A Kafka Fragment from His Lost Writings

As I was looking for a book in the K section of our library I discovered a small volume titled "The Lost Writings of Franz Kafka." The book is a collection of previously unpublished works by the famous Czech author. I was quite familiar with Kafka's existential and surreal stories such as The Metamorphosis and The Trial. I was not aware of the quantity of unpublished morsels he'd left behind when he passed. Kafka's friend and executor, Max Brod, ignored Kafka’s instructions to destroy them after his death, and published many of them posthumously.

These "lost writings" include fragments, letters, and incomplete narratives that delve into Kafka’s characteristic themes of alienation, bureaucratic absurdity, and human frailty. As I read this collection it brought to mind many of my own fragments, which I never shared because they seemed incomplete. 

According to the Afterword by Reiner Stach, Kafka submitted only 350 pages of his written output for publication, but his fragments now fill more than twelve volumes.

The pieces in this book vary in length from a few lines to a few pages. Despite their brevity they frequently pack a punch. Here's one that I especially liked. Notice how each sentence contributes new information that expands the meaning of the whole. It's like watching a portrait artist produce a quit sketch at an art fair, line by line. I believe it would make a great prompt for a writing class to see where the students go as they expound on it. Then again, the searing moment in time that it captures really needs no accompaniment. 

There are many waiting here. A vast crowd disappearing into the darkness. What do they want? There are obviously certain demands they want to make. I will listen to them and then make my reply. I will not go out onto the balcony; I couldn't even if I wanted to. In winter the balcony door is kept locked, and the key is somewhere else. Nor will I step up to the window. I will see no one, I will not have my head turned by a spectacle, my desk is the place for me, with my head in my hands, that is my posture. 

It captures something poigant and tangible, doesn't it?

Kafka: Lost and Found

I can't remember if it was in high school or in a college class on Existential Fiction that I was first introduced to the writings of Franz Kafka via his surreal, symbolic story "Metamorphosis." I still have the book Continental Short Stories on my bookshelf with stories by Sartre, Camus, Lagerkvist, Borges and others which I read at Ohio U. Many of the stories made impressions that remain with me still.

Metamorphosis as literature corresponds to what Dali's The Persistence of Memory is to art. Kafka's novella depicts the anguish a traveling salesman experiences when he awakes to find he has been transformed into a giant insect, detailing the effects of this change on himself and his family.

So, I was in the library today looking for books by Han Kang, the newly minted winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. While scouring the shelves in the vicinity of Kang I found a few Kafka works, incuding a small volume titled The Lost Writings. Translated to English in 2020, the book is a collection of very short entries, from paragraphs to a few pages in length. 

There's no real preface or introduction. Nothing more than a handful of laudatory quotes. One, by Nabokov no less, exclained that "Kafka is the greatest German writer of our time," stating that writers like Thomas Mann and Rilke were dwarfs compared to Kafka. 

Well, that one was a pretty low blow. Who is Nabokov to decide which faces should be on Literature's Mount Rushmore?

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For students of fiction, The Lost Writings is rich with imagery that fires the imagination. Here is an early entry in this collection. 

So, you want to leave me? Well, one decision is as good as another. Where will you go? Where is away-from-me? The moon? Not even that is far enough, and you'll never get there. So why the fuss? Wouldn't you rather sit down in a corner somewhere, quietly? Wouldn't that be an improvement? A warm, dark corner? Aren't you listening? You're feeling for the door. Well, where is it? So far as I remember, this room doesn't have one. At the time this was built, no one had imagined such earth-shattering plans as yours. Well, no matter, a thought like yours won't get lost, we'll discuss it over dinner, and our laughter will be your reward.

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Related Links
A Hunger Artist (story)
The Trial (novel)
The Trial (Film directed by Orson Welles)

Pocket's Selection of the 43 Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language

A Writer's Life

You've probably noticed that people love making lists. Top ten drummers of all time. Top 100 novels of the 20th century. The fifty most influential books of all time. The seventeen most important inventions of history.

The other day I saw a web page announcing, in their opinion, the 43 Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language. The title caught my eye and, despite the fact that 43 is such an arbitrary number that I can't take it seriously, I had to see what they listed. I followed the link. As it turns out, out of the first dozen I'd read nearly all of them, and overall it really is an impressive list. I decided to share the first dozen or so here.

Disclaimer: I am a big fan of well-crafted short fiction. I used to acquire short story anthologies and collections like The Best Stories of 1981 or 1985 or whatever year I came across. Norton Anthologies helped guide me to new writers as well. 

The "43" list starts with 2 stories by Washington Irving: "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Irving knew how to tell a story and both of these are deservedly classics. (I will call this "One.")

Next we find Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Poe crafted so many engaging stories, I suspect that these selectors no doubt had a hard time selecting just one.

When I was in junior high I acquired an anthology of Edgar Allen Poe's works, both stories and poetry. "The Tell-Tale Heart" definitely made an impression on me. So many others did as well, including "The Mask of the Red Death," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Gold-Bug."

Four: "Bartelby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville. I read it as I went through my brief Melville phase. His epic novel Moby Dick is deservedly a classic. So I selected a couple follow-ups, including Billy Budd and this one. I read it but remember nothing, so evidently it didn't make the same impression.

Five: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce. First reading was in junior high. When I read it decades later, I tried to imagine writing this myself. It's an impressive and engaging story about a condemned Confederate soldier during the Civil War. Perfect pacing throughout, Bierce's story is a masterful work.

Six: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman. I've never read this one, so no comment, but as time permits I will seek it out.

Seven: "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. Not sure why I didn't get into Henry James even though I know he is an important writer.

Eight: "The Lady with the Dog" is probably one of Chekhov's most well-known stories, but anyone who stops with this one will be missing a treasure trove of fine stories, some quite serious and others hilarious. One of my favorite all-time stories is "The Bet." A must read. My first Chekhov story was actually a one-act play titled, "On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco." It's hilarious.

Nine: "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Exemplifies the adage, "Be careful what you wish for." A powerful and chilling story.

Ten: O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi." This is another that we were introduced to through public school. To learn more about this prolific short story writer who was master of the twist ending, see A Brief Glance at the Life of William Sydney Porter, a.k.a. O Henry.

If you like short stories...

Eleven: "The Dead" by James Joyce. Read it. Didn't get into Joyce when I was reading his books in college. Was I too young to appreciate what they had to offer.

Twelve: "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka is classic. I first read it in a small volume called Continental Short Stories. One morning Gregor Samsa wakes up to find that he has become a cockroach (or something similar.) The absurd premise is carried out to the full measure. If interested, Haruki Murakami is written a sequel to this very strange tale that you might find interesting.

To find Thirteen through Forty-Three: You'll have to follow this link. I think it somewhat ironic that the title of this list says "in the English language." Chekhov and Kafka no doubt wrote in their native tongues, but since they have been translated I will over look that.

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When I was young, Hemingway's In Our Time inspired in me a desire to be a writer. The power of Heingway's prose prodded me to work hard at it. I was especially attracted to writing short fiction. My first short story collection is titled Unremembered Histories. If you have read it please leave a review at Amazon. If not, read the existing reviews and add it to your cart. 

10 Thought-Provoking Quotes by Famous 20th Century Authors, Courtesy ChatGPT and Google Bard

Illustration by the author, with AI assistance.

I asked ChaptGPT for a list of the top 20 authors of the 20th century. I then asked Google Bard for five quotes for each author. I selected one for each from the five offered. The original list from ChatGPT included some disclaimers, noting that making lists like this is highly subjective. "This list represents a diverse range of authors from different regions and literary traditions, each contributing in unique ways to 20th-century literature."

"A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery."
--James Joyce

"Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
--Franz Kafka

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."
--Virginia Woolf

"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
--Albert Camus

"If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."
--George Orwell

"What matters in life is not what happens to you, but what you remember and how you remember it."
--Gabriel García Márquez

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places."
--Ernest Hemingway

"In a universe of silent stars, human speech is a pitifully tiny and inadequate noise."
--William Faulkner

"If you find a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
--Toni Morrison

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Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change

The other day a friend shared with me an interesting article that argued that one of our basic notions of how the brain works is completely wrong. The article, titled The Empty Brain, begins with this somewhat controversial fundamental premise: Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer.

A lot of us have grown up with the idea of our brain as something like a computer. We assume that our memories are stored in the same way the documents and files are etched onto a hard drive. It may not be ones and zeroes, but it's something akin to that. Our synapses, I've believed, were like electrical impulses that work like software protocols. And, as many a sci-fi writer has suggested, one day scientists will be able to patch our brains to real computers for augmented powers and other currently inconceivable experiences. I myself have talked about this as if it were almost a sure thing. In fact, my short story The M Zone is built on this premise, that we'll one day be able to access our memories by means of electronic devices.

The article comes at an interesting time in my readings since I've lately been voraciously consuming books about the future, about the world of tomorrow. Most striking is how varied these authors' pictures of the future have been. In fact, they're often downright contradictory, whether it's cars, geopolitics or the environment.

In the realm of computer science, some writers believe that an A.Il singularity will occur in our lifetimes. Others suggest it will never occur at all, ever. Some see humans living in space stations on Mars in the not too distant future. Others scoff as if this notion is ridiculous.

One of the books I've been enjoying this past week has be Bob Seidensticker's Future Hype. The title alone encapsulates the author's premise. Here's the book's description at Amazon.com:

Conventional wisdom says that technology is the greatest new growth frontier, coupling infinite potential with an ever-growing number of faster, more efficient, and more reliable products and instruments. According to this view, we live in an unprecedented golden era of technological expansion. ""Future Hype argues the opposite. Author Bob Seidensticker, who has an intimate understanding of technology on professional, theoretical, and academic levels, asserts that today's technological achievements are neither fast nor progressive. He explodes seven major myths of technology, including ""Change is exponential,"" ""Product cycle time is decreasing,"" and ""Today's high-tech price reductions are unprecedented."" Examining the history of tech hype, Seidensticker skillfully uncovers the inaccuracies and misinterpretations that characterize the popular view of technology, explaining how and why this view has been created, and offering specific strategies for measuring progress against what is actually known rather than against what its boosters have promised.

Over the years I've written several times about mistaken predictions by people supposedly in the know (c.f "Who Are Your Experts"). And being aware of this tendency (to envision futures quite wide of the mark) nearly all predictioneering begins with extensive qualifying statements that indicate that the author is fully aware that the further into the future we go the more wildly askew we might be.

In fact, this is one of the big question marks for those who write about A.I. No one can really know what will happen when the machines are so smart that they knowledge becomes exponentially greater than ours. It's a moment in time beyond which we cannot see. That is, if it happens at all.

This is what makes this book mentally entertaining. It's an antidote to the unbridled optimism some writers have expressed.

Here's an Amazon.com review from a reader named Byron Justice:
As an audio specialist these last 30 years, I've seen my share of technology hype. Even though history is littered from horizon to horizon with inflated expectations, broken promises, unfounded predictions, and a few outright lies, I'm always amazed at how easily people are goaded into throwing down their credit card for the latest tech toys. Of course, this book reaffirms that which I already know--technology for its own sake may be cool, but has no other benefits. I was predisposed to enjoy this book, and I wasn't disappointed. The guy who should read this book is the same guy who replaced his Beta tape library with LaserDiscs.

A reviewer named Brian wrote:
The people of every period in history tend to think that the time in which they live is somehow special: dramatically better than, or worse than, or in some way fundamentally different from all the times that came before. (And/or the people of today are *themselves* somehow different from the people of yesterday.)

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In one section of the book the author notes that although times have changed people aren't that different and that many times in the past there have been writers lamenting the fast pace of change taking place in their time. I myself have written about how people in many eras of history have felt this sense of being overwhelmed by the fast pace of change. An article in The Atlantic from the 19th century and another by Kafka back in the Twenties both expressed the emotional exhaustion caused by the breathtaking changes taking place and the feeling of being rushed, pushed, shoved by life. On the other hand, there are many who have become weary by how long the changes are taking place in our time. The author of Future Hype claims the rate of change is actually slowing down.

Seidensticker devotes the middle portion of his book to presenting specific myths and misconceptions such as (1) the idea that change is exponential, or that (3) important new high-tech inventions are arriving ever faster. He even calls Moore's Law a myth, or rather, the notion that it really matters. And even the changes wrought by the internet are overrated.

Ultimately the book serves as a nice antidote to the roiling media hype about all the "inevitable" changes that are moving toward us like a steamroller. You can find it here at Amazon.com.

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This book brings to mind an article I once read in Writer's Digest about making money by writing articles that are contrarian. This is certainly that kind of book. Nearly every argument has two side, and it is often quite easy to shoot holes in what are often popular misconceptions. (By mentioning "shooting holes" I'm not aiming to veer this blog post toward the topic of guns.)

Anyways, I'm fairly confident that this author enjoyed assembling his book. I also believe it can serve a useful function to keep things in perspective.

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If you like short stories and enjoyed The M Zone, you can find my Unremembered Histories at Amazon.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Just keep breathing.

What Should It Be?

"The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life." ~Z. Smith

I've been listening to a book titled Changing My Mind, a book of essays by Zadie Smith. It's been a stimulating read so far because she's a writer's writer. I mean, she writes about writers and she writes very well while doing it, and with authority. It's a book about consuming and producing literature, and you can tell quite quickly she's consumed plenty.

She slices and dices lives and works of people like Kafka, and E.M. Forster and Nabakov, and gets one thinking about what good writing ought to look like. What should a modern novel look like? Is the traditional 19th century format the way to go or is it time to be abandoned? How much work should the reader have to do to get the author's pearls?

The reviews on Amazon.com indicate that the book is not for everyone. Maybe I will get bogged down myself, but for now the essays demonstrate a mind awake and a keen eye for observation.

In some ways I'm wondering what motivated her to go into such depths with regard to George Eliot and Middlemarch. My suspicion is that she's trying to figure out for herself what a novel should be. Tom Wolfe arrogantly pronounced the novel dead about forty years ago, and by the proliferation of Reality Shows on TV, he may be right that the hunger for fiction has diminished in our time. But "dead" is a pretty strong pronouncement and based on the sales of books by Michael Crichton, Tom Clancey, Stephen King and James Patterson, I'm guessing there's still plenty of life in the genre.

NEW TOPIC
Oh, and if you're looking for someplace to go some evening this weekend, check out the new show featuring the 3-D art of Mary Plaster at Beaner's in West Duluth. It's big, and it's delightfully in your face. Death, Gaia, Poseidon, Helios (the Sun God) and Zeus are all on hand in rich enormity. Obviously she used a vehicle larger than my Honda to transport the pieces there this week.

In the meantime, whether you're making art or making stories, good luck in working out the fundamental problems of the work. How accessible should it be? Who is your real audience? And where do you want it to go?

And just to mix it up, here's another quote from Zadie: "I myself have never been able to figure out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat. "

Till the morrow....

Toward Ever Greater Efficiencies

It really is a whole new world out there. Yesterday I was talking with a friend about the efficiencies the Internet offers. Instead of driving to the bookstore and looking for a book, I can go to amazon.com and read reviews, buy it used or new and never leave my office. The retailers who have “pure” eCommerce businesses never concern themselves with a dressy showroom floor, sales staff standing around waiting for customers or any of that. They have shelves and a warehouse, servers and tech people keeping the show running. Efficiency is the name of the game.

Well, salespeople are learning about efficiencies, too. Instead of platte(sp) books and trips to the library or County Office Building, they have been discovering an increasing variety of web tools to help generate leads, reduce time preparing contact lists, etc.

Here’s an interesting story about a guy in real estate, Justin McClelland, who found a screen scraping tool for harvesting data and organizing it. The product he found is Mozenda and the amazing thing for Justin was that he could do it for two weeks on a free trial basis. What I found interesting is how quickly he learned it, and also how quickly he was eager to share this “secret weapon” with others. He even made a YouTube video to show how easy it is to use.

Evidently the program is so easy to use he didn’t even need to call tech support, though he acknowledges that he has a small measure of programming or computer-related experience.

McClelland’s business is called Schwaps.com and to my surprise I was able to find and follow him on Twitter under the handle Schwaps if you want to follow him.

Maybe you know a few efficiencies yourself. Certainly Google has helped make finding information easy. I routinely found myself calling the library help desk to verify information earlier in my writing career. I can’t remember the last time I called the library help desk.

Efficiency isn’t everything, but it’s something. It helps companies remain competitive in a fast paced world. In Orson Welles’ film adaptation of Kafka’s The Trial the main character works as an accountant at a company in which there are more than eight hundred accountants sitting at desks with ledger books and adding machines. That room full of adding machines has been replaced by a computer today.

The human cost of progress is a major challenge for business owners when it comes to the efficiencies of automation and technology. This was my friend's concern. How far should we go in the adaptation of technologies that replace jobs? On the other hand, in a global economy, to what extent do we have a choice as other countries produce goods with increasing ease and reduced costs?

That was the real discussion yesterday. He said that business consultants are now reading Seneca, the Roman stoic philosopher, in order to have a more humane approach to decisions affecting employees. My feeling is that failing to incorporate efficiencies into a business model is a sure way to doom it so that all your employees' jobs are imperiled.

If I get a chance, I might examine Seneca, but the Golden Rule is pretty good guidance, too, when it comes to treatment of employees: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And as for efficiency, it is one part of the equation for success that keeps us competitive, helping us to leverage our time so we can do the real work of closing deals, providing good service or producing products needed in the marketplace.

Ask Justin McClelland. Would he rather spend four hours or four thousand hours assembling a list of prospects for his business?