Whats everyone reading?

[Gonk]

AMERIKA, Franz Kafka wrote this novel with ideas he took from travel journals and memoirs; he rarely travelled and never left Europe.

Kafka readers are quick to emphasise the difference of this novel's mood in relation to The Trial and The Castle, reading into it an optimistic streak of Kafka's personality altogether lacking in earlier writings. Critcs of Kafka like to interpret the novel's character K as reflecting Kafka's feelings of a sense of isolation and existential angst, hopelessness and absurdity in Prague. They point to the fact of him writing in the confines of a mixed German, Czech, Jewish, Austrian culture and explain his physical ill health and mental instability as inspiration for his writing.

Many critics have looked upon his works as describing the quest for God by a solitary individual.

Ooooh! Get you Fonk.

check out "Metamorphoses" by Kafka bigjobs; the main character wakes up one morning to find he's transformed overnight into a disgusting, huge insect.

[TordelBack]

... the main character wakes up one morning to find he's transformed overnight into a disgusting, huge insect.

Sounds like my life.  Except I went to sleep that way too, and I'm not the main character.

[Gonk]

There is a lot to be said for turning into an insect and having a decentred ego Tordell; I'm quite envious. What's the secret?

[Judo]

thankyou stevie. Are you referring to yourself in third person or talking about another stevie? Best to clear that up early. It is so very rare and a sign of excellence to win the double hugo and nebula awards. Being well publicised and 'of the moment' can sometimes win the fans choice, while being pretentious and 'arsey' can sometimes take the critics choice. But you can't fool all the people all of the time

Plus I luurve the old scifi covers so lovely very nice morbid book shop lady informed me that its the perfect time for 60s and 70s first eds due to the inevitable tumble of nature x x

[TordelBack]

What's the secret?

A chitin-rich diet and complete submission to the nest-queen. 

[Zarjazzer]

Shakara!

[bigjobs67]

check out "Metamorphoses" by Kafka bigjobs; the main character wakes up one morning to find he's transformed overnight into a disgusting, huge insect.

I know. I've read it.

[Alski]

check out "Metamorphoses" by Kafka bigjobs; the main character wakes up one morning to find he's transformed overnight into a disgusting, huge insect.

I know. I've read it.

You have? Is there a pop up edition then?

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Skeleton crew by Stephen King.

Well re reading it. The Mist is still brilliantly menacing and The Raft is very good too. A few of the tales aren't really horror more mysterious happenings but I'm enjoying it so what more could you ask from a book you first read years ago.   

[bigjobs67]

LOW FUKIN BLOW BITCH!!! . As it happens yeah.That shit really comes to life when you do it like that. All the classics should be available in POP UP form for dumb ass proles like me. Can you imagine the bull fightin scenes in "Death in The Afternoon". Horn's cumin right @ ya boy.
Not to mention the sperm outa Moby's Dick.
Messy.

[Roger Godpleton]

You're the worst character ever, Towelie.

[Gonk]

I know. I've read it.

You have? Is there a pop up edition then?

I THOUGH I WAS ALONE!
Hi. I'm Jim and I'm a Kafka reader!

not exactly pop up...
http://culturecatch.com/literary/crumb-transmutes-kafka

[bigjobs67]

Nice. I love Crumb. He loved him some big ladies. When I was in Prague I walked the streets he would have done and it was as cheap as fuckin chips. A Litre bottle of Finlandia for about a 5ver. Fuckin Ace.

[Gonk]

This.
Really enjoyed reading this as an example of the classic Freudian struggle between the ego and the id. This links in with my other reading of Metamorphoses and Dorian Gray, as attempts to try to portray the other, expunged parts, of man's psyche. It's true that poets and writers discovered the unconscious long before Freud, and that a lot of Freud's work is literary rather than scientific.

Like Frankenstein this is a novel that has made it's way into day to day language without people noticing it's literary origins, and like Frankenstein it has spawned many different versions that do not refer back to their origins in these fine works of fiction.

[Alski]

"Horns" by Joe Hill (Steven King Jr)

Fucking brilliant so far. His debut was one of the best horrors in years.