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[Helgoland]

My current romantic interest contacted me, two and a half after telling me she wanted to fix things with her boyfriend and that I should regard this as a clean break. Two and a half weeks after flying back home to another country to get some time and space to think.

She told me she finds Kafka hard to read.

[WealthyRadish]

If only you had known, you could've left her earlier. Kafka's clinically dry and official tone is half the charm, and if anything makes him more accessible!

[Frumple]

... so is that some kind of strange european innuendo that doesn't translate well, or...?

[LordSlowpoke]

do they not know kafka across the ocean

that's borderline uncivilized

[Frumple]

No, we know of kafka. I'm just not sure if europe knows kafka, you know, biblically or somethin'. Given the context, it could go either way.

[NJW2000]

I really want to make an innuendo here. But given the subject, that's a bad idea.

[Helgoland]

If only you had known, you could've left her earlier. Kafka's clinically dry and official tone is half the charm, and if anything makes him more accessible!

She's at ~2 pages per day, while I'm at ~1 page per day on Galeano's Libro de los abrazos, which has much less text per page... Then again she's lived in Germany for three years and attended a German school in Spain, while I have only my three mediocre years of school Spanish to rely on

She does like his writing, though. And she likes Brecht - she's the perfect woman, really. Now if only this whole thing would finally work out...

do they not know kafka across the ocean

that's uncivilized

FTFY. Kafka, Kafka oberhalb von allem, oberhalb von allem in der Welt! Vom Pazifik bis zum Pazifik, von NZ bis zum arktischen Schelf!

Edit: I like that use of the word 'biblically'. I truly do.

[NJW2000]

_{^{Grah stupid clever European people knowing languages well enough to read literature in them grnhar.}}

@Nax Perhaps this is the insight? That it's not much fun to be a beetle, so don't become one.

[Graknorke]

@NJW: Are you implying that you don't know any languages well enough to read literature in? Most people know at least one. Most could probably kind of struggle along with two, with the help of a dictionary.

[Helgoland]

They probably know Kafka on the shore, maybe he's a mystery further inland. Dry's a pretty good way to put him, actually. I kept expecting something insightful out of Metamorphosis, but nnnnnnope. Dude's just a beetle now.

Come on, that was a metaphor for his estrangement from his family! His otherness just physically manifested in him becoming a beetle, and the bad things that occur afterwards would have happened in a similar manner even if the transformation had not taken place. The whole point is that his family would have been better off without him even when he was still supporting them.

Do you know his story The Great Wall of China?

[NJW2000]

Well, I haven't got out of secondary school yet, but could read french very slowly with a dictionary and grammar textbook.

Most of my non-bilingual classmates are similar, but I'm jealous of people who can read in two languages, as I really want to, unlike most of my peers.

@Helgo/Nax: as far as I could tell (from his entire published work, which isn't most of it), all his stories have a metaphor for him/a writer. The beetle is both the estrangement and the growth of new traits within Kafka that make him feel confused/displaced and useless: his writing.

[Arcvasti]

Crossposting from the happy thread.

Sounds like that story could end up being like that one poem that involved girls and goblin merchent men. Apparently the author was very religious and didn't intend it, but how could you write this without realising,
         

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One may lead a horse to water,
Twenty cannot make him drink.
Though the goblins cuff’d and caught her,
Coax’d and fought her,
Bullied and besought her,
Scratch’d her, pinch’d her black as ink,
Kick’d and knock’d her,
Maul’d and mock’d her,
Lizzie utter’d not a word;
Would not open lip from lip
Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
But laugh’d in heart to feel the drip
Of juice that syrupp’d all her face,
And lodg’d in dimples of her chin,
And streak’d her neck which quaked like curd.
At last the evil people,
Worn out by her resistance,
Flung back her penny, kick’d their fruit
Along whichever road they took,
Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
Some writh’d into the ground,
Some div’d into the brook
With ring and ripple,
Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
Some vanish’d in the distance.

               In a smart, ache, tingle,
Lizzie went her way;
Knew not was it night or day;
Sprang up the bank, tore thro’ the furze,
Threaded copse and dingle,
And heard her penny jingle
Bouncing in her purse,—
Its bounce was music to her ear.
She ran and ran
As if she fear’d some goblin man
Dogg’d her with gibe or curse
Or something worse:
But not one goblin scurried after,
Nor was she prick’d by fear;
The kind heart made her windy-paced
That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
And inward laughter.

               She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,
“Did you miss me?
Come and kiss me.
Never mind my bruises,
Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,
Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
Eat me, drink me, love me;
Laura, make much of me;
For your sake I have braved the glen
And had to do with goblin merchant men.”

I don't even know anymore.

[XXXXYYYY]

Combing other people's hair is surprisingly calming.

[Lord Shonus]

The number of people I've talked to today that think the "Karate Kid: Daniel is the real villain" video is both accurate and non-parodic is insane. All of them have seen the movie.

[Rubidium]

The number of people I've talked to today that think the "Karate Kid: Daniel is the real villain" video is both accurate and non-parodic is insane. All of them have seen the movie.

Well thank goodness I didn't watch the movie.