Althouse: "If you’re viewing this item, you’ve nearly completed the celebration of the birth of Franz Kafka."

July 4, 2013

"If you’re viewing this item, you’ve nearly completed the celebration of the birth of Franz Kafka."

"Please bring your authorized certificate and completed form #1EZ to item #1 for final processing."

Too late! That door closed yesterday.

27 comments:

edutcher said...: Just like ObamAmerica.; 7/4/13, 11:15 AM
ricpic said...: Just like ObamAmerica.

Exactly. Kafka's birthday and America's birthday don't compute. And that blessing, which has always been seen as a curse by the Left, because how could a country free of the Kafkaesque nightmare be "interesting?"...that blessing is being corrected.; 7/4/13, 11:26 AM
Anonymous said...: Tiny Baby Spiders Crawl Over My Skin But I feel Nothing. The Room is Empty Save for a Chair by the Window: the Window Will Not Open. When I am Not in Bed I Sit in the Chair. When I am Not in the Chair and Not in the Bed I Stand By the Door, Contemplating Leaving. When I Leave I Contemplate Returning; the Moment is Never Entirely Mine. I Am Envious of Those Who Can Turn into a Cockroach.; 7/4/13, 11:26 AM
Mitch H. said...: You mean this door, Professor?; 7/4/13, 11:29 AM
Saint Croix said...: Kafka's birthday and America's birthday don't compute.

Yeah, exactly!

I started watching Orson Welles' version of The Trial. The movie opens with a guy waking up and two cops are in his bedroom. So you're supposed to be terrified of the state in our bedrooms.

But that can't happen in our country. That's the first thing that struck me, how European and weird Kafka's nightmare was.

In our country, cops come in waving guns and shouting. You know why? Cause somebody might shoot them, that's why. We've got an armed people. And the cops are just as paranoid as we are.

And this cracks me up about Orson Welles. He makes anti-capitalist rants while he's living in the U.S. And then when he's in Europe, what does he do? Makes an anti-socialist rant!

Never happy, that guy.; 7/4/13, 11:36 AM
Saint Croix said...: yeah, this is the American version of Kafka; 7/4/13, 11:42 AM
Saint Croix said...: Make love to the wall, pervert!; 7/4/13, 11:42 AM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

I Play Songs That I Have Written to People Who Only Want to Hear The Songs that I Wrote That I Do Not Want to Play. My Songs Hang Around My Neck Like Binoculars on a Mule.; 7/4/13, 11:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

They Want to Hear the Songs in the Same Exact Way as I Recorded Them Thirty Years Ago. They Do Not Want Transformation: They Want Me to Reenact a Frozen Moment Endlessly. I Am Forever Stuck Immobile with the Memphis Blues Again.; 7/4/13, 11:47 AM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

People Want My Songs to Never Change; they want Them to Be Forever Young. Once Written I Cannot Rewrite Them: Once Written I Cannot Un-Write Them. I need a Dump Truck to Unload my Head.; 7/4/13, 11:55 AM
traditionalguy said...: At last, ObamaCare eats all reality like The Blob did to Steve McQueen's friends.; 7/4/13, 11:55 AM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

People Pay Money for Me To Replay Their Youth. To Do So Means I Endlessly Must Replay Mine. Inside this Museum Infinity Goes up on Trial; the Heat Pipes just Cough.; 7/4/13, 12:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

Every Time I Sing "For the Times They are A-changin'" a Part of Me Withers Inside. The Time is Not Changing: it Is Relentlessly the Same. I Am Forever Working on Maggie's Farm, of My Own Volition.; 7/4/13, 12:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "You mean this door, Professor?"

Yes. Thanks for getting it.; 7/4/13, 12:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

Though the Audience Changes The Applause Always Sounds the Same. It is Louder When It is a Song They Want; it is Polite When it is a Song They Do Not Want. Sometimes it Gets so Hard to Care: It IS this Way, Everywhere.; 7/4/13, 12:14 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: My favorite part was the cat washing reds with whites on purpose.; 7/4/13, 12:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

I Have this Recurring Dream: I Show Up on Stage as A Cockroach and the Applause Is the Same as Long as I Play the Songs the Way They Want Them to Be Played. I am Tangled Up in a Blue-Black Shell.; 7/4/13, 12:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I started watching Orson Welles' version of The Trial. The movie opens with a guy waking up and two cops are in his bedroom. So you're supposed to be terrified of the state in our bedrooms.

St Croix: Welles thought "The Trial" was a comedy and filmed it that way. As far as he was concerned K was "guilty as hell."; 7/4/13, 12:19 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

I Sometimes Have an Almost Violent Urge to Stop Mid-Song and Yell "Judas" at Myself.The Audience Would No Doubt Applaud the Reference and Not Understand the Meaning. I Secretly Wish To Rearrange their Faces And Give them All Another Name.; 7/4/13, 12:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

I Dream of Singing "A Horse With No Name" and Repeating the Line "There Were Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things" Over and Over. This, For Me, Passes For Freedom.; 7/4/13, 12:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Bob Dylan Kafka Robot says:

Sometimes I Play the Harmonica Poorly on Purpose Just To See if People Can Tell. They Cannot. My Cage is Not Empty; it Is My Soul That Corrodes.; 7/4/13, 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Betamax Kafka Robot says:

I Will Write and Write and Write in Soundless Rooms But Never Catch Up to Chip Ahoy's 153 Tags. Existence is Futile.; 7/4/13, 12:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: Kafka inspired me to re -listen to Catch 22.

Heller was a modern American Kafka with a sense of humor.; 7/4/13, 3:36 PM
traditionalguy said...: Catch22 can be problem listening with headphones at the gym. Sudden outbursts of uncontrollable laughter next to the fat ladies and the muscle bound narcissists can get you in trouble.; 7/4/13, 3:58 PM
Anonymous said...: I've long loved Kafka's parables. Here's a favorite:

Couriers

They were offered the choice between becoming kings or the couriers of kings. The way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other--since there are no kings--messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to this miserable life of theirs but they dare not because of their oaths of service.; 7/4/13, 4:49 PM
Anonymous said...: Heller was a modern American Kafka with a sense of humor.

TG: Did you ever read "Something Happened" -- the book Heller wrote after Catch-22? Sort of "Mad Men" meets "Notes from Underground" without the humor.; 7/4/13, 4:54 PM
deborah said...: lol Chip, no one thinks like you.; 7/4/13, 9:22 PM