5 ms·

What kind of funny is Kafka?

75 points by samclemens 12y ago

TallGuyShort 12y ago
Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?
- typicalbender 12y ago
  You sir just saved me a lot of reading (not that its a bad article). I'm currently working on leveraging the distributed commit log service so my mind immediately assumed that's what the article was about.
- samclemens 12y ago
  "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."
  - kansface 12y ago
    I'd really like to read this story, although I'd envision the ending closer to Animal Farm than The Metamorphosis. After all, I don't think a distributed, persistent messaging service is quite as shameful/unclean and useless as a cockroach/vermin thing.
    - marbu 12y ago
      Any kind of complicated system can contain quite nasty bugs and being distributed one doesn't really help in this regard.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - doug1001 12y ago
    and with every one of the hundreds of split-second network partitions that occurred each day, he is forced to choose between consistency and availability; sadly at any given instant, he can never have both. Until one day he learns how; he open sources this project, much to the disappointment of his employer who as punishment chains him to a cliff
  - applecore 12y ago
    “I have no mouth, and I must data stream.”
  - leoc 12y ago
    In the horrifying finale, Daniel Dennett turns up to reveal that nothing has changed! He was really just a distributed, persistent messaging service all along. And then Samsa wakes up and it was all a silly dream.
- craigching 12y ago
  Not at all. The fact that Franz Kafka is my favorite writer makes me think of Franz before Apache every time ;) But I must admit that I was very curious about a Franz Kafka siting on HN ;)
- ubernostrum 12y ago
  Is anyone else proud of the fact that when they hear the name of a famous author/artist/historical figure their first response is to think instead of a buzzwordy tech project?
  - TallGuyShort 12y ago
    I wouldn't interpret my comment as pride. We're on a traditionally software-oriented website, and I thought of software
Osmium 12y ago
David Foster Wallace also has a good essay on this in Consider the Lobster. I think this is the same one: http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-07-0059612.pdf http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-0...
- RobertKerans 12y ago
  That Foster Wallace essay is great: when he was good, he was really very good, and that's one of his better pieces. Milan Kundera's Testaments Betrayed is pretty excellent as well; the last chapter (and title) cover Brod not burning Kafka's papers, and then manufacturing tortured genius Kafka instead of sticking with the fairly ridiculous reality (the one that actually matches how his characters behave, as this posted essay describes)
  - drcomputer 12y ago
    There are layers to being a tortured genius. A person who is observer, participant, and transcriber of a ridiculous reality is one who glimpses through the lens of his own device.
oldspiceman 12y ago
The kind of funny where you deplore your best friend to burn all your writings after you die but then he publishes them anyway. "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod
- pimlottc 12y ago
  You mean Kafka implored Brod, and /then/ he deplored him, posthumously...
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    That seems impossible?
- rayiner 12y ago
  But the original papers are still caught up in a legal battle between the daughter of the secretary of his friend, and the State of Israel. Seems apropos.
jeffsco 12y ago
I find Rivka Galchen's essays enthralling. One intriguing thing she wrote a while back is that the game Minecraft has a Joycean quality. I don't know what she means by this, but I'm pretty sure she's correct. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/books/review/who-are-james-joyces-modern-heirs.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/books/review/who-are-james...
gioele 12y ago
> Kafka was known to laugh uncontrollably when reading his work aloud to friends. Does anybody know the source of this statement? I have read it for years and I always wondered where it comes from. Some interview with a friend of him? A friend's diary? Chronicles of the time?
dschiptsov 12y ago
He mastered his style of "special effects" made out of words - grotesque metamorphoses of familiar day-to-day situations. Like it is with modern 3D special effects, out minds "get aroused" watching them, and we, persons, like them due to some hormonal feedback loops. Why not keep it that simple?)
pdkl95 12y ago
Funny? Sure, when it is "the ONION"-style satire! http://www.theonion.com/video/pragues-franz-kafka-international-named-worlds-mos,14321/ http://www.theonion.com/video/pragues-franz-kafka-internatio...

75 points by samclemens 12y ago

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

typicalbender 12y ago
You sir just saved me a lot of reading (not that its a bad article). I'm currently working on leveraging the distributed commit log service so my mind immediately assumed that's what the article was about.
samclemens 12y ago
"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."
- kansface 12y ago
  I'd really like to read this story, although I'd envision the ending closer to Animal Farm than The Metamorphosis. After all, I don't think a distributed, persistent messaging service is quite as shameful/unclean and useless as a cockroach/vermin thing.
  - marbu 12y ago
    Any kind of complicated system can contain quite nasty bugs and being distributed one doesn't really help in this regard.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- doug1001 12y ago
  and with every one of the hundreds of split-second network partitions that occurred each day, he is forced to choose between consistency and availability; sadly at any given instant, he can never have both. Until one day he learns how; he open sources this project, much to the disappointment of his employer who as punishment chains him to a cliff
- applecore 12y ago
  “I have no mouth, and I must data stream.”
- leoc 12y ago
  In the horrifying finale, Daniel Dennett turns up to reveal that nothing has changed! He was really just a distributed, persistent messaging service all along. And then Samsa wakes up and it was all a silly dream.
craigching 12y ago
Not at all. The fact that Franz Kafka is my favorite writer makes me think of Franz before Apache every time ;) But I must admit that I was very curious about a Franz Kafka siting on HN ;)
ubernostrum 12y ago
Is anyone else proud of the fact that when they hear the name of a famous author/artist/historical figure their first response is to think instead of a buzzwordy tech project?
- TallGuyShort 12y ago
  I wouldn't interpret my comment as pride. We're on a traditionally software-oriented website, and I thought of software

Osmium 12y ago

David Foster Wallace also has a good essay on this in Consider the Lobster. I think this is the same one: http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-07-0059612.pdf http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-0...

RobertKerans 12y ago
That Foster Wallace essay is great: when he was good, he was really very good, and that's one of his better pieces. Milan Kundera's Testaments Betrayed is pretty excellent as well; the last chapter (and title) cover Brod not burning Kafka's papers, and then manufacturing tortured genius Kafka instead of sticking with the fairly ridiculous reality (the one that actually matches how his characters behave, as this posted essay describes)
- drcomputer 12y ago
  There are layers to being a tortured genius. A person who is observer, participant, and transcriber of a ridiculous reality is one who glimpses through the lens of his own device.

oldspiceman 12y ago

The kind of funny where you deplore your best friend to burn all your writings after you die but then he publishes them anyway. "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod

pimlottc 12y ago
You mean Kafka implored Brod, and /then/ he deplored him, posthumously...
- jessaustin 12y ago
  That seems impossible?
rayiner 12y ago
But the original papers are still caught up in a legal battle between the daughter of the secretary of his friend, and the State of Israel. Seems apropos.

jeffsco 12y ago

I find Rivka Galchen's essays enthralling. One intriguing thing she wrote a while back is that the game Minecraft has a Joycean quality. I don't know what she means by this, but I'm pretty sure she's correct. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/books/review/who-are-james-joyces-modern-heirs.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/books/review/who-are-james...

gioele 12y ago

> Kafka was known to laugh uncontrollably when reading his work aloud to friends. Does anybody know the source of this statement? I have read it for years and I always wondered where it comes from. Some interview with a friend of him? A friend's diary? Chronicles of the time?

dschiptsov 12y ago

He mastered his style of "special effects" made out of words - grotesque metamorphoses of familiar day-to-day situations. Like it is with modern 3D special effects, out minds "get aroused" watching them, and we, persons, like them due to some hormonal feedback loops. Why not keep it that simple?)

pdkl95 12y ago

Funny? Sure, when it is "the ONION"-style satire! http://www.theonion.com/video/pragues-franz-kafka-international-named-worlds-mos,14321/ http://www.theonion.com/video/pragues-franz-kafka-internatio...