Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka no doubt has had an interesting life. Also his stories such as the "Judgement", "The Hunger Artist" and his novella the "Metamorphosis" are amongst his most known stories, also the ones that has been critically acclaimed at the same time.

Kafka has an interesting style that's harder to come across with in comparison to say authors like, Woolf, Joyce, Austen, Dickens, Hemingway, Salinger. I am not saying these authors are bland, but it's a lot easier to run into people who write like Hemingway, Salinger, Dickens and Austen than it is to come across more writing like Kafka's. No doubt getting his doctorate in law and being an insurance agent has influenced his writing structure. Law, regardless of where it is conceived, practiced and executed tends to be detailed, hefty and, well a daft language use. It is also dry at the same time with extra formal sentences, structure and long, never ending prepositional sentences that sometimes we forget the predicate. Sometimes that's how it feels like when reading Kafka's stories.

No doubt, I loved his novella the "Metamorphosis". I think it's quite an interesting idea and the use of apples in the story relating back to the original sin are quite interesting to add. However, some of his other writings have kept me ... well, wandering about other things. He is rather fond of repetition in the most bland and blatant way sometimes that could be offensive rather than creating patterns...at least that's how it felt to me.

But Kafka is still a writer I enjoy, someone I hold with the utmost respect and find his ideas on law and punishment quite interesting, especially the way these two underlining ideas create different themes and mood for his stories.