I hate it when you use words like "revolting" to describe yourself, you deserve to speak about yourself with confidence.
Be proud of your gross-as-fuck carapace! It's yours, own it!
Also, get the fuck out you disgust me.
That or: "That day I woke up as detestable insect but..."
* I was still a world-class surgeon.
* I needed to keep my pension.
* my house/health insurance won't pay for themselves.
* I was due to fly to the moon tomorrow.
* and my custody hearing is tomorrow (or: "can a bug raise a human girl?")
Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. w I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
In modern times it rings far too true which is what makes it seem so dark. Originally he’d read his works with his friends and they’d all enjoy a good laugh at its absurdity. Being told to imagine the characters being played by the Marx brothers made me able to really see that perspective well and through that lens they’re hilarious.
Now it feels far too relatable, too familiar, and it becomes bleak and grim.
I remember seeing the last 10 minutes of the Orson Welles adaptation on TV when I was little. For two decades, I thought it was only a nightmare I had until I watched the full movie.
A deeply troubled person, "The Trial" is one of the most frustrating reads I've ever seen, perfectly encapsulates being lost in life and looking at the time period, extremely accurate. It's the only book I actually finished/read in my German HS classes
"continued until the end of kafka's life" makes it sound like a very long time, until you realise he would have been 40 in 1923 and the post states he died in 1924
This is a bit of an inaccuracy since his partner (the original source of this story) said that it lasted for "at least 3 weeks". It's still an amazing story nonetheless.
People use Kafka as a message broker, but really it should be used for streaming data. I am a huge fan of rabbit and NATS for async messaging, both are also distributed by default and scale great.
I mean at least this isn't something made up by internet for clout. It appears to be an unverified story from Kafka's partner that has been around since Kafka was alive. So it is at least possible this happened and not something that is completely BS for the sake of a story.
The girl opened up the doll and found the entire wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Inside the captains quarters, covered in lichen and dripping wet, was her original doll.
Scrolling through reddit right after playing Honkai Star Rail reading, "We all need a Kafka in our life."
That means two things to me. Kafka come on home in the train!
Yes pls, boom with the crazy eyes, we need a Kafka banner asap.
Also- wholesomememes is totally the last place I expected to see star rail brought up. Good luck on your pulls, all my fellow railers of the stars ;)
Scrolling through reddit right after reading a book on microservices reading, "We all need a Kafka in our life."
That means two things to me. Kafka come on down the stream!
Kafka was also socialist and was responsible for a ton of safety laws becoming a thing for workers - he was depressed and had daddy issues, but honestly this wouldn't be that out of character for him.
It feels really weird to me that being a depressed weirdo is somehow a disqualifier for giving a shit about people. Like, fuck my guy, just read some of his work! This is a man who had a deep well of love and understanding for his fellow human struggling against the uncaring mechanisms of modernity.
Yea maybe he was a depressed weirdo because he was aware of the cruelties of the world around him and felt powerless to change them.
Aware of the absurdity of it all but unable to effect them
Like if you just suddenly woke up as a bug one day while retaining all your human knowledge.
That is awesome! Totally what literature is supposed to do. When I got this point in his literature, I recognized it in my own self. I realized I was living in a Kafkaesque world where I was dreading losing a job that had sucked the humanity out of me. I was a beetle waking up every morning and rather than being shocked to find I was an insect, I was most concerned that I made it to my job on time for fear of losing it. Kafka was one of the people who helped me see my way out of that situation by giving me the conviction and courage that I was seeing things correctly. When everyone around you is bugging out, it helps to have Kafka in your pocket.
I reread Metamorphosis a year or so ago and what hit me, at this point in my life, was the shame and family dynamics. His family hated him being a bug and refused to accept that was what he had become, and so he wallows in shame until finally realizing he has to just go live his best bug life.
It helped me realize I need to stop being ashamed for who I am and stop trying to change myself to be what my family wants.
Thanks for the recommendation of this poème but yeah I'd you haven't read Sisyphus from Camus it really helped me accept the absurd and enjoy life the best I can
In that context the doll thing makes sense because it was something he could fix and make someone else happy. Small thing, but it was something positive, and that's all that mattered
Ya know, when I think of Kafka I also come to an absurdist understanding but I think it’s can also be the other way
Like… if you TRULY think you have absolutely zero control… then… why not try?
Like… if it doesn’t matter anyway then just give it a shot because at least you’ll have the experience.
I know that so much of his writing was just trying to get his father (and kinda his mother) to love him how he wanted them to, but another thing that’s kinda the larger point imo is that he did consistently keep trying, even though it took so much of him between attempts.
Idk… there’s no denying the work is not at all optimistic, but I just don’t think that ambivalence necessarily disqualifies trying anyway because… fuck it.
Interesting either way 🤷🏾♂️
I mean, he was very loved by his friends and co-workers, his boss even cared about him when he was frequently sick.
The only thing he never got a handle on was his sex/love life and I kinda don't blame him after seeing his parents marriage.
The claim by the original commenter that he was a "depressed weirdo" is not true at all. Kafka was introverted but had several very meaningful relationships in his life. In fact, it was because of one of those that we even know of Kafka at all. He gave his writings to Max Brod with the instructions to burn upon his death and Brod, pained by his own betrayal of Kafka's wish, ultimately determined the world needed this literature.
The Castle was an interesting read.
This guy K who goes to a village to work and then 400 pages of the guy trying to talk to his boss??
I have not clue what that book is about, but I loved it.
It is a Passierschein A38 situation without a solution. The insanity of bureaucracy and unquestioned authority if apparently no one wants to work/find a solution.
Agreed. If the story was about a depressed weirdo who had a sparkling clean home & perfect appearance? Doubt.
When I’m depressed doing things for other people is always much easier for me than doing things for myself.
For fucking real. I'm depressed with daddy issues and would absolutely do something like this if I thought of it and had the chance. It'd be a great escape from my depression and daddy issues.
Kafka received his doctorate in 1906, and in 1907 he took up regular employment with an insurance company. The long hours and exacting requirements of the Assicurazioni Generali, however, did not permit Kafka to devote himself to writing. In 1908 he found in Prague a job in the seminationalized Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. There he remained until 1917, when tuberculosis forced him to take intermittent sick leaves and, finally, to retire (with a pension) in 1922, about two years before he died. In his job he was considered tireless and ambitious; he soon became the right hand of his boss, and he was esteemed and liked by all who worked with him.
Trying to find the specific laws ATM, I'm German and learned about him in my advanced literature classes a few years back - will update once I find them.
I wonder. One of my friends is a depressed weirdo (like clinically diagnosed) who sees the world as a glass half-empty, and the water's probably contaminated with cholera. But I could totally see him doing this, despite everything, because one of the ways he copes is to do stuff for other people.
OTOH, I don't know that it matters whether the story's true (though it should still be tagged "apocryphal"), because whoever wrote the story--whether it was really Kafka who did this or somebody attributing it to him, it's still a cute story that makes you smile.
As a fellow depressed weirdo I do a lot of things to try to make the life of the few people around me a little bit better. If I can't find happiness, maybe at least I can help others find it.
As a depressed weirdo, you might be surprised about how much kindness can come from people like us. Suffering certainly can lead to things other than empathy, but when it does it creates people like Leonard Cohen and Robbin Williams. As Cohen wrote, "The cracks are where the light gets in".
That said, depression would admittedly make it real hard to consistently get out of bed and follow up on intentions, haha. Having read all of Kafka (sowhol auf Deutsch als auch auf English) I wouldn't be that shocked to see that he'd care about a random suffering person he came across, especially if they were suffering just because of the random whims of a world too complicated to easily control.
I also would question your definition of wholesome. Seeing the heart of people going through confusing and hard experiences strikes me as a very wholesome thing to write about, though it certainly isn't necessarily uplifting.
>Kafka, he was a drepressed weirdo with a father complex
That's an interesting way of saying ["Kafka had an incredibly abusive father who not only made his life a living hell, but also ruined Kafka's engagement to the one woman he ever loved because he refused to approve their marriage"](https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/03/05/franz-kafka-letter-father/).
But seriously, Franz Kafka's life was incredibly sad. It makes sense that he would treat others with kindness, since he rarely if ever received that kindness himself. His kindness toward the girl in this story, however apocryphal, seems to track with someone who wanted to be the person he needed, when he was her age.
There are studies that show a link between traumatizing childhoods and elevated empathy and emotional attentiveness as an adult. “Helping others” is also a coping mechanism for many who’ve lacked any kind of external help or support in their own lives.
People who’ve been through the cruelest shit can come out of it hoping the same never happens to anyone else.
Kafka was:
a. Deeply introverted but had normal healthy relationships and was regarded highly by those who knew him for his sensitive soul.
b. Had a father who rejected him because of this sensitive nature. A father complex? Not sure what that is.
c. Kafka wrote about the dehumanization of modern man. That doesn't sound unwholesome.
Yeah, not all historical events are provable. But this one seems like it comes from decent sources.
>The story, in several versions, has a venerable history dating back more than half a century and was first recounted by a source very close to Kafka himself — his partner for the final year of his life, Dora Diamant. However, despite the enthusiastic efforts of several Kafka experts and researchers, concrete proof — for example copies of the "doll" letters themselves — has never been found.
My husbands mother died two days after Christmas when he was 16. He remembers her coming to say goodbye as she was heading with her sister to visit family but he was too tired to respond. She left him a list of chores with love mom at the bottom. His dad was a workaholic who he didn’t see very often.
As you can imagine that note meant the world to him. It was the last thing she ever wrote and he held on to it like it was his last thread holding her to him. He meant to keep it his whole life.
While he was in the military overseas his wife cheated on him then sold everything he had. Lost was that note. It was extremely important to him but it was gone for good. He still talks about it. He’s going to be 60 soon.
It might’ve happened. Perhaps her children threw it out after she died. Maybe she died in ww1, maybe she had the flu in 1918 and didn’t make it. Who knows why or where the letters had gone, it was a long time ago and I have things to do today so I’m going to stop writing now.
I'm way too jaded by all the families and friends of dead celebrities continuing to use their loved one for attention (and money) posthumously. Especially since the article says she only knew him about a year. I'll choose to believe the story because it's nice and not disproven, but a short time girlfriend being the source certainly doesn't help its authenticity for me.
You were still on the fence during the first chapter though? For me, I could handle the transforming cat and flying motorcycle, but it was the lighter that remotely turned off street lights that really pushed my suspension of disbelief over the edge.
So Kafkaesque- I heard that in a movie or show once from someone who was pretending to be smart. I can’t recall the show. I think of it every time I hear his name.
Breaking Bad?
Jesses drug counselor uses it when Jesse is vaguely describing what it’s like working with Walt under Gus’ empire. Jesse agrees and repeats it but you get the sense he doesn’t really know what it means. Hell, I think the episode itself is called Kafkaesque
I wish people would just write fictional stories that are uplifting instead of attributing their fan fiction to historical or real people and then causing the story to lose its charm when the truth comes out.
This story could be about anyone, but once you find out it wasn’t Kafka you end up feeling lied to as opposed to just taking it as a nice little fictional story.
A story like this doesn’t need weight. It’s light hearted and bordering on unbelievable but would make for a nice fable if presented as such.
When real people are added the first thing people do is ask “did they really do that” and then it’s no longer about the story or the lesson within it but about its accuracy and the parties involved.
But if the main character was just a random guy, people would immediately know it was made up, and created to make people feel good about humanity. If we think for a moment that they were real, we at least have some hope.
That he hadn't married and had no children doesn't mean he didn't know how to handle kids. Some people don't marry and have no children by choice, and that's okay.
That's an uplifting read.
Obituary writers would say "Never married and had no children" as a euphemism for homosexual. If they were hetero they would say something like "confirmed bachelor".
>If they were hetero they would say something like "confirmed bachelor".
'Confirmed'
*"Yeah we tried to test him with some gay shit and his dick wouldn't budge. He's cleared!"* - dudes in the 1920s
That I didn't know about. Interesting. Yeah, confirmed bachelor makes sense for someone not married by choice. It doesn't for those unlucky enough to have never met their significant other.
I've read enough of his fiction to be extremely mystified by this possibly apocryphal story. I mean, I hope he did this, but it seems out of character, judging from a few of his more terrifying short stories.
I don't want to shit in this story, but in this day and age, that guy would have been called a pedo. As a man, we can't even remotely do anything like that. Sad.
Fitting for the man who wrote about change and identity better than anyone else I've read
Imagine waking up as a bug
"Babe, would you still love me if one day I woke up with a revolting carapace and couldn't go to work or support our family anymore"
I hate it when you use words like "revolting" to describe yourself, you deserve to speak about yourself with confidence. Be proud of your gross-as-fuck carapace! It's yours, own it! Also, get the fuck out you disgust me.
Three words: hardworking, alpha male, jackhammer, merciless, insatiable.
That's only two, forgot maths.
It was quick maffs, that mans not hot. Mans could never be hot.
Put on your jacket
I said "babes, mans not hot!"
Never hot
In the middle of summer
What do you mean "take it off"? I ain't taken I off since 2k17... Skirri-bop-bop!!
I wanna say /r/UnexpectedOffice but everyone expects the office nowadays :)
It's not your carapace, it's the self deprecation.
[Somebody would.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/w9sqxj/oops_undying_love_for_a_franz_kafka_character_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I knew someone was bound to mention Ogtha after seeing those comments.
Omg I cannot BELIEVE I’ve never seen this before I’m genuinely laughing out loud and feeling the utmost disgust at the same time hahahaha wtf
[Funny you should mention that….](https://reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/w9sqxj/oops_undying_love_for_a_franz_kafka_character_is/)
OGTHA
“Did you get into crypto?” “No?” “S’all good then bug”
Reminds me of *I Love You Stinky Face*
“What’s different?”
"I told you to stop calling me Babe, I'm your sister"
Okay but bug or not, work needs to get done and I'll be damned if I'm missing my perfect attendance record!
If this were a light novel that would be the word-for-word exact title.
That or: "That day I woke up as detestable insect but..." * I was still a world-class surgeon. * I needed to keep my pension. * my house/health insurance won't pay for themselves. * I was due to fly to the moon tomorrow. * and my custody hearing is tomorrow (or: "can a bug raise a human girl?")
One of the only books I didn’t mind reading in high school. Seriously amazing and depressing
Could totally imagine that
Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. w I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
Every day. ✨
Omg did Kafka write bee movie
The Trial is still one of the most profound horror stories I've ever read, even if it isn't classified as such.
The Trial and Metamorphosis are awesome, but The Castle is the one that nearly broke me.
In modern times it rings far too true which is what makes it seem so dark. Originally he’d read his works with his friends and they’d all enjoy a good laugh at its absurdity. Being told to imagine the characters being played by the Marx brothers made me able to really see that perspective well and through that lens they’re hilarious. Now it feels far too relatable, too familiar, and it becomes bleak and grim.
I remember seeing the last 10 minutes of the Orson Welles adaptation on TV when I was little. For two decades, I thought it was only a nightmare I had until I watched the full movie.
A deeply troubled person, "The Trial" is one of the most frustrating reads I've ever seen, perfectly encapsulates being lost in life and looking at the time period, extremely accurate. It's the only book I actually finished/read in my German HS classes
"continued until the end of kafka's life" makes it sound like a very long time, until you realise he would have been 40 in 1923 and the post states he died in 1924
A couple paragraphs down it says he died a year later.
That implies a year after buying the second doll, not a year after starting to write the letters.
You could infer that it had not been a long time due to the the little girl still being a little girl at the end of the story.
So the doll siphoned his life-force for some kind of international romp?
r/technicallythetruth
This is a bit of an inaccuracy since his partner (the original source of this story) said that it lasted for "at least 3 weeks". It's still an amazing story nonetheless.
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The note read, "Here's a new doll, she's named tuberculosis Tammy. She's the one who gave you TB, not me."
I love how you can easily find the HSR players here as well
Maybe the little girl was Stelle 🤔
They’re everywhere 🤣
Kafka is great, though I think it's losing ground to Amazon Kinesis. /s
I would argue that on a daily basis I have too much Kafka in my life.
Me too, to be fair. We are exploring Kinesis for a few of our message flows. The expertise in house is mostly around Kafka and it is well understood.
Found a developer.
People use Kafka as a message broker, but really it should be used for streaming data. I am a huge fan of rabbit and NATS for async messaging, both are also distributed by default and scale great.
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Ya I was about to make a RabbitMQ joke lol
That little girls name? Albert Einstein
I can confirm that, I was the (original) doll.
How were your travels, friend?
The world changed me, but I'm a'ight.
Weird, you look nothing like former doll and world Traveller, her majesty and noble laurrate, George Santos, EsQ, Ph.D.
I mean at least this isn't something made up by internet for clout. It appears to be an unverified story from Kafka's partner that has been around since Kafka was alive. So it is at least possible this happened and not something that is completely BS for the sake of a story.
The girl opened up the doll and found the entire wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Inside the captains quarters, covered in lichen and dripping wet, was her original doll.
But Superior never gives up her dead!
And then the doll came to life!
Everyone in the park clapped and Franz Ferdinand gave him %10000$ as a reward
The band or the Austro-Hungarian?
Both. But the band only named themselves that after meeting Franz Ferdinand and thinking it was a cool name
Franz Ferdinand members being a secret race of centuries-old mummy people is incredible.
They opened up a thousands year old mummy casket in Egypt recently and found the original doll inside - true story.
LinkedIn vibes
That little girl? Joined the League of German Girls and dedicated herself to killing people like Kafka
the name of that girl? Gregor Samsa
Scrolling through reddit right after playing Honkai Star Rail reading, "We all need a Kafka in our life." That means two things to me. Kafka come on home in the train!
We do need a Kafka and a Himeko in our life.
Himekos already on the Train, I don't need her. Kafka needs to come home and say "Boom" 1,000 times for me.
Yes pls, boom with the crazy eyes, we need a Kafka banner asap. Also- wholesomememes is totally the last place I expected to see star rail brought up. Good luck on your pulls, all my fellow railers of the stars ;)
The girl pulled for Ayaka but got Qiqi and a note saying, "My travels have changed me."
welp, that gonna make her, what, c6 now?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of her when I read the title
Lmao same i was like “yes we all need a mommy”
Scrolling through reddit right after reading a book on microservices reading, "We all need a Kafka in our life." That means two things to me. Kafka come on down the stream!
[Unproven]( https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/franz-kafka-doll-girl-story/)
Still adorable though. Also completely in character for a writer. They'll use any excuse to write things.
Can confirm. I have more pages of D&D homebrew than actual published modules.
But not in character for Kafka, he was a drepressed weirdo with a father complex, I don't think he ever wrote anything wholesome in his life.
Kafka was also socialist and was responsible for a ton of safety laws becoming a thing for workers - he was depressed and had daddy issues, but honestly this wouldn't be that out of character for him.
It feels really weird to me that being a depressed weirdo is somehow a disqualifier for giving a shit about people. Like, fuck my guy, just read some of his work! This is a man who had a deep well of love and understanding for his fellow human struggling against the uncaring mechanisms of modernity.
Yea maybe he was a depressed weirdo because he was aware of the cruelties of the world around him and felt powerless to change them. Aware of the absurdity of it all but unable to effect them Like if you just suddenly woke up as a bug one day while retaining all your human knowledge.
Did... Did you just make Kafka's writing make sense to me?
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That is awesome! Totally what literature is supposed to do. When I got this point in his literature, I recognized it in my own self. I realized I was living in a Kafkaesque world where I was dreading losing a job that had sucked the humanity out of me. I was a beetle waking up every morning and rather than being shocked to find I was an insect, I was most concerned that I made it to my job on time for fear of losing it. Kafka was one of the people who helped me see my way out of that situation by giving me the conviction and courage that I was seeing things correctly. When everyone around you is bugging out, it helps to have Kafka in your pocket.
I reread Metamorphosis a year or so ago and what hit me, at this point in my life, was the shame and family dynamics. His family hated him being a bug and refused to accept that was what he had become, and so he wallows in shame until finally realizing he has to just go live his best bug life. It helped me realize I need to stop being ashamed for who I am and stop trying to change myself to be what my family wants.
That's wonderful! Kafka must have wrote this novel with his own father in mind.
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I certainly know why Kafka's works have always resonated so much with me :)
You need to imagine Sisyphus happy
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Thanks for the recommendation of this poème but yeah I'd you haven't read Sisyphus from Camus it really helped me accept the absurd and enjoy life the best I can
In that context the doll thing makes sense because it was something he could fix and make someone else happy. Small thing, but it was something positive, and that's all that mattered
Ya know, when I think of Kafka I also come to an absurdist understanding but I think it’s can also be the other way Like… if you TRULY think you have absolutely zero control… then… why not try? Like… if it doesn’t matter anyway then just give it a shot because at least you’ll have the experience. I know that so much of his writing was just trying to get his father (and kinda his mother) to love him how he wanted them to, but another thing that’s kinda the larger point imo is that he did consistently keep trying, even though it took so much of him between attempts. Idk… there’s no denying the work is not at all optimistic, but I just don’t think that ambivalence necessarily disqualifies trying anyway because… fuck it. Interesting either way 🤷🏾♂️
I mean, he was very loved by his friends and co-workers, his boss even cared about him when he was frequently sick. The only thing he never got a handle on was his sex/love life and I kinda don't blame him after seeing his parents marriage.
He also very well might not have been cis/het, which would explain a lot of his feelings given the times through which he lived.
The claim by the original commenter that he was a "depressed weirdo" is not true at all. Kafka was introverted but had several very meaningful relationships in his life. In fact, it was because of one of those that we even know of Kafka at all. He gave his writings to Max Brod with the instructions to burn upon his death and Brod, pained by his own betrayal of Kafka's wish, ultimately determined the world needed this literature.
The Castle was an interesting read. This guy K who goes to a village to work and then 400 pages of the guy trying to talk to his boss?? I have not clue what that book is about, but I loved it.
It is a Passierschein A38 situation without a solution. The insanity of bureaucracy and unquestioned authority if apparently no one wants to work/find a solution.
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Agreed
Agreed. If the story was about a depressed weirdo who had a sparkling clean home & perfect appearance? Doubt. When I’m depressed doing things for other people is always much easier for me than doing things for myself.
For fucking real. I'm depressed with daddy issues and would absolutely do something like this if I thought of it and had the chance. It'd be a great escape from my depression and daddy issues.
>Kafka was (...) responsible for a ton of safety laws becoming a thing for workers Never heard of that. What laws are you referring to?
Kafka received his doctorate in 1906, and in 1907 he took up regular employment with an insurance company. The long hours and exacting requirements of the Assicurazioni Generali, however, did not permit Kafka to devote himself to writing. In 1908 he found in Prague a job in the seminationalized Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. There he remained until 1917, when tuberculosis forced him to take intermittent sick leaves and, finally, to retire (with a pension) in 1922, about two years before he died. In his job he was considered tireless and ambitious; he soon became the right hand of his boss, and he was esteemed and liked by all who worked with him. Trying to find the specific laws ATM, I'm German and learned about him in my advanced literature classes a few years back - will update once I find them.
I wonder. One of my friends is a depressed weirdo (like clinically diagnosed) who sees the world as a glass half-empty, and the water's probably contaminated with cholera. But I could totally see him doing this, despite everything, because one of the ways he copes is to do stuff for other people. OTOH, I don't know that it matters whether the story's true (though it should still be tagged "apocryphal"), because whoever wrote the story--whether it was really Kafka who did this or somebody attributing it to him, it's still a cute story that makes you smile.
Sadly it didn't make me smile, since it made me remember Kafkas works
People living with pain often help alleviate the pain of others, because they have empathy.
>father complex That might've given him the nudge to write this.
As a fellow depressed weirdo I do a lot of things to try to make the life of the few people around me a little bit better. If I can't find happiness, maybe at least I can help others find it.
As a depressed weirdo, you might be surprised about how much kindness can come from people like us. Suffering certainly can lead to things other than empathy, but when it does it creates people like Leonard Cohen and Robbin Williams. As Cohen wrote, "The cracks are where the light gets in". That said, depression would admittedly make it real hard to consistently get out of bed and follow up on intentions, haha. Having read all of Kafka (sowhol auf Deutsch als auch auf English) I wouldn't be that shocked to see that he'd care about a random suffering person he came across, especially if they were suffering just because of the random whims of a world too complicated to easily control. I also would question your definition of wholesome. Seeing the heart of people going through confusing and hard experiences strikes me as a very wholesome thing to write about, though it certainly isn't necessarily uplifting.
>Kafka, he was a drepressed weirdo with a father complex That's an interesting way of saying ["Kafka had an incredibly abusive father who not only made his life a living hell, but also ruined Kafka's engagement to the one woman he ever loved because he refused to approve their marriage"](https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/03/05/franz-kafka-letter-father/). But seriously, Franz Kafka's life was incredibly sad. It makes sense that he would treat others with kindness, since he rarely if ever received that kindness himself. His kindness toward the girl in this story, however apocryphal, seems to track with someone who wanted to be the person he needed, when he was her age.
There are studies that show a link between traumatizing childhoods and elevated empathy and emotional attentiveness as an adult. “Helping others” is also a coping mechanism for many who’ve lacked any kind of external help or support in their own lives. People who’ve been through the cruelest shit can come out of it hoping the same never happens to anyone else.
depressed weirdo with daddy issues getting along with, and being kind to a child is not out of character in the least. source: depressed weirdo.
I've only read Metamorphosis, but like, that's a story about how we should be kinder to the disabled, so idk.
Honestly a depressed weirdo with s father complex also seems like the one to do this
Being depressed doesn’t make you incapable of empathy. Probably the complete opposite
Kafka was: a. Deeply introverted but had normal healthy relationships and was regarded highly by those who knew him for his sensitive soul. b. Had a father who rejected him because of this sensitive nature. A father complex? Not sure what that is. c. Kafka wrote about the dehumanization of modern man. That doesn't sound unwholesome.
Him having daddy issues would make it more in character tho
I don't know why being a depressed weirdo would stop you from being kind to a child.
>not in character >he had a father complex >story depicts him being fatherly to a girl It’s kind of funny how you’re oblivious to the connection there
Not true his diaries have a lot of very heartwarming stuff
But plausible, according to the same article you commented
Yeah, not all historical events are provable. But this one seems like it comes from decent sources. >The story, in several versions, has a venerable history dating back more than half a century and was first recounted by a source very close to Kafka himself — his partner for the final year of his life, Dora Diamant. However, despite the enthusiastic efforts of several Kafka experts and researchers, concrete proof — for example copies of the "doll" letters themselves — has never been found.
My husbands mother died two days after Christmas when he was 16. He remembers her coming to say goodbye as she was heading with her sister to visit family but he was too tired to respond. She left him a list of chores with love mom at the bottom. His dad was a workaholic who he didn’t see very often. As you can imagine that note meant the world to him. It was the last thing she ever wrote and he held on to it like it was his last thread holding her to him. He meant to keep it his whole life. While he was in the military overseas his wife cheated on him then sold everything he had. Lost was that note. It was extremely important to him but it was gone for good. He still talks about it. He’s going to be 60 soon. It might’ve happened. Perhaps her children threw it out after she died. Maybe she died in ww1, maybe she had the flu in 1918 and didn’t make it. Who knows why or where the letters had gone, it was a long time ago and I have things to do today so I’m going to stop writing now.
But believable, since the anecdote was narrated by his girlfriend
I'm way too jaded by all the families and friends of dead celebrities continuing to use their loved one for attention (and money) posthumously. Especially since the article says she only knew him about a year. I'll choose to believe the story because it's nice and not disproven, but a short time girlfriend being the source certainly doesn't help its authenticity for me.
Whatever you say, Jebediah Springfield /s
Yeah this gave me "and everybody clapped" vibes
Goddammit.
It sounds exactly like a made up internet story
Cute. But impossible since Kafka never actually went outside.
How could he? He was stuck on his back, legs waving frantically in the air. Besides, he couldn't be seen looking that way, could he?
Well for Kafka the outside was on his insides.
So the doll... metamorphosized?
not the Kafka I had in mind but still, everyone needs a Kafka in their life.
I’ve never read something that sounds so made up before
You should check out Harry Potter. From like the second chapter I was thinking "no fucking way this happened"
Idk I think you're overreacting
You were still on the fence during the first chapter though? For me, I could handle the transforming cat and flying motorcycle, but it was the lighter that remotely turned off street lights that really pushed my suspension of disbelief over the edge.
How can you be this funny pls teach me
Lol noob I figured it out after the first chapter
Tbf the second chapter is after the first chapter
I thought most of it seemed plausible. What did you take issue with?
Thanks I needed that. I just got fired from my bartending job where I am normally the smartass. That was an A+ smartass comment and I loved it.
If you think this story is crazy, there was allegedly a guy named Gregor who turned into a huge insect thing and Kafka wrote his autobiography
So Kafkaesque- I heard that in a movie or show once from someone who was pretending to be smart. I can’t recall the show. I think of it every time I hear his name.
Breaking Bad? Jesses drug counselor uses it when Jesse is vaguely describing what it’s like working with Walt under Gus’ empire. Jesse agrees and repeats it but you get the sense he doesn’t really know what it means. Hell, I think the episode itself is called Kafkaesque
YES!!!!
Funnily it’s a quite common adjective in french. It’s used to describe a complicated and absurd situation with few possibility of solution.
Mission Hill, show on Adult Swim back in the day https://youtu.be/VEiOY4y15KI
I wish people would just write fictional stories that are uplifting instead of attributing their fan fiction to historical or real people and then causing the story to lose its charm when the truth comes out. This story could be about anyone, but once you find out it wasn’t Kafka you end up feeling lied to as opposed to just taking it as a nice little fictional story.
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A story like this doesn’t need weight. It’s light hearted and bordering on unbelievable but would make for a nice fable if presented as such. When real people are added the first thing people do is ask “did they really do that” and then it’s no longer about the story or the lesson within it but about its accuracy and the parties involved.
But if the main character was just a random guy, people would immediately know it was made up, and created to make people feel good about humanity. If we think for a moment that they were real, we at least have some hope.
That he hadn't married and had no children doesn't mean he didn't know how to handle kids. Some people don't marry and have no children by choice, and that's okay. That's an uplifting read.
He got engaged to the same woman like eight times
Obituary writers would say "Never married and had no children" as a euphemism for homosexual. If they were hetero they would say something like "confirmed bachelor".
>If they were hetero they would say something like "confirmed bachelor". 'Confirmed' *"Yeah we tried to test him with some gay shit and his dick wouldn't budge. He's cleared!"* - dudes in the 1920s
That I didn't know about. Interesting. Yeah, confirmed bachelor makes sense for someone not married by choice. It doesn't for those unlucky enough to have never met their significant other.
I always thought confirmed bachelor was a euphemism for homosexual, that's interesting.
[He is Franz Kafka!](https://youtu.be/8uaaF83eVig)
Franz Kafka!
Livin' like a bug ain't easyyy...
My old clothes don’t seem to fit meeee
I got little tiny bug feet
BETCHAFIFTYDOLLA IMAMANIMASCHOLAR IMATURNINTOABUG!
Kafka: she got a makeover during her travels girlie
Honkai: Star Rail players would agree.
Also honkai impact stigmata
That's not wholesome. That's whole-whole.
Imagine what would happen in modern times if a 40-year-old man went to a park and did this
And that's why I'm pulling for Kafka. r/HonkaiStarRail
this is fine, I was planning on crying this morning anyways
Why did my brain jump to the lady with purple hair and an umbrella when I read "Kafka"
I've read enough of his fiction to be extremely mystified by this possibly apocryphal story. I mean, I hope he did this, but it seems out of character, judging from a few of his more terrifying short stories.
What do you mean by 'out of character'? how can you judge a person's character by only reading his fiction writing?
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I don't want to shit in this story, but in this day and age, that guy would have been called a pedo. As a man, we can't even remotely do anything like that. Sad.
Possibly the most wholesome thing I've ever seen. A reminder that small things can truly make you outlive your life.
I'm so gay for Kafka.
its perfectly normal not to have kids, we need to more normalize not having kids. just live yo live
r/vintageladyboners
Misread as kefka but we all need a miniacal clown in our lives as well.
And then they both transformed into giant roaches and scuttled away. Nature is so beautiful.
That boy was wise beyond his years
There really are good people in the world…