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gerbie ([personal profile] gerbie) wrote2003-02-10 10:44 am

Franz Kafka - The collected aphorisms (02-053)

Franz Kafka - The collected aphorisms (02-053)

I admit it. I'm an idiot. I'm obsessed with numbers. Not only do I register every book I read, I even number them, as you might have noted above. Last year (2001) I was aiming for 100 books. I had been travelling through the first 6 months, plenty of time to read therefore. I managed 99. This year, 2002, I thought I needed one more book to read 52. One a week, a nice average. So on the 31st of december I was skimming my shelves to see what would be the last one to read. I took Kafka. Not really a book to read, more suitable for just opening at random once in a while and see if you can follow Kafka. I finished it 45 minutes before the year was over. Not until later did I realise that it was number 53 of the year. Oh well.

Kafka is difficult. Sometimes I´ve got the idea that he deliberately writes some nonsense to confuse his readers. The collected aphorisms were never meant as an entity. After his death they were published as a whole anyway. I like number 5 ´´Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point is to be reached´´. Also number 77 ´´Associating with others seduces one into observing oneself´´

The aphorisms from his 1920 diary are too complicated for me. Or Kafka was too far gone to be understood by mortal souls like myself.

[identity profile] radioseascape.livejournal.com 2003-02-13 07:39 am (UTC)(link)
i love kafka. it's funny because i haven't read much of his fiction beyond the short works, but i have read most of the letters and diaries that i can get a hold of, which makes me feel perhaps a bit dirty.
i am adding you to my friends list, you sound neat. i hope it doesn't bother you.

Re:

[identity profile] gerbie.livejournal.com 2003-02-13 09:54 am (UTC)(link)
Please do feel free, if I didn't want to be any friends list, I should make my entries private. Do not feel offended if I do not add you back (yet). Once in a while, usually when I do have some spare time (which unfortunately is rare), I look at my list, scratch and add. I'll have a look at your LJ someday soon.