Franz Kafka (1883- 1924) "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
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Franz Kafka (1883-1924) "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that.
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Franz Kafka (1883-1924) "I think we ought to read
only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
Kafka’s Life A German Jew in Prague A frustrated writer whose father forced him into a
career as a bank clerk Published very little in his lifetime J.D. Salinger? Left orders for all of his manuscripts to be
destroyed when he died His executor, disobeyed his orders and Kafka
became famous after his death. *Story of Wedding Photographer-Recording
Engineer. “I erase all recordings”
“Kafkaesque”
Metamorphosis: A traveling salesman is turned into a bug in the first sentence
The Trial: A man named Joseph K. is accused of a crime and forced to mount a defense, but he is never told what his supposed crime is.
In the Penal Colony: A traveler is introduced to a system that is illogical and an officer that has been brainwashed by it to the point of madness.
A situation in which someone is at the mercy of a collective logic that he or she does not understand and perceives to be comically absurd.
Kafka: Three Movements
Expressionism
Surrealism
Existentialism and Nihilism
Expressionism
An artistic movement that held that art should represent the internal reality (usually painful) rather than attempting to recreate or reproduce external reality—which art might not do well.
THE SCREAM Edvard Munch
Surrealism
An artistic movement that focused on impossibilities and contradictions that suggested the subconscious reality of the dream world rather than the tangible reality of the physical world.
Salvador Dali - The Anthropomorphic Cabinet (1936)
Existentialism / Nihilism
Existentialism
The most significant philosophical movement of the 20th century, EXISTENTIALISM is the belief that reality, in any meaningful sense, must be created through individual actions and choices.
Existentialism is the opposite of “ESSENTIALISM,” or the belief that reality, meaning, and significance precede individual actions and choices.
“Man is nothing else, but what he makes of himself” Sartre
Introductory Question:
What do you know with absolute certainty?
(Perhaps the key question with which to begin any philosophical investigation)
“I am….”
Existentialism starts at the same point as Descartes’ philosophy – with your existence as the original certainty. You might not know anything else, but you at least know you exist (in some way) because you are thinking. As Descartes stated it:
“I think, therefore, I am.”
Truth is SubjectiveTruth is Subjective
This means that what is true for one person might not be true for
another.
Treachery of Images
Then what?
Okay, thanks to Descartes, we know we exist.
To understand what Existentialism says about existence, think of the types of things a person might believe influences or controls their existence….
Such as….
An Interactive God Fate Astrology Laws Human nature Pre-destination Freud’s sub-conscious mind
Then, imagine the universe without any of these!
That’s the Existential view of reality!
Existentialism says there is nothing that explains, guides or gives purpose to our
existence.
In short – you EXIST (have “BEING”) in total FREEDOM surrounded by NOTHINGNESS.