Kafkaesque: from the novelist Kafka: Kafka-like

Kafkaesque

Resembling situations from the writings of Franz Kafka, marked by a disorienting, senseless and often menacing complexity (1883-1924), German-speaking Jewish novelist born in Prague, Austria-Hungary.

His most enduring works include The Metamorphosis; a story about a travelling salesman, George Samsa, who wakes to find himself transformed into a giant fly-type insect.  Kafka talks to the reader in terms of nightmarish visions, via a dream-like state where anything could happen for no apparent reason: the chaos theory of literature.

Possibly my favourite of his novels is The Trial. It's here we see the precursor to the Orwell's 1984. The protagonist in this hell is arrested, but has no idea why or even, by whom. The sense of disorientation is perhaps best illustrated in this scene when he visits the painter, Titorelli;

“…he rushed after her, seized her by the skirts, whirled her once around her head and then set her down before the door among the other girls…”

As far as sense and understanding goes, it flies out of the window. We are in the same dream-like state that Kafka has created, and the laws by which he is writing are transcended for the greater good of this fictive dream, and does it work? Hell, yes. What Kafka does is place the reader squarely in the nightmare reality of Joseph K, to feel his confusion, his isolation, as he finds himself at the mercy of totalitarian rule. Reading the novel isn't a light undertaking, this is no Alice in Wonderland. Upon entering the dream, the reader is immediately filled with a sense of unease, not least because it touches our most basic humanistic fears.

Reading a Kafka novel is the equivalent of finding the normative from the chaos that is M C Escher's Relativity

The Notebook

Just watched The Notebook. What a beautiful, moving story it was. It made me think about how beauty of emotion is created. Visually, it worked well with actors being emotive, but I'd now like to read the novel upon which it's based, to see how it's done through words - even if watching first and reading second is doing things the wrong way around.

This quote from the film, sums up its premise. 

"I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason,every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours." 

What does it teach us about writing, or story-telling in general?

That a story needn't be over-complicated to be poignant and meaningful.  Keep it simple and let your characters live through their emotions.

Another passage:

"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough."    

Can be likened to a lasting tribute to the story premise, where the beginning and ending fuses, melding into one. The story becomes symmetrical, and finding that symmetry in writing is extremely satisfying and emotive if we've bought into the characters and the issues they've faced, the mountains they've climbed and the hurdles they've overcome.

 Nope. I'm not a movie critic. Just a casual observer.

Building characters

I love quotes. Those we come across that mean something to us normally stick because we see grains of truth in them. This line struck me as a shiny nugget in a pile of coal.

Lying is done with words and also with silence ~ Adrienne Rich ~

When people lie using words, it's easy enough to look for motivation and to pass judgement on their sense of integrity, but lies that are 'told' with silence take on a new meaning: deception.

How does this transfigure into the realm of writing?

It's all about character and character development. Imagine that your main character tells a lie at the beginning of the book, and then goes merrily on their way, building a life and even a successful career from their lie, imagine that this lie destroyed the career paths of several of their colleagues in the process - the message is that it's a dog eat dog world. We may not like the main character, but we would portray them in a way that shows the harsh realities of life, and they would be ruthless - to say the least.

Taking the same character, who merely withhold information that will mean them succeeding in favour of their colleagues. This is deceit, which shows them to be cowardly. However, let's give the main character a background of growing up in a deprived area. They worked really hard to get to a stage where they could be really successful, and they don't want anything to stand in their way. Maybe, we get some empathy going. And to finish this character off, let's just give them a conscience, and at the moment when they could speak up, but choose not to, they keep their heads down, clasp their sweating palms together and refuse to make eye contact. They may win an achievement award for their success, but as they make their acceptance speech, you can see in their eyes they are uncomfortable. They see an old colleague in the room, and the colleague knows about their deception - now you have major conflict, because the deceptive liar will go to any lengths not to be found out. Could murder be their only defense?

This is what the quote meant to me, not just in terms of the words that create meaning, but on the depth of the verb, 'to lie', and the effect of such actions on character beyond the words: actions give words meaning in  context. People who are being deceptive are often more dangerous than the out and out liar. The wordless deceiver expects to get away with not saying anything incriminating, even though their thoughts creep through in their actions.

And just like writing fiction, words and actions gives character to people we meet in our real world.

Belief and Love: Literature

Because it's February and Valentine's Day is creeping upon us, I want to quote part of a poem I studied in Literature classes. It's a love poem written as a script, but it makes for interesting dissecting, as there are also many references to madness. The poem is called Fragments of an Angel, and is over three thousand words in length with many sub-headings (like acts).

The part I've chosen to post here is called The Questions of Faithful Truth, which asks about the depth of feeling love. It happens a little after there is some conscious meeting between the two parts,(whether they are two souls or two fragments of the same mind/soul). They ask questions about how they fit together. On one level it seems to be about love for another person but, perhaps more significantly, there are hints that it is about belief in oneself.

The Questions of faithful truth

Angel.
If I can't see you.
Does it mean I am blinded by your love?
Guardian: It only means my love for you is blinded by such sorrow.

Angel.
If I don't hear what you're saying.
Does it mean I am deaf?
Guardian: You are deafened only by the pounding of my heart.

Angel.
If I can't sense your presence
Does it mean I am surrounded by naught?
Guardian: Bounded by air that is our fire: floating alone in the bubble of life.

Angel.
If I can't feel your desire
Does it mean I am numb?
Guardian: Sensual pressures trigger much warmth. We are never undone, or outwith desire.

Angel.
If I can't touch you
Does it mean we are apart?
Guardian: With my soul and my heart.

Angel.
If we were parted, how would we breathe?

Guardian:
We would learn to respond
Just as mere water
Departs from the ground,
Released from its earthly grave,
Soft rain will spill again;
Beat upon beat.

The play on words is sometimes illusive. For example, 'If I can't touch you, does it mean we are apart?' is answered with 'soul' and 'heart', which cannot be touched in a literal sense, but can be in the figurative - see what I mean, deep.

What I love about this part of the poem is the last verse, the despondent tone that is given to the emotion of love, or the need to be together as one - a theme that is repeated throughout the entire piece. The allegory of raindrops to the beating of the heart turns words and meaning on its head by suggesting that 'beat upon beat,' is not only life, but death as in 'soft rain will spill again;' like tears, or like blood, a rather subtle allusion to the soul 'released from its earthly grave.'

Lastly, I love the sheer magnitude of the pain at being parted, whether forever or temporary.

Stuff

I thought about calling this blog 'Just Another Day,' to sum up the myriad daily thoughts that fly through the mind and I wondered if it might be realistic to catch some of them and make them less fleeting. Then I exchanged the notion of short-lived whims for something more permanent: Language, letters and words; dreams, aspirations and goals.