3 ms·
Franz Kafka’s porn brought out of the closet
- marijn 18y agoI don't think anyone who knows anything about Kafka sees him as a 'saintly' type. But then, this kind of journalism doesn't typically let reality get in the way of a good story twist.
- gruseom 18y agoWell, there certainly was such a myth, if not of saintliness then at least a kind of purity, and its effects persist, and the porn does contradict this in a nicely vivid way. There was an interesting NYRB article a few weeks ago that said similar things about the myths around Kafka that mostly came from Brod (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21610 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21610).
- gruseom 18y agoI'd like to know if Kafka will eventually be regarded as highly as he has been so far. Obviously he's brilliant. But it seems like much of what he's about is specific to modernity, and it's not clear that these are concerns that people will always have.
- Anon84 18y agoAnd Kafka's pr0n relates to HN how?
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- ibsulon 18y agoI don't know about you, but it has me thinking about making a porn site for Kafka enthusiasts.
- patrickg-zill 18y agoCockroach porn? Just kidding... I found that for myself, Kafka is best in small doses. When I read a lot at one time, I found myself laughing at the absurdity and wondering why Kafka didn't "get a life".
- gruseom 18y agoI found myself laughing at the absurdity There's a famous story of Kafka reading his stuff to friends and laughing so hard that he couldn't continue. It seems he was more a comic writer than people think, and your reaction might not be so far off. It's fascinating how creations come to be inseparable from the filters (e.g., Kafka as prophet of modernist despair) built up by others after the fact.
- MaysonL 18y agoDamn, that's disappointing. The headline made me think it was stuff he wrote, not stuff he collected.