What Is Kafkaesque? - The 'Philosophy' of Franz Kafka
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2024
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Franz Kafka's work and views are often dark and disorienting, and yet they connect with a great many readers. His work provides a paradoxical comfort in its confrontation with the inexplicable discomfort we can often all feel in life .
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2:30 i've waited 3 years for that
“He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.”
― Franz Kafka
isn't it's Seneca who saying that?
shit, this one's a majestic quote
Didn't Bette Midler sing something like that?
@@nicknomski8399you are the wind beneath my wings
how true it is scares me,
i always found kafkas works to be akin to horror, but a different type of horror not that of the unknown like lovecraft but to know something so clearly yet unable to change or steer clear of it. a vicious cycle of irony
"Gregor, of course, cannot do this. He is a bug." The delivery of this line is comedic gold.
The whole novella is satirical genius.
I cried. I laughed. I was terrified. Truly a great piece of art.
“I must get up, but I’m a beetle laying on my back.” - Gregor
I see your point. For myself though this is the true loss of the individual dignity. The incapablity of following senseless orders and the guilt arising from judgement of eyes that'll never stop digging themselves into your soul. and even if you are willing to fight against it. You'll be cracked by the burden you've carried since ever.
I laughed out loud when I read it in the book 😂😂
reminds me of The Stanley Parable
"What Is Kafkaesque?"
don't ask, you're living it
Word.
Oh yeah
I watched the video and I didn’t hear anything new. So I guess that’s the case.
No doubt
haha! ... .. . hey wait a minute!
"Kafkas work is not considered great because it describes something profoundly unique but because it describes something mundanely common in a profound way "
That mundane moment when you wake up as a bug
@@Slender-James 😂 it 100% happens all the time
@@Slender-James I once woke up as a Kafka. I miss those good old mundane days.
@@Slender-James It is mundane to wake up feeling as though you are one unfortunately.
@@Slender-James
it's not the bug , it's the way a bug is commonly perceived, "useless, small and dirty"
Perhaps that's how he saw himself in the eyes of his father.
Interesting
Mad respect for his friend Max, just for not stealing Kafka's work and claiming it was his
Kind of nuts you would even think of doing that.
@Sherry yeah. Just like Nietzche wicked sister for example
@Sherry some?
Max-esque doesn't really work does it?
@@sairapaks15 lol, that makes you wonder how many others have taken credit for shit they didnt create
So basically Franz Kafka is the Vicent Van Gogh of writing. He died without realizing how important he was.
Sounds even more tragic tbh. He died working a mundane job believing he was a failure, having given up on writing. At least van Gogh lived his life as an artist, travelling and doing what he loved surrounded by other artists!
Van Gogh came to my mind too. The public didn't realize their work was important until after they were gone. At least van Gogh was able to sell his work for rent money while he lived.
Myles Jeffers no love, they shouldn’t be compared to each other in any way or form for they were and are their own person. Both forms of art and self expression. There is no use trying to match them up to be the same because they aren’t.
Or Keats... So many people had this fate.
Many artist of the past share this same fate, there was not a vehicle to share their work to the masses a la the internet.
Ironically, most things on the internet these days pales in comparison to what those guys produced. I mean how many prank videos do we really need?
I want the afterlife to exist just so Kafka can know how appreciated he is
finally someone says the same , aint no way all this will go to waste
@Toni Your idea of waste is nothing but an idea. An idea that started as a thought which was fed to you knowingly or unknowingly. Life is empty and meaningless. We are the meaning making machines.
@@raisin4406 That's harsh, no wonder people get turned off by religion.
@Toni I think it is entirely possible for before I was born I had no consciousness. There was nothing. It makes me think that death will be the same as never having been born. No consciousness, no life. Just like before I ever had consciousness
@@raisin4406 ok mr "raisin" if your god does exist why doesnt he just tell us he exists in our minds.
Max Brod is the type of friend we all need in life. He could have published Kafka's works under his name but he didn't and went onto becoming truthful and honest to his dead friend by publishing his manuscripts. He's the one who made him alive through his works among us.
among us
Holy shit amgus
amogus
*_amogus_*
amogus
The original "would you still love me if i was a worm"
this is my favourite youtube comment ngl
lmfao
🤣
nice!!!!
Good comment 👌
Can we take a moment to appreciate what a great friend Max Brod was?
Both of them were immensely lucky to have found each other. Life has its own way, of course but how we forget about those people who introduced us to the more famous one's is so funny. Think about it, how often do we remember Anne Sullivan while we remember Helen Keller?
Wait .. by completely disregarding his friends last dying wish? Lul
@@rivv4902 a good friend may not always follow what you told them. Instead, doing something better for you. Max Brod is a good friend. Yes, he didn’t follow his last wish, but what he did was something better not just for Kafka, but for us. Imagine the world without Kafka’s work. All thanks to his good friend.
@@klawis I get that, and I'm personally glad he disobeyed because I love his writing. But I fail to see how it helped Franz in any way since he lived out his whole life without recognition, and what's a legacy worth to a dead man? Idk it seems disloyal and also made max more famous by proxy
@@rivv4902 idk if that made Max famous by proxy tbh I knew him when I dug deeper on Kafka but I always knew Kafka. But yeah, you're right. It's kinda sad that his works became famous after death. Guess what, life is still absurd
Kafka got a bad rap for being negative, but I believe he was a realist. He was against what we call today “toxic positivity”. To be sad is to be human. In our culture, we promote positivity to the point of being numb and desensitized to any suffering and injustice. That’s what Kafka was trying to portray.
Your comment is more real than most of the comments here. Kudos
very well said. i completely agree. to live is to suffer, if we are no longer suffering, it is because we are dead. even if we are still alive, we aren't living
You mean rep not rap
Beautifully put.
Can't help but feel that Meat Canyon is somewhat of a spiritual successor to authors who are Kafkaesque
His friend Max is the greatest homie of all time. It would have been so easy to publish that work as his own or follow Kafka’s instruction.
@@dee8323 you'd be surprised with today's generation of "friend"
@@dee8323 are u stupid LMAO he literally didnt steal it cuz we aint talking about brods works, we talk about kafkas. He knew his genius, and didnt want it burned??? And hes still talked about years later, so how did he steal anything
@@dee8323 sadly some people don't have a heart
@@dee8323ever read yellowface
"How many Kafka's have lived and died
without ever sharing their voice with the world; whose voice would have changed it forever. How many people never know who they'll be after they're gone."
..it touched
Keep sharing your word my friend
NO WAY LEGIT IN THE EXACT MOMENT I READ THIS I WAS IN THAT PART OF THE VIDEO LIKE PERFECT TIMING LOL
Yup.... Bought me tears
As someone who has been working underground for 16 years on becoming the world's greatest scholar for humanity's liberation, I feel this.
BRAVO!
Shout out to his friend who loved him so dearly to preserve his work
yes
friends often believe in you more than you believe in yourself
I don't know, according to what I've read, it's more like him wanting to gain money from them. But I do agree that we should thank him for disrespecting Kafka's dying wish.
Yes! What a friend lol
@@metheboss4993 Maybe, but also maybe if he just wanted money he could have published the work under his own name... others have done it in different artistic areas. It's really hard to know.
The reason why his work is so profound and compelling is exactly because he didnt write it for an audience. He didn't have to water down his ideas or offer any answers or resolutions to the reader because there wasn't any. The concern for the audience's approval and understanding would've tainted the purity of his ideas
agreed! but also kind of tragic he literally had no support during his lifetime nor recognition in the slightest
If you guys think Kafka's work was impressive while reading it in Englisch, imagine being able to read it in his Native language. My teacher made us read Metamorphosis as part of my course ( I used to attend a German school) and my teacher literally sobbed on multiple occasions due to his writing, (not just Metamorphosis but also reading chapters of other literary works he had so we can connect the dots between his emotions and how he conveyed them). His writing in all honesty was extremely strong, Honestly no way to describe it other than the said term "Kafkaesque", especially with how he wrote in German, it was a whole new way i experienced that language and how emotions can be conveyed through it.
"I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it":
Letters to Milena
that's so sad...
@@ayamatmabrahma9658 no
Report @@ayamatmabrahma9658 for religious spam
Same
@@hanee496 Then why did I shake my head in agreement and laugh :)
After almost 70 years on this planet, I just found out that I'm 100% Kafkaesque. It has been enlightening.
“Every thing you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way.”
― Franz Kafka, Kafka's Selected Stories
This is just beautiful, he is hopeful
Woo
There's that silver lining
This is from a beautiful story in which Kafka supposedly met a little girl in a park where hed walk every day and she was crying because she had lost her doll. Kafka tried to help her find it unsuccessfully, so for the next few weeks he'd write letters to the girl from the doll stating that she went on a trip to see the world. and she was going to write about her adventures, asking the girl to not cry. After some weeks, Kafka bought a new doll, gave it to her claiming it was her lost one and when she responded that it looks nothing like her doll, he gave her another letter in which the doll said "my trips, they changed me". The little girl was very happy to bring her doll back home. A year later, Kafka died and many years later, the girl, who was now a woman, found a hidden letter in the doll that Kafka gave her. The original comment is what the letter said... truely a wonderful story
@@philipchatz oh .. wow...
Honestly this man seriously deserved sm better, I'll hug him if I could.
He wasn’t big on physical contact
Kafkaesque - confusion basically. Youre confused by the complicated world around you. The characters in the books are suddenly put in a complicated situation and are confused about why they're there and what to do. Kafkaesque things are also about characters who continue and continue to search for answers to their situations but never find it. Kafkaesque literature shows that people must face that there are no answers or whatever. Kafkaesque books directly tell us we must face the confusion without understanding it (because there is no way to clear confusion) and we just move forward with our lives.
"Kafkaesque" means to make things far more complicated, oppressive and tedious than is necessary. Enter government taxatation, red tape and bureaucracy.....
Its nore than just being confused. A key part of the absurdity is that despite waking up as a bug, the Protagonist's main concerns aren't 'how do I turn back' or 'how did this happen?, its 'How do I do my job lile this?'.
The situations are absurd but the characters accept them as perfectly normal and try to deal with them as they are.
Yep !
Hopelessness. The feeling of not even having a chance to accomplish what is expected of you, for reasons out of your control.
@@AxelSpinnet "The situations are absurd but the characters accept them as perfectly normal and try to deal with them as they are." Making the whole picture more absurd if that makes any sense
It's so sad to think about the artists who lived an ordinary life, without ever knowing how their work would be loved, dying with the feeling that their work won't matter, that they have wasted their life...
Why would they care about others loving their art? So what? Endlessly do art, technology, progress for others like you? Yes, there are people with talents, so what? You want to gather them and tell them to do art for others? When you don't know why, it's hard to do anything.
Ok but like deep af
@@helldenizens8154 it's not about others approving your art. It's about having a purpose in life. If you've lived your life and at the end of it feel like you have achieved nothing, that makes you feel miserable. It would have been such a relief for anyone like Kafka to know that their work has inspired others or had another sort of lasting impact on the world, rather than having it gone to waste and be forgotten.
I think about that as well. When I see documentaries about Nikola Tesla, and how he died in obscurity, it saddens me. Take care.
@@saniancreations you think everyone and anyone would be happy to have a purpose, you think that's the only thing that matters, to make impact on the world? And everyone should have a purpose and do the same for the sake of what? For having to know that your work is approved to be enjoyable by people? By people miserable like you, yourself? So, life is about making things that would be enjoyable by you and others, to enjoy them endlessly, do more things, and more to enjoy while you are alive, for other people after you? I am asking for real.
“YO, that’s like so kafkaesque” -Jesse Pinkman
Love me a good breaking bad reference
I just saw that episode and then this came on my recommended....
SUS!!!!!
But it was really worth learning about.
I couldn't remember where I heard this! Thank you!
😂😂You forgot the Yo!!
I was about to type this out
the story of Kafka is another example of many that family can be your misery but you might be destined to meet friends who’ll help you cope with the stress your family brings. friends who’ll guide you from the darkness to the light like Kafka’s friend.
His father Hermann (as you seem to know) was his lifelong nemesis but he was extremely close to his sister.
as a girl from czechia i am really proud of how our literature influenced pretty much the whole world. believe we're really proud that he's from our country
He sure made ur country proud 😇.
Kafka didnt even speak czech lol
@@brotherman8873 1) He did 2) He was from Prague which is a Czech capital city today 3) He died with a Czechoslovak nationality 4) Saying he wasn't Czech because he wrote in German, which was Bohemia's official language at the time makes as much sense as saying an American writer isn't American, because he writes in English.
Omg, why do people connect individual people's accomplishments to entire nations?
@@adonis744 cuz he's really important to us and we're just proud. why do you even care??? and what's your point lmfao
Kafka really deserves a "you are enough" and not just congratulations for his work. This man turned his sufferance into his own form of art and even then he didn't think it was enough but it was and he was enough. I wish someone holds him in their arms where he is now and tells him "you are enough" because he didn't write to be congratulated but because he wanted to be good enough at something he really enjoyed doing. And he succeeded thinking he failed.
I'm so happy for people who manage to believe in an afterlife.
It’s lying, and you know that.
I don’t think you understand the level of intelligence Kafka had. He was sad not because he was not loved , he was sad because he was so intelligent he realized that humans life is an endless attempt to satisfy ones desires. Desires ever changing and motivated by the physical world.
This Philosophy is very inline with Niethzke will to power
He is in the arms of God.
@@No1reallydies yes but it cannot be the only reason. I hate the assumption that being sad because of lack of love is not a sign of intelligence itself. Yes, Kafka's miseries became centered around existentialism, especially in his adult life, but it is also very clear that he realised in his childhood that he deserves more validation from people around him, even though he had no verbal way to express it.
"To have felt the guilt and anxiety of existence for no clear reason..."
Yes.
SCARY...TERRIFYING
Lmao
@MC Psychology. People grow up with all sort of traumas. Doesn't even have to be something coming down from your parents. Just having your milk spilled over could already cause a shock that stays for the rest of your life. Work shit up and enter reality.
because you care too much
Yep! Are you described me 🤔🥴
I worked in government for many years. After a short period of time, there were anomalies that just didn’t make sense and some were completely absurd. An experienced coworker told that my observations were accurate but that the bureaucracy was just to big to fight. He was absolutely right! I found a niche where it allowed me to have a positive impact on people’s lives, that’s what saved me. In the end, I had to retire as soon as I could in order to preserve my sanity. Absolutely Kafkaesque.
💯💢💥 You have captured the very essence of the meaning of the word "kafkaesque"....😄 Basically, this is what happens when you are being ruled over by Cluster B psychopaths......
@@reesedaniel5835 From my work experience a came to fully understand what Peter Gabriel was trying to say in his song ’Solisbury Hill’. I had to walk right out of the machinery and yes my heart was going ‘boom boom boom’.
man, I just want to give my guy Kafka a hug. he deserves the world.
You and Kurzgesagt should team up and erase me from existence.
watch exurb1a
Yeah. This crossover will be great.
@moqal beautiful comment
Hmm or you could just read some existential philosophy!
Ive seen this before
He didn’t say it-but I think this quote perfectly sums up his life and his writing:
“I’m afraid. Still, I go on.”
Tommy Shelby
Can't everyone say that?
Who is this quote from
As in, 'QUIET DESPERATION !'
He keeps moving forward
I'm sitting in front of my computer in my apartment in Prague, watching this video, contemplating the absurdity of life. What an experience.
This story is so disparaging:( I cried suddenly when you told his story. I wish he knew how irreplaceable and brilliant he was. How needed , valued and most importantly , that he is loved.
What’s sadder his his entire family died in the Holocaust. Max Brod only barely made it to Israel because he was already famous and well-known. Really, if it weren’t for him saving his work, all the success his family had gotten would’ve faded into the ashes unknown. I can’t stress enough how much everyone needs a Max Brod in their life. No matter how famous he got, how rich he got-he always stuck beside Kafka till the day died. And even though he straight up told him if he gave him his writing in his will, he’d refuse to burn it, Kafka gave it to him anyway.
Ummmm never heard of him, not needed by me for sure
@@gowdsake7103 wow so edgy
As a writer, this is really motivating. Don't feel insecure about your writing, you might be one of the greatest writers to live without knowing it.
But he did feel insecure so maybe that helped him become the writer that he was.
Thomas I write a ton and it’s usually in my lowest points (once a week at 3am) so it’s definitely true
Kafka did more than his father, I tell you that
But probably not...
yapp we got to get up and write it down.
or else it will never be read.
_"Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy."_
*~ Franz Kafka*
_"Bureaucracy is the death of any achievement."_
*~ E=mc2*
Revolution*
@오승훈 We're living in a worldwide dystopia my dude
Not to say that a good revolution every now and then still isn't a good thing. TEAR DOWN THE STATUS QUO - OFF WITH THEIR HEADS - HUMPTY DUMPTY BE DAMNED!!!
@FiniteAutomaton So maybe a state of perpetual revolution? Or I could just get off the ride through this house of horrors and be done with this mean and meaningless stupidity I mean, why bother, right? If it will always be the same shitshow surrounded by all you poo flinging apes then what the hell am I waiting for? Not like there is any heaven or hell or eternal soul. At least I've unshackled myself from those lies they use to trap us into being controlled and manipulated. Or perhaps I should step up my game., embrace my screen name, and help speed up the Sixth Mass Extinction. That might be good for a laugh or two before I go, right? If it's as bad as you point out there isn't any hope of us ever making a better world, right? Thanks for the advice! You're my hero, Ferris.
I can only very strongly recommend the Kafka museum in Prague. It does not only provide information on Kafka's life but the whole museum is designed to give you a kafkaesque feeling. So for instance, you have this dark room filled with file cabinets up to the ceiling that exudes the feel of a crushing, claustrophobic office etc. Very much worth seeing!
This is horrifically sad. His works are clearly what he was experiencing and he felt so helpless. I admit I have a fear of becoming Kafka.
You should listen to 'the smiths'.
A man, who sought for his father's approval and perished without ever receiving it.
One of more tragic philosophical backgrounds.
No
I see you everywhere dude
Tragical... ok buddy nice englishing.
O'SSÉIN - Master Your Mind With Me I see you again on this video, keep expanding your consciousness
I won't subscribe 👅
I member reading "Metamorphosis" for the first time, it was beautiful. Everyone in the class was complaining that a guy who turns into a bug is a weird story and thus, not interesting to them.... and I'm just over here having a fucking existential crisis because the reality is that nothing really matters, you don't matter, I don't matter, I COULD turn into a bug (so what) and the clock would keep on ticking. Fight, struggle, resist, but why? Isn't it impossible to win at a game that doesn't even exist? Like, "did y'all read the same book?!?!"
The only difference is that you are deep and they are shallow. Period
The way I see it people like them shouldn't be allowed to raise kids
@Stellvia Hoenheim They were probably affected by something even more absurd.
And here i am thinking you were breaking down because of 177013, but alas, the human mind is one of mystery
You can't relate if you don't have issues.
The problem is, people don't see literature for what it is. Subjective. He is not literally a bug, he is depressed. His depression turns him into something hideous and his family's apathy towards him only propels his transformation into a depressive beast, a husk of his former self to the point of death. This is how I always viewed it anyway.
I just know this showed up on my recommended because of the Star Rail Kafka hype 💀
When I first read Kafka it changed my life and view of the world. Such an amazing, easy to read and delightful piece of art.
“You wanna know why we keep going? ... because, what the hell else are we suppose to do?
Absolutely. Only two choices: life or immediate gore.
Exactly. Jean Paul Sartre said we have two choices - "authenticity or suicide". We fear dying if we have not lived authentically. It is WE who stop ourselves from living authentically, NOT anyone else.
@@christinequinn5355 On the other hand, Camus provides us with two types of suicide and a acceptance as solution
@@christinequinn5355 lol, it's the systems around us, that don't let us live authentically
I just played days gone
"Kafka's work is so unique because it describes something mundanely common in a profound way. An encapsulation of an often indescribable experience a part of life that touches us all."
There it is.
Aaah it is these feelings that we know so well and yet can't describe that are portrayed in his work. It saddens me that so many of us are in this position and yet I feel proud that we continue despite failing, for our greatest lies not in never falling but in rising every time with greater defiance than ever!
I watched this video two months ago for the first time and it inspired me to start reading his books. In last two months I read The Trial and Metamorphosis, and I'm currently reading The Castle. It's safe to say that Kafka became one of my favourite authors.
Kafka is definitely one of my favorite authors. But also, please allow me to just appreciate how I just love how you wrote the script for this video! Its beautifully written and video is greatly made! Great work!
I had to shed a tear when I heard Kafka's friend spend the next 10 years publishing his work, that so deeply moving and perhaps THE reason why we can talk about Kafka today.
That's dedication. Hardly any of us will experience love like that.
Franz Kafka told this "friend" you call, before he died, that he wants all his work to be burned. This friend then proceeded to go against his will and published all of his works, including letters etc. A traitor to a friend is what I call it
@@filipliska1875 Actually, when Kafka told Brod that he wanted all his works to be destroyed Brod openly stated that he would never do such a thing. Still, even after hearing this Kafka entrusted Brod with his unpublished works in his will, giving him his silent approval.
@@filipliska1875 Okay but at least he didn't pass Kafka's work as his own but instead took Kafka's work and published it to the world because he liked them instead of just destroying them and having Kafka never be noticed in the afterlife and his entire life is just some depressing story with no payoff.
"How Kafkaesque" I said standing in line at Starbucks. You would think it's a metaphor to long and agonising modern beaurocracy but it's actually about the dead coackroach in the corner.
I chuckled 🤣
lmfao
Come on man.....🤣🤣🤣
or you mean brewocracy
Starbucks? What a softy.
Kafka was such a genius, his style of writing his perception of the world and his ability to reflect himself, all while writing in a riddle sorta style combined with brutal honesty
I urge anyone to read Kafka's letter to his father. Those couple of pages dedicated to the tyranny of his father to him and the alienation he created between mother and son truly displays the torment that inhabited his soul for the few years he lived. In the mind of the abandoned, none of one's own doing will ever be valuable if one's father or mother did not even spare him a smile for a simple effort. Interesting how our childhood is what tortures us as adults.
"Gregor, of course, cannot do this. He is a bug"
I lost it
I literally just read that book and UGH.
Mixed feelings about it.
@@DrKane-ey9ix Read it again. It just gets better, and worse.
A year before his death, the writer Franz Kafka saw in one of Berlin’s park, a girl who was desperate because she had lost her doll.
It’s 1923. Franz Kafka is 40. Every afternoon, he is walking in a park near his home. Kafka, the story goes, that it was this last time he had visited Berlin. In one afternoon, he encounters a young girl called Elsi in a park awash in tears. That little girl had lost her doll and was desolated.
Kafka offered to help the child to look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot. Not being able to locate the doll, and to soothe the girl, Kafka composed a letter from the doll to the child, to explain her disappearance. Kafka was planning to read it to her when they met again. Kafka makes up a story of wonders and travels. He tells the girl that her doll has gone off on a journey of a lifetime.
Here is an opening passage of one of the letters, to see the rich construction that the author performs:
“Dear Elsi, first of all, I’m sorry to have left so suddenly without saying goodbye. I’m sorry, and I hope you’re not angry. Sometimes we do things without realizing it, or we react to what our instinct does not say, and we hurt who we do not want.
It’s that the farewells are sad, and I did not want you to cry or try to convince me to stay any longer. Now I know that you will be more at peace knowing that I am well, will rejoice for both of us. You must know that to live is to keep going forward, to enjoy every moment, every opportunity and necessity […] You taught me many things, made me a good doll. Thanks to you I am free to do this. Please do not grieve me, I have gone on a long journey to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.’
The doll explains that she has gone away to see the world, to make new friends. She loves the little girl but longs for a change of scenery. She promises to write every day to tell the little girl about her new adventures. And so she does.
This was the beginning of many letters. When Kafka and the little girl met the next afternoon, he compassionately read her from these composed letters, through the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. That comforted the child. So Kafka continued, for several weeks, arriving each morning at the park with a message for his new little friend.
In another Letter the doll writes:
“We came to London by balloon. . . . The English are very strange. . . . They all carry umbrellas, as it rains constantly, and long poles to poke their way through the fog. They live on muffins and tea.”
As Kafka creates, he knows he must prepare the little Elsi for the day when the doll reveals she won’t be coming home. He’s wasn’t certain how he will break the news without breaking the magic spell he had created.
But Franz Kafka is sick. He is terminally ill. Kafka is living the last year of his life. As his tuberculosis worsened, Kafka decided to return to a sanatorium in Prague, where he would soon die at the tender age of 41.
*Before he left Berlin, Franz Kafka buys the child another doll. With the figure, it came a letter in which Kafka insisted that this was the doll that belonged to the girl. Indeed, she looked different, but then on her long trips, the doll had seen many amazing sights and gone through many intense experiences. Life had most definitely changed her appearance. The last letter attached clarified the obvious: ‘My travels have changed me.’*
Many years later, the now-grown girl found a letter stuffed into an overlooked gap in the cherished replacement doll.
*‘Everything that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return to you in a different form.”*
Kafka gave this little girl something much more valuable to replace her lost doll. He has given her a story. Elsi had lost herself in that story.
Inside that parable’s imaginary world, the pain of her real world disappears.
*As a terminally Ill person, Kafka also gave her the precious time he had left. dedicating to her many hours of his fading days.*
*Solidarity is the feeling that best expresses the respect for human dignity.*
Although we did not know for sure how the story of the girl and the lost doll happened, the highlight was the solidarity that Kafka had with a sad girl, ‘inventing’ the parable of the traveling doll.
Kafka’s kind actions help us see the importance of symbolization and imagination on the transformation of grief.
The story empowered the child, calmed her down, and especially lessened and prepared her for the painful separation of the doll she loved. The little girl was over her grief, She was happy for her doll in her new life.
A note at the back of the book explains that according to a biography of Kafka, this encounter with a little girl who had lost her doll actually occurred.
If Kafka were a more self-centered writer or less disillusioned with his literary career, he would have left copies of those letters for his audience to read.
*“No one ever inhabited the threshold more thoroughly than Kafka. On the threshold of happiness; of the beyond; of Canaan; of the door only open for us. On the threshold of escape, of transformation. Of an enormous and final understanding. No one made so much art of it. And yet if Kafka is never sinister or nihilistic, it’s because to even reach the threshold requires a susceptibility to hope and vivid yearning. There is a door. There’s a way up or over. It’s just that one almost certainly won’t manage to reach it, or recognize it, or pass through it in this life.” ~ Nicole Krauss*
Bolsheviki this is beautiful
@@nathanxabrera6169 Thanks..I thought so too.
Aight I'm going to cry
Thanks for sharing this. This beautiful story.
I have copied your comment into a text file, will be reading it from time to time. Thanks!
Won the 50/50 thanks dude
Thanks youtube for introducing me to a great writer. Soon I'll immerse myself into world of his books. 😭
Oh my days same here
Maybe me 3-5 years from now?
@@andreoliveira2032 bcz Ive my exams really close so I cannot
i think we should get a "living is fucking difficult" holliday, in which everyone just chills for a day without haveing to think about anything
When will you begin campaigning for the presidency?I want to get my vote in early.
Ever heard of a weekend?
When u think about it, it would be quite chaotic
@Confidential Ever heard of a weekend?
Wouldn't work because people would try to create special traditions for this day, thus putting an end to the worriless rest :(
"To live and die having never recognized one's full potential" My greatest fear articulated.
Reading this just triggered my anxiety 😩
Me too.. Gosh, I hope it won't happen to us.
But does it really matter in the end? You'll be dead it won't mean anything to you.
@kaizen Your feelings of worth are created by you. If we can somehow set our goals to reflect what we are, wouldn't we all be happy and fulfilled?
Can we just appreciate how beautifully this video is made, the script and the editing, just wow.
This hit so close to home, for so many reasons you'd probably hardly believe me if I told them, but you motivated me to try finishing some of my stories, partly written and put aside, once more.
This is an *_*EXTREMELY_** well thought out, and made video. I can’t imagine the amount of effort to get everything right, this goes for all of our videos.
Agreed, the dialogue is incredibly detailed and well thought out
True true, like u need to think!
~☆♕
I saw an old reddit post on r/exurb1a from 2018 that said “pursuit of wonder is a poorly made exurb1a clone”. I had been watching this channel for a while now, and only stumbled upon this post after further researching a topic from one of these videos. Dunno why I’m commenting this, I was just reminded of it. Funny to think that people are actually aggressively angry at this channel as if exurb1a patented philosophy channels on UA-cam.
it is, except the building in the right photo at 0:34 is the old Globe Corner Bookstore in Boston. It's now a Chipotle. Kafkaesque
@Saudade stumbled upon this video today at 0123am. very nice narrator. made it a very educational time-lapse of Kafka's life.
I think an important part of the term kafkaesque has to do with the language in which he wrote which allowed him to write incredibly long passages that were technically one sentence so that the reader literally felt trapped in what they were reading.
That's German in a nutshell
Das ist korrekt.
@@Sick_Pencil😂😂
I'm halfway through "The Metamorphosis" and noticed that a bit 😂 It's my first time reading anything written by him so if you have any recommendations, please let me know!
@@stefondavis3261 I don't know written by him, but the artbook Castles, by Alan Lee, describes Kafka's story The Castle with some lovely immense labyrinthian castles.
Kafka's work is an absolute depiction of the inescapable reality, it's harsh, terrifying, dark, depressing, but true!
To what we ascribe meaning in our life is questionable for they are fragile and before we understand the fragility of the subject, we find ourselves to be thrashed by it's destructive outcome, there's no way out, but to struggle and live through it!
To live even in the most dreadful and painful of circumstances !!
I certainly believe we cannot throw optimism in these circumstances of despair, but we can make the most out of it, we ourselves can realise our true inherent potential without the world giving validation to it!!
For how the bug could still pull itself up and learnt to cling on to the walls, to crawl around the floor and to sustain itself in the worst of conditions!!
That's why the Son of God gave us a way to escape this madness (and He didn't mean through the corrupt "church" system either)...."And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32 Those of the corrupt "church" system are the same hypocrites who had Him nailed to a cross for speaking Truth.
The video is so well narrated!
“Gregor of course, cannot do this, he is a bug.”
😂😂
this made me laugh LOL
Love that story
I feel like a bug too
I wheezed
I always thought the metamorphosis was a metaphor, as in he wasn't literally a bug but his family made him feel like one because since he got sick he couldn't provide wealth anymore.
I'd like to believe that he actually did become a bug
@@shishirtripathi8223 I also believe he literally became a bug to symbolize his emotions on the inside, then changing him on the outside. I once read something about how ants worked endlessly, so Gregor was shown as a bug since he worked endlessly like one
@@m.b.0077 omg that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard
Makes complete sense.
Your editing is truely beautiful. Amazing video! Thank you for doing it.
I am waiting for the star rail comments
This inspired me in the most depressing way possible.
Yes!
Can u suggest any book of him?
@@likhitameruga9829 Start with The Metamorphosis
This is seriously well researched, well spoken and all around well done. A brief but concise look into this small corner of existentialism, and the kind of life someone has to live to reach these revelations. It's funny how so many people in the comment's one takeaway is in Kafka's works being made famous post-mortem by his good friend, and how it's "crazy how history can be changed by one person," when Kafka's writings actually tended to entertain more the opposite of this idea that so many of us, most of us even, will never be given a chance to make a difference or reach our true potential as individuals, ending up a piece in someone else's puzzle before we have a say in the matter.
There's an old fable, I forget which religion or culture it pertains to in particular, but it goes into detail of this great war-hero general who dies and meats God in Heaven. He asks his God to introduce him to the greatest war tactician of all time, so he can spend the rest of his afterlife sharing stories of battles and the secrets they used to win them. Much to his surprise, he is brought to a gutter, of an old street in one of the poorest villages in his nation, to meet a feeble and starving beggar. He angrily asks if this is some kind of joke, to which his God explains that this man WOULD have been the greatest general to ever live, but was born into a poor village with little food and never achieved the strength needed to even be considered for war. A very similar message to Kafka's overarching themes.
But I guess the hard part is in trying to decipher what the deeper meaning really is behind this mode of thinking. To me, as with all existentialism, the "deeper meaning" is that there is no deeper meaning to anything in life. We all live in a world framed by social constructs set long before our lifetime, that hold no real weight outside of our social context. People who are more happy, healthy, attractive, successful etc., are not only indebted to the circumstance of their life for being able to attain such things but also base this perception off of the human abstraction of these ideas, which isn't based in true logic.
If you'll spare me another anecdote, in Greek mythology there was a man named Sisyphus, who is punished to push a giant bolder up a hill for eternity by Zeus for cheating death. There was also a curse put upon the bolder such that it would fall as it neared the peak, to ensure the punishment be never ending. Sisyphus however, had a reputation for his cunning and was quoted as being able to outsmart Zeus himself. So despite his constant failure, his determination led him to keep trying until the end of time. The act of pushing the bolder to the peak became his true purpose and some like to interpret this as an analogy to the struggle of man, that so long as we have a bolder to push we will push on despite the hopelessness. The true "meaning of life," to me, is in the search for meaning itself. It is our dissatisfaction that drives us to strive to achieve, and that desire is all it takes to keep people moving.
TLDR: Life is pointless, and that's okay. You might do great things in life or more likely you won't, but either way it doesn't matter. Life is binary, you either are alive or you aren't, any other kind of value imposed upon your being is in the long run irrelevant, as most of these values are based on or due to circumstances outside of your control.
This was a way longer comment than I had anticipated lol, kudos to anyone who had the patience to read through it all. Big ups for the video again, I'll most definitely come back to this one.
wow i didnt realize how intellectual comments are on this side of YT.. that was really well thought out 😄
This was extremely beautiful and well-said. If you don't mind, I'll probably write this down somewhere and look back at it every once in a while. Really great way of summing up existentialism.
Wow...I wish I could've friend like you...
A gem: "Life is binary, you either are alive or you aren't, any other kind of value imposed upon your being is in the long run irrelevant, as most of these values are based on or due to circumstances outside of your control." I'm teaching this story to 10th graders; I think this is as good a takeaway as any.
What a long, and brilliant comment. I'm still at the precipice of letting go, and surrendering to the meaninglessness of life. What has helped, is detaching myself from the wasted energy of Christianity. Which doesn't mean suuccumbing to a plethora of evil desires, as some might believe that means, but that I will, from now on, live my life doing what best serves me and brings me joy, hoping that it can also affect others in some way, but not making that my responsibility. Thank you for this.
Absolutely wonderful, the words expressed here are profound had to pause the video to truly understand the meaning , have read only metamorphosis and never knew his works were incomplete and that he died without recognition , seems like his works were truly his own personal diary and he didn't blink a thought about what others would feel about it.
Subscribed!
Will have to keep coming back on this.
Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly
❤❤❤
Yes papi
N it is from which book of Kafka?
@@ayushigusain7814 this quote not by kafka
@@ayushigusain7814 A gothic novelist named Anne Rice wrote this quote and she was put in the foreword of a collection of Kafka’s writings published
When I was a kid, I used to imagine what if I was born as an eye of a blind man.
I-
this is just so interesting and funny. I love how creative ppl can be. This might be an interesting premise to write on.
Imagine having a sentient eye
Are u ok?
That is so poetic.. I love the way this sentence plays in my mind
If you have time, pls write the continuation.
beautifully narrated with stunning, atmospheric animation style. Big thumbs up!
This is beautiful. Man, you are nailing this video format.
I love how Kafka's writing is so intrinsically linked to his personal and professional life, albeit it's disappointing he never got to see the success of his work. Great video.
The end of his books were like a thought he had that he would never escape his condition... and he was right. Still, at least he gave his insights on life and here we are!
His own life was kafkaesque
thank you
“Who is Kafkaesque? I’ve never - - I don’t know him..”
- Michael Scott
Reminds me of: "Do you like Kipling?"
I don't know, I've never kipled.
Now I have to watch the office for the 10th time
um okay
I'm a philanderer
is that that one show that I don't like because I remind myself of the guy from... where is he from again. AGH i can't remember he's the guy who's painfully funyy in an unfunny way
whats his name.
This must be one of your best videos, everything is perfectly put together...🌸🌻
This is an insanely high quality narration on Kafkaesque and Kafka. Thank you.
Bro, your videos are so good.
cap
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Retweet
HI BRO, SUBSCRIBER OF YOUR CHANNEL, I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS TOO.
They are, arent they? That sentence is insane.
This is one of those times I start watching a video out of pure curiosity... But I finish watching with a new sense of being, a new way of thinking. This story is heartbreaking and I'm bothered that i havent heard about this before. But very grateful you took the time to make this! Seriously, thank you
Well said
SAME DUDE. SAME.
This is a really amazing video! Thank you for making it!
"Why don’t I keep sleeping for a little while longer and forget all this foolishness"
-the metamorphosis
My SAT reading teacher told the class to read metamorphosis if we have the chance and he is now responsible for my reading addiction.
If these masterpieces are presented correctly, without the taint of the established pedagogy, addiction is a prerequisite.
I have this sort or theory/idea that “The Trial” is really about Kafka himself. It’s his life story but written in a different perspective. Just like the main character who is persecuted for a crime he is unaware of, Kafka might’ve felt he was being held guilty by his family for a reason he couldn’t tell. We all know he was anxious and saw himself through his fathers eyes so this could make sense. Then again I have a feeling a lot of what he wrote was related to him and a reflection of his own struggles such as “Hunger Artist” which was written near his death when he himself was dying of starvation and illness.
I feel this. It's like how, even if you have your crap together and you're doing things right, you can still feel guilty of... Something. You don't know what, but it's something.
Truly, could be the case.
Every writer and artist projects their own inner soul out onto the canvas of the world.
It has to be. That's why he wanted all his works to be burnt. They were extremely personal and intimate.
i found The Trial to be quite clearly about the judgement of the society around you, not a literal witch hunt trial. It shows the inescapable nature of said trial as you will always be judged no matter what you do but also the repercussions of the 3 most common reactions the said judgement.
Initially, he tired to tear down his opponents through his charisma, wit , intelligence but once people decide to judge you unfairly they will not be won over or have their minds changed, on the contrary , they will become even more obstinate so as not to be proven in the wrong!
Afterwards he tried to ignore it, but it bled into his mind and his life, this judgement started affecting his work, his sanity, his personal life , his career. It spread like a cancer until there where he saw it everywhere, pronoia takes over and you believe everyone is judging you.
Then he tried to play the game of his judges, submit to their process and live in the snare of their eternal judgement, doing everything that they deem fit only to prolong his sentencing, living miserably according only to the judgement of these people. (an example of this is Block)
Only in the end does Joseph realise that no matter what he does, the judgement of society is inescapable and neverending, there is no escape from it, you will always be guilty in the eyes of someone that judges you.
Your wording in the video was absolutely beautiful.
This narration is deep and I love every bit of information you've given. 🙏
Philosophy had helped me more than really anything else in life.
That is really an idiotic statement
@@Stoney-Jacksman why? lol
@@tarheel777100 he probably wants attention
@@Stoney-Jacksman not more idiotic than you comment
@@tarheel777100 because its a void statement. To exist ..is to question and ponder and introspect. Its like saying..breathing air has helped my lungs take in oxygen.
Philosophy to me is thinking..not studiying other peoples thoughts.
Peace/salaam
"Follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly"
That's... A really good quote, actually. I'm glad I've read it now.
but how can i follow something that dont exist?
@nadya Create
Im glad you're glad.
Beautifully written and delivered! This was fascinating
hello pursuit of wonder. i love your videos. they're a really bright light into the youtube algorithm. these videos are in service to wisdom and not just content but always try to make us think or consider hard beliefs. thankyou for these videos they really do help me battle against the weight of the world.
I believe that Kafka's works and the characters were all simply representations of himself and the world as he saw and experienced it. This was a man who lived as the characters he wrote about. And sure, perhaps not literally, but emotionally and through his social interaction, or the lack of them. Kafka was a man who suffered in silence with no way to express his true feelings openly. So, he simply created characters, then wrote his life, his feelings, in a manner that disconnected him from having to explain because these were all simply characters in a book.
Of course, when you think about it, who was better qualified to tell stories of the mundane bureaucracies of life? ...Or, of being put on trial, judged, and having no idea why one was being tried and judged in the first place? Only a man who was judged similarly, by his own family, could ever communicate these things so well. Who would have been better qualified to tell stories of feeling as helpless as person being turned into an insect, and letting down your family, your father? ...Or, simply feel like an insect by comparison?
For me, the biggest tragedy is not that Kafka died never knowing his achievements, but rather, that he lived a life disconnected from the world, and in all likelihood, never truly knowing happiness. And yes, one might argue that through his suffering the world received Kafka, but I believe that it's sadder that Kafka never received the world.
Your perfect grammar made a enjoyable read thank you
@@simontaylor3275 Thank you! I appreciate your kind words, they made me smile.
That's so true! Thank you for sharing your point of view!
@@evelinaslavikova8907 You are quite welcome. And thank you very much for taking the time to read my point of view. :)
Exactly !! That’s how I think as well !! Thank you for taking time to write down ur thoughts
I wish that afterlife does exist, so that kafka can look down on earth and see how his works are loved by many people.
Don’t wish for it, there IS an afterlife. God is great ☦️🙏🏻
@@GM-gh7cn you can believe that
clearly he isnt too happy considering he asked for the writings to be burned
@@garbostrissps6666 that’s because he thought they were meaningless
Great way to start my day thanks for this vid. Hit right in the feels laddy.
I thank you. I really enjoyed the video.
I wish i'de seen this while i've been struggling to understand kafka, years ago.
Anyhow I wish you the best and thank you again for providing analysyses that i have been looking for sometimes now.
" I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe."
Fuck me.. that hits home.
HOME RUN!!!
Kafka writes in a way that makes me suddenly and deeply sad. I don’t know how he does that but I would like to thank him for his art.
Like it was said in the video, I choose to look at it in a brighter light. Keep the struggle going forward, as that is what the meaning of life probably is for a lot of people at this point. I also think that there is no one true meaning of life. Everyone has different reasons and that is what makes it so great. What makes it even better is that most people have some level of choice in what the meaning of their life is. They can go out and find it for themselves. While the nihilists and even the existentialists may have you believe that it is all futile, such claims are only damning if you believe there is anything *but* pointlessness. Even then, who really knows? Perhaps there is some divine meaning to life that we haven’t come across. Who is to say, with the rate at which we are making discoveries as a race, that we won’t eventually stumble across things that completely alter our understanding of life and the universe. I think the first point of revelation will be meeting other intelligent life. I think that will completely blow open large sections of human philosophy that we once considered to be closed books.
the suddenness of the sadness! you worded it so well!!!
No no no he’s not some avatar for moody teenagers there’s obvious humor in his work and some not so obvious. Kafka grew up in the Yiddish playhouses and had a great sense of how that humor worked. Whoever feeds you guys this stuff is lazy or dumb.
Having watched and read many many things on UA-cam, this video and its comments have restored my faith in humanity. The collective suffering, confusion, and powerlessness we as Humans face and feel sometimes in life seem to have brought out the most loving and beautiful comments I have ever read.
i reallt love this video. The clearness of how robotic and yet affectionate the narrator was, the images shown on the screen as a lot of people are visual learners, the touch of editing of the video and the message of kafka. This made me really emotional not about what i said but mostly about kafka's life and his work. I stopped multiple times thinking out loud about absurdism and how its meaningless, this video really explained it to me, its a mundane process and a lot of us experienced it. I would love to see kafka's reaction about him being known in the 21st century. I'm reading 3 books currently, and i wanna read kafka right now.
The editing in this video along with the commentary is just soooo amazing. i can watch these videos for hours!!
Existential Crisis Loading
When I read The Trial, it felt like I was reading a stranger's journal. Filled with deep surrealistic intimacy.
IMO Kafka's The Trial is on par with Camus' The Stranger, which is awesome. Love both novels.
What a great video I love the editing style ❤
The most relatable content i've ever found on the internet. Never felt understood in such a way.