DDR Coda: Dickens and Kafka by Mark Spilka

Day 1 (DDRD 2,134) September 4, 2023

Thought about it...and just wasn't ready to move on from Dickens today. Took a peek at a couple of the "continuations" of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and decided that wasn't what I was looking for, so instead I picked up Dickens and Kafka by Mark Spilka, which has been sitting on my shelf for a number of years, and started in on it. Got to page 41...about an eighth of the way through it...and yep, this is what I want for right now. After that, I'm not sure. But I have lots of possibilities on hand, so I'm not too worried about it.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,135) September 5, 2023

Read to page 80. Verrrrrrrry interesting. Also making me want to re-read Kafka. Who, come to think if it, is probably the first writer I oeuvred.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,136) September 6, 2023

Read to page 120. There are times when I think, "Well, that's stretching it a bit too much, Mr. Procrustes."  But there are more times when I think, "Oi, that's a bit lovely, ennit?"

Day 4 (DDRD 2,137) September 7, 2023

Read to page 160.

If you find the premise of this book to be startling or even a bit if a stretch, as I initially did, then this bit from one of Kafka's diaries should put an end to that. In writing about his story / novel "The Stoker" / America , he has this to say:

"[It is] a sheer imitation of Dickens, the projected novel even more so."

And a few lines later:

"It was my intention, I now see, to write a Dickens novel...."

So there's THAT.

And furthermore...I thought these bits were profound-ish:

"...pilgrimage through life is an attempt to achieve internal unity, or at the least self-knowledge. " (150)

Add to this "redemption simply means integrity of being...." (159)

And there you go: the meaning of life. In a nutshell. 

And probably needless to say, I am now thinking HARD about having my next Daily Devotional Reading be The Complete Works of Franz Kafka. 

Bet you didn't see that one coming.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,138) September 8, 2023

Read to page 200.

This book is giving me a lot to think about. On the obvious level, the interesting parallels between Kafka and Dickens...with Dickens as essentially the "mentor" of Kafka. Thus David Copperfield inspires Amerika, Bleak House inspires The Trial, and I Don't Know What inspires The Castle because Spilka hasn't gone there yet...and perusing the Table of Contents, it doesn't look like he will. I'm just starting the Bleak House / The Trial section, but just thinking about it, it seems like a natural. And Spilka made an excellent case of the David Copperfield / Amerika connection.

But more than that, there are comments that push into my own consciousness...sometimes to a deep and uncomfortable level. For instance:

Speaking of Karl Roßmann (Amerika), Spilka says, "his repulsion for sex is rooted in his love for his mother; his insecurity, in his father's sharp disapproval and his phallic power; his later disillusionment, in the mother's basic loyalty to her husband." (168)

That would be scanned.

For a quickie, let's just say that I feel that this touches on some of my own flaws as a human being. For a slowie, I think that I shall write a separate blog entry on this...so bate your breath, Faithful Reader.

Meanwhile...looks like a couple more days will finish this book off. Reading it has helped to ease me out of my Dickens preoccupation in a good way...and I'm thinking that despite the lure of other prospects (Philip Wylie, Dostoyevsky, others) that I am going to do a Kafka Project. I'm also thinking that it would make sense to start with Max Brod's biography...and maybe hit another book that Spilka has referred to a number of times, The Frozen Sea by Charles Neider. (The title is a reference to one of my favorite Kafka lines: “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”) I've already read most of Kafka's stuff--the three novels, all of the short stories published until they found some more, and some of the letters. But it's been a long, long, long time. And I think I also want to read the diaries and other stuff...even the things he wrote in his professional life, which have been published recently (speaking as an Old Man--they were published seven years ago) as Franz Kafka: The Office Writings.

We'll see how that goes.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,139) September 9, 2023

Read to page 230.

Rough day for reading. Five hours of driving, two hours of softball, and then the regular dad duties. Still managed to squeeze in 30 pages, though, which might be enough to let me finish this thing off tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Day 7 (DDRD 2,140) September 10, 2023

Read to page 315, aka The End. Which looks like a very impressive 85 pages read today, but it's actually not. For one thing, the text ends on page 266. It's followed by 28 pages of Notes, most of which I'd already read (since I read them as they come up), and then that's followed by 11 pages of Bibliography and 5 pages of Index. But I read all of those pages, so I'm still taking credit for the 85 pages read.

Speaking of which, somewhere in there Spilka made reference to an 

Introduction to an edition of The Castle by Thomas Mann. So I had to have a look for that. Found it at Internet Archive (@ https://archive.org/details/castle0000fran/page/n8/mode/1up), and was surprised to see that it was the edition which I had possessed in the days of my youth when I first encountered Mr. Kafka. (I believe it was in 1974.) I gave the introduction a read, and in those ten pages I encountered a very nice word which was new to me: tergiversation.

noun

ter·​gi·​ver·​sa·​tion ˌtər-ˌji-vər-ˈsā-shən  -ˌgi-; ˌtər-ji-(ˌ)vər-

1: evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : EQUIVOCATION

2: desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith

Mr. Mann also relayed a story about Franz Kafka reading The Trial aloud to some friends, and how all of them were laughing so much that Kafka had to stop reading. What an image. That really should be a painting. Unfortunately, I haven't the talent to even think about bringing that off.

Mann also said that even though The Castle is considered to be unfinished, that it probably only lacked one chapter. And even more exciting (and perhaps justifying that estimation), Kafka had told friends how the book was to end. 

So yes, that introduction was certainly worth reading.

As was this book. It was a bit English Major-y at times, but it never went tits up, and it really added to my appreciation of both Dickens and Kafka...and certainly whetted my appetite for Franz's work.

Which I plan to being reading tomorrow.

So long, Mr. Dickens. It's been good to know ya.

DDR Day 1 to 1,000: 13,449 pages read, 13.45 Average Pages Per Day

A History of Philosophy Volumes I - XI

History of Civilization in England Volumes I - III

Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle Volumes I - III

Civilization and Capitalism, 16th - 18th Century Volumes I - III

The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip IIl Volumes I - III

This Happened In My Presence: Moriscos, Old Christians, and the Spanish Inquisition in the Town of Deza, 1569-1611

The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates

Peat and Peat Cutting

+

DDR Day 1001 to Day 2000:
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages

(12) The Pacific Trilogy: Pacific Crucible 23 days, 640 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages

(15) Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence 13 days, 304 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages

(24) The Pickwick Papers 28 days, 983 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages

(29) Master Humprhey's Clock 4 days, 145 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages

(35) Christmas Books 17 days, 525 pages

(36) The Annotated Christmas Carol  7 days, 380 pages

(37) Dombey and Son 30 days, 1,089 pages

(38) Sketches by Boz 22 days, 834 pages

2nd 1K Total: 26,834 pages (to SBBII) = 28.76 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 40,273 pages, 20.83 Average Pages Per Day

(39) David Copperfield 21 days, 1,092 pages

(40) The Uncommercial Traveller 12 days, 440 pages

(41) A Child's History of England 10 days, 491 pages

(42) Reprinted Pieces 14 days, 368 pages

(43) Miscellaneous Papers Volume I 18 days, 542 pages

        + 25 pages Bleak Hose and 9 pages Miscellaneous Papers II = 2,000 days' worth.

2nd 1K Total: 29,801pages = 29.8 Average Pages Per Day

Grand Total: 43,250 pages, 21.625 Average Pages Per Day

(44) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(45) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages

494 - 9 = 485 + 1098 - 25 = 1073 = 1,558 pages towards 3K...in 37 days, for a daily rate of 42+ pages (!).

(46) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

(47) Little Dorrit 29 days, 1,606 pages

(48) A Tale of Two Cities 9 days, 460 pages

(49) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

(50) Our Mutual Friend 29 days, 1,057 pages

(51) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

(52) Dickens and Kafka, 7 days, 315 pages