Phillip Zapkin (Author of Hellenic Common)

Phillip rated a book it was amazing Kafka's Monkey (Oberon Modern Plays) by Franz Kafka	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on ...more
Dec 21, 2025 08:09AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Phillip rated a book really liked it On Baile’s Strand by W.B. Yeats	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This play follows a part of the legend of classic Irish hero Cuchulain, who was one of the figures that the Celtic Revival movement (of which Yeats was a part) tried to revive in order to promote Irish nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twe ...more
Dec 19, 2025 01:08PM · like · see review
Phillip is currently reading The Smashing Saxons (Horrible Histories) by Terry Diary	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 18, 2025 02:52PM · like
Phillip rated a book it was amazing Six-Gun Gorilla by Simon Spurrier	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a super cool graphic novel about a dystopian world in which a man who has signed up for literal suicide duty in exchange for a hefty amount of money being left to his ex ends up not immediately dying, but uncovering a huge plot. Basically, th ...more
Dec 18, 2025 02:33PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Six-Gun Gorilla by Simon Spurrier. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Six-Gun Gorilla by Simon Spurrier <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Phillip rated a book liked it Heritage and Democracy: Crisis, Critique, and Collaboration (Cultural Heritage Studies) by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I'm writing a scholarly review of this. I'll try to remember to link that when it gets published. ...more
Dec 14, 2025 05:50PM · like · see review
Phillip rated a book it was amazing Kafka's Monkey (Oberon Modern Plays) by Franz Kafka	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on ...more
Dec 14, 2025 03:52PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Phillip rated a book it was amazing King Lear by William Shakespeare	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is one of Shakespeare's best plays, though it's also one of his most depressing, even among the tragedies. One thing that's extremely cool about this play is that within the first scene, Shakespeare has already introduced all the major themes of ...more
Dec 14, 2025 07:53AM · 1 like · like · see review
Phillip rated a book really liked it Tantalus' Cup and Lotus Feet by Shyamal Krishna Basu	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
These poems are somewhat depressing, often dealing with loss alienation, fear, or other negative emotions. However, they often incorporate a kind of dualism, with competing aspects of people or experiences being linked through images or ideas, which ...more
Dec 14, 2025 07:31AM · like · see review
Phillip is currently reading Native Poetry in Canada: A Contemporary Anthology by Jeannette Armstrong	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Chief Dan George: https://youtu.be/9SXqdtAZXhs Rita Joe: https://youtu.be/uT0Rkfn5YIw Peter Blue Cloud: https://youtu.be/cj2x119JDfM Duke Redbird: https://youtu.be/8bPk3cnduzE Beth Brant: https://youtu.be/JrrM3fgx3LM Marie Annharte Baker: https://youtu.be ...more
Dec 14, 2025 07:30AM · 1 like · like · see review
Phillip is currently reading Heritage and Democracy: Crisis, Critique, and Collaboration (Cultural Heritage Studies) by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Dec 07, 2025 10:54AM · like

Phillip rated a book it was amazing

Kafka's Monkey (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Franz Kafka

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This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on the page to convey information about Red Peter's emotional state when relaying different types of information. For instance, the phrase "no way out" is never presented as directly as that. Each word is set on its own line, indented and with wide spacing between the lines. Now, an interesting question arises when thinking about the text as a script for performance specifically, because an actor (or director, or whoever makes the choices for a specific production) needs to determine how to speak those words. Do you speak them as a normal sentence and ignore the textual layout--as some people do when performing Shakespearean verse, ignoring line breaks and reading based on the punctuation? Or do you use those lines to create emphasis? And what difference does it make artistically if one chooses one way or another?

The other super interesting thing about this is the nature of the transmedial adaptation. Kafka's short story is a work of prose. And while it's framed as Red peter speaking to a listening audience, the reader experiences the story precisely as a reader. But with Teevan's stage version, audiences experience it as listeners. This difference is important. An audience assumes (implicitly) the position of the members of the academy who have asked Red Peter to make this report. And when, at the outset, Red Peter says that he cannot give us the report that we (i.e., the members of the academy) want, it raises implicit questions about what we (i.e., the audience) want. Of course, we know when we go to see Teevan's play that we aren't hearing the autobiographical report of an ape that has transformed himself into a human. We're going to see and hear a human being who has transformed themselves into an ape, who has in turn transformed himself into a human. In this sense, the performance embodies one of the strange alienations of the short story, one that's easy to miss in prose: namely, that the words are not those of an ape-turned-human, but of a human (i.e., Kafka) writing in the persona of an ape-turned human. What we get is always mediated by the human--even in the passages where Red Peter acknowledges that he can only speak now as a human, and that is inherently insufficient to express his experience as an ape. But in prose, we can ignore/repress this mediation by pretending that there is no human agent who put down the words. On the stage, this mediation is harder to ignore because it is embodied by the performer on stage, whom we can see as human (even if, like Kathryn Hunter, who played Red Peter in the original performance run, the performer is a great physical actor).
https://youtu.be/ObfvvxAsOp4 ...more

Phillip rated a book really liked it

On Baile’s Strand
by W.B. Yeats

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This play follows a part of the legend of classic Irish hero Cuchulain, who was one of the figures that the Celtic Revival movement (of which Yeats was a part) tried to revive in order to promote Irish nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twe ...more

Phillip is currently reading

The Smashing Saxons (Horrible Histories)
by Terry Diary

Rate this book

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Phillip rated a book it was amazing

Six-Gun Gorilla
by Simon Spurrier

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is a super cool graphic novel about a dystopian world in which a man who has signed up for literal suicide duty in exchange for a hefty amount of money being left to his ex ends up not immediately dying, but uncovering a huge plot. Basically, th ...more

Phillip rated a book liked it

Heritage and Democracy by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels

Heritage and Democracy: Crisis, Critique, and Collaboration (Cultural Heritage Studies)
by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels

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I'm writing a scholarly review of this. I'll try to remember to link that when it gets published. ...more

Phillip rated a book it was amazing

Kafka's Monkey (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Franz Kafka

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on This is a super interesting adaptation of Frankz Kafka's short story "A Report to an Academy," which is itself incredibly interesting as a story. What Teevan has done in adapting this is put it into verse--often using the physical layout of words on the page to convey information about Red Peter's emotional state when relaying different types of information. For instance, the phrase "no way out" is never presented as directly as that. Each word is set on its own line, indented and with wide spacing between the lines. Now, an interesting question arises when thinking about the text as a script for performance specifically, because an actor (or director, or whoever makes the choices for a specific production) needs to determine how to speak those words. Do you speak them as a normal sentence and ignore the textual layout--as some people do when performing Shakespearean verse, ignoring line breaks and reading based on the punctuation? Or do you use those lines to create emphasis? And what difference does it make artistically if one chooses one way or another?

The other super interesting thing about this is the nature of the transmedial adaptation. Kafka's short story is a work of prose. And while it's framed as Red peter speaking to a listening audience, the reader experiences the story precisely as a reader. But with Teevan's stage version, audiences experience it as listeners. This difference is important. An audience assumes (implicitly) the position of the members of the academy who have asked Red Peter to make this report. And when, at the outset, Red Peter says that he cannot give us the report that we (i.e., the members of the academy) want, it raises implicit questions about what we (i.e., the audience) want. Of course, we know when we go to see Teevan's play that we aren't hearing the autobiographical report of an ape that has transformed himself into a human. We're going to see and hear a human being who has transformed themselves into an ape, who has in turn transformed himself into a human. In this sense, the performance embodies one of the strange alienations of the short story, one that's easy to miss in prose: namely, that the words are not those of an ape-turned-human, but of a human (i.e., Kafka) writing in the persona of an ape-turned human. What we get is always mediated by the human--even in the passages where Red Peter acknowledges that he can only speak now as a human, and that is inherently insufficient to express his experience as an ape. But in prose, we can ignore/repress this mediation by pretending that there is no human agent who put down the words. On the stage, this mediation is harder to ignore because it is embodied by the performer on stage, whom we can see as human (even if, like Kathryn Hunter, who played Red Peter in the original performance run, the performer is a great physical actor).
https://youtu.be/ObfvvxAsOp4 ...more

Phillip rated a book it was amazing

King Lear
by William Shakespeare

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This is one of Shakespeare's best plays, though it's also one of his most depressing, even among the tragedies. One thing that's extremely cool about this play is that within the first scene, Shakespeare has already introduced all the major themes of ...more

Phillip rated a book really liked it

Tantalus' Cup and Lotus Feet
by Shyamal Krishna Basu

Rate this book

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

These poems are somewhat depressing, often dealing with loss alienation, fear, or other negative emotions. However, they often incorporate a kind of dualism, with competing aspects of people or experiences being linked through images or ideas, which ...more

Phillip is currently reading

Native Poetry in Canada by Jeannette Armstrong

Native Poetry in Canada: A Contemporary Anthology
by Jeannette Armstrong

Rate this book

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Chief Dan George: https://youtu.be/9SXqdtAZXhs
Rita Joe: https://youtu.be/uT0Rkfn5YIw
Peter Blue Cloud: https://youtu.be/cj2x119JDfM
Duke Redbird: https://youtu.be/8bPk3cnduzE
Beth Brant: https://youtu.be/JrrM3fgx3LM
Marie Annharte Baker: https://youtu.be ...more

Phillip is currently reading

Heritage and Democracy: Crisis, Critique, and Collaboration (Cultural Heritage Studies)
by Kathryn Lafrenz Samuels

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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	Hellenic Common: Greek Drama and Cultural Cosmopolitanism in the Neoliberal Era 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hellenic Common: Greek Drama and Cultural Cosmopolitanism in the Neoliberal Era 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Phillip’s Year In Books

Phillip Zapkin’s Followers (68)

Phillip’s Bookshelves

Phillip’s Friends (113)

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Preview — Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka

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