocency when someone accuses you and you do not know of what.
And I do not think that's much more about it. And wondering about why you would doubt yourself is totally outside the scope of The Trial.
Wondering why K. did not feel 100% innocent and loving the Trial for that would be like wondering why Harry Potter engages himself in some dangerous matter and love its books because of the window into the human nature they provide.
I'd say you are thinking too hard.
You asked and I thought I might be able to try to give you some insight. Then you insult me.I think I have a clue why your friend stopped communicating with you.
Brad, I'm sorry if you felt insulted. That was not my intention at all. I'm sorry for that.
BradI feel to evince how,when and why Jordi insulted you.
try not to get too bogged down by trying to find a literal meaning of every single thing you read. Sometimes, a book is about a feeling. Sometimes, a book is about a way of being or seeing the world.There's no need to find a one-to-one relationship between an allegory and your life.
And if you don't like a book, just leave it at that. Everyone isn't meant to like every single book.
The book itself isn't anyhow brilliant, as the plot is just absent and it's based purely on its dark and depressive atmosphere. It's unfinished and Kafka himself didn't consider it good. However, you can think of it as a hugely influential book for world literature. And it's something original, different.
And it's a material for your thoughts for a while. The absurd unhumane atmosphere, the lack of natural things (love, nature), the absolute byrocracy, the separation in his office job, no friends, however, K. seemed to be somewhat satisfied with his life, treating it as absolutely normal. Shouldn't some people reorganize their priorities? Are we actually living a good life? What if he was guilty of living a useless and miserable life, an executed as a punishment for him not finding that out?
Despite i didn't 100% like it, i definitely don't regret reading it. It does influence people and many of my favorite books were highly inspired by Kafka's work in general.
Pavel, your comment was an awesome explanation in fact.Thanks for elaborating your thoughts on it.
The way that Europeans, in particular, thought about their world changed dramatically between the end of the 19th century and the time when Kafka wrote. Christianity had grown effete. Governments were proving to be incapable of solving the complicated problems introduced by the industrial age. Science was undermining basic beliefs about how the universe worked. Art began to embrace the ugly and dissonant. Worst of all, arguably, individuals lost confidence that they had a role and could influence society meaningfully. Everything began to feel disconnected. And familiar patterns of behavior that had long sustained individuals and communities disintegrated. The old answers had gone stale.Josef K's personal crisis resonates because it reflects all of this. I think a good way to begin thinking about Kafka's message behind the story is to focus on Josef K's internal paradox. But another way is to look at the absurdity of the court system and it's futility, as depicted in THE TRIAL.
Jacques Barzun defined decadence as a state of affairs where absurdity and futility are accepted as normal. It is plausible to conclude that Kafka's story is about the decadence of European society and the toxic effect that futility and absurdity will have on the human spirit when there is no escape.
In the years shortly after the Trial was written, Europeans embraced fascism, Bolshevism and existentialism. One might consider all of these extremist philosophies to be reactions to the decadence that Kafka described so brilliantly.
Nicely put Brad. I think that you have summed up a lot of Kafka quite nicely. Also, given your first paragraph, I would expect to see the second coming of Kafka any day now.
No, you missed it completely, sorry. The story deals with theological issues, not political
WHAT???You DARED to not like a KAFKA story??????
I suggest you read "In The Penal Colony" to find out what we do to people who DARE to no like Kafka stories!!!!
Then report to the nearest Obammunist Reconditioning Center. You do NOT want us to have to come GET you!!!!!!!!!!
It is likewise a damning prophecy of a movement that would rise soon after his time and which would implement this bureaucracy of death. It was one in which his three sisters perished, and he would probably as well, had he survived until then.
Duane wrote: "WHAT???You DARED to not like a KAFKA story??????
I suggest you read "In The Penal Colony" to find out what we do to people who DARE to no like Kafka stories!!!!
Then report to the nearest Obamm..."
The Obammunist Center has been renamed the Palin Citadel.
Jesus, you can't even get through a thread on a book review site without going political?You must be a lot of fun on dates.
"The food is cold. Thanks Obama!"
Take your Ritalin and try to stay focused, please.
Duane wrote: "WHAT???
You DARED to not like a KAFKA story??????
I suggest you read "In The Penal Colony" to find out what we do to people who DARE to no like Kafka stories!!!!
Then report to the nearest Obamm..."
There's a short story he wrote that might help you understand one aspect of the book: http://www.kafka-online.info/before-t... . Stop for a second and be aware of the time, place, and class that you have grown up in, and compare that with Kafka's life and the life of millions at the time and even now. You are privileged not to have to worry too much about being a "thought criminal" nowadays. Most of us are out from under the foot of the church and the state, or at least far more free than Kafka (well, you could argue that! But if this didn't occur to you immediately then you must feel more free than him?). This is a man who didn't even marry the woman he loved because of how it would be perceived by his father and society. (Read "The Judgement")
Well said. Rebecca wrote: "There's a short story he wrote that might help you understand one aspect of the book: http://www.kafka-online.info/before-t... . Stop for a second and be aware of the time, place, and cla..."
What Exactly don't you like about it? It's important to know why, then you can get worried.
I think Brad summed it up rather nicely. I want to add that if you'd like to see a contemporary setting for the themes and the general atmosphere created in The Trial, watch the movie
Office Space
. It's a comedy, but it deals with the same type of bureaucratic absurdities that Kafka described in The Trial. This movie is "funny because it's true." Also, watch
Cube
, which is about a gigantic mechanism with numerous rooms full of fatal booby-traps. This movie is not funny, but for the same reason: "because it's true(ish?)." I would describe both of these movies as "Kafkaesque." Both of them deal with the results of, and the acceptance of, rabid bureaucracy.
One thing is, not to view The Trial as symbolic for bureaucratic nonsense but the absurdity of life itself, all life. Think of the law, not as a mired court system, but the great WHY questions of existence we have. Then you might see this novel differently.
Jordi wrote: "So... I did not like it.I did not hate it. It was just not that big or important for me.
Other that the guys appearing in his office twice! And the cathedral, I do not think I'll remember much of ..."
I did like it; very much. To be honest it was a long time ago but it is one of those books that remains in the memory. And mainly because this mans life unravels and is destroyed for reasons he doesn't understand and by forces he cannot see or touch. He doesn't understand what is happening to him or why but assumes there must be reason but for the life of him he can't think what. He is a man whose tie has got caught in the cogs of the machine he wants to free himself but he doesn't know how and nor does anyone else. They all stand around and say "terribly unfortunate old boy but I'm not sure there is anything that can be done; sorry." The wheels are turning and must be allowed to turn because that is what the machine is supposed to to.
. Rebecca wrote: "There's a short story he wrote that might help you understand one aspect of the book: http://www.kafka-online.info/before-t... . That story, in its entirety, is in The Trial.
Justin wrote: "I think Brad summed it up rather nicely. I want to add that if you'd like to see a contemporary setting for the themes and the general atmosphere created in The Trial, watch the movie Office Spa..."
I disagree entirely with your comparison to Office Space. Office Space makes fun of the workplace, yes, and shows how silly it is and how people don't really care about there jobs a lot of the time. Kafka's allegory takes on something much larger in scope--the absurdity of life itself.
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I did not hate it. It was just not that big or important for me.
Other that the guys appearing in his office twice! And the cathedral, I do not think I'll remember much of the book after some years.
I could not understand the genious of it, the multiple meanings, etc that people talk about. Most of it did not strike me as innovative language and the environment although well constructed were not mind-blowing as others say.
But I've seen so many 5 stars reviews and 4 stars reviews I'm worried, what have I missed?
And I like this kind of books. Some reviewers mention 1984, one of my favorite books.
Why is this book supposely so good?