DDR: The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka by Charles Neider

Public Domain

Interesting. I couldn't even find a picture of the cover of this book. So here (above) is a substitute Frozen Sea. Ax sold seperately.

This is a relatively short book--V + 193 = 198 pages, so probably 10 days. Then it might be time for some real Kafka.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,149) September 19, 2023

Read to page 25.

On the Acknowledgements page, Neider thanks Dr. Frederic Wertham "for his comments on the proofs." (xi) So I guess we can assume there are no injury to the eye motifs in the text.

Neider seems like a bit of a stuffed shirt from the get-go as he tells us how previous interpreters of Kafka have all been wrong, taking a mystical view of the works. He blamed this at least partially on Max Brod and Edwin Muir (translator) as he says their introductions to the works lead readers astray. Well. That seems a bit much. But let's see what the boy has to say.

Neider also cracks on Camus' essay on Kafka ("Hope and Absurdity"), summing it up as "an improvisation on unsustained premises." (14) Well. That seems a bit uppity.

I think we could sum up this first 23 page chapter in one sentence: "Previous commentators on the work of Kafka: you are all wrong, and I am going to set you straight."

Hmmm.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,150) September 20, 2023

Read to page 57.

I'm sorry to say that this book is not doing it for me. For two reasons: (1) Neider constantly claims that everyone else is wrong about Kafka, and only he has the Straight Poop; (2) Neider doesn't go for specifics. He makes big statements but doesn't back them up with details. He seems to regard his Point of View as inviolate.

Neider refers to Joseph K.'S arrest in The Trial as stemming from "A baseless charge" (49). I'm pretty sure that means he missed the point of the novel. K. was actually guilty of the charge brought against him: guilty of being a human being...guilty of Original Sin if you want to look at it that way. The fact that he couldn't fight back against the charge is the tragedy, not the fact that he was wrongfully accused. 

I think.

And furthermore...this book isn't giving me anything vis-a-vis Kafka's publication history. So I'm thinking that maybe I should have a go at another biography after this one. Kafka, a Writer's Life by Joachim Unseld looks promising. I might have to have a peek at it as I slog through The Frozen Sea.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,151) September 21, 2023

Read to page 87.

The sentence which finished me with this book: "The trauma* may have in large part been responsible for 

his early pessimism and later psychic onanism." (58)

* The very early deaths of his two brothers.

This is the kind of sentence someone writes to show you how clever they are. It actually communicated nothing beyond that. For one thing, it undermines itself with the provisional "may have." It furthers that undermining with the prevarication of "in large part." And what is "psychic onanism? Well, Neider isn't telling, and it means nothing to me. Are there any details to develop this idea? Are you kidding? This is Neider, after all. I'm starting to really hate this guy.

Part iii, " Portrait of an Artist as a Pariah," seems like a straight up rip off of Max Brod's book.  There are no footnotes (or even a Bibliography), but sure as hell it's not a first hand account, so Neider got it from somewhere...he's just not telling you where. Which is a chickenshit thing to do.

And now...check this out:

Well, there you have it: proof positive that George Bendemann is a standing for Franz Kafka. Oh my aching balls. This is the kind of bullshit I might have written as a freshman at a community college. In fact, did just that. But then I grew the fuck up. KnowwhatI'msaying?

But it doesn't end there. On the next page, Neider apparently forgets his ridiculous algebra and let's us know that "Georg...is Herman Kafka." ~🧶🧶~ !

Day 4 (DDRD 2,152) September 22, 2023

Read to page 117. 76 pages to go.

At one point in today's pages, a previous reader had written

Which pretty much sums it up for me. 

And here's what Neider had to say about Kafka's writing: 

"Nowhere in the novel (or in Kafka's wider world) 
is there the figure of the saintly skeptic or noble humanist. To have introduced even one such type in The Trial, perhaps as a friend or mentor of K., would have lent the book an epic balance lacking in it." (115)

See? If only Neider had been able to get to him, Kafka might have turned out to be a great writer. Oh, the humanity!

Day 5 (DDRD 2,153) September 23, 2023

Read to page 148. It wasn't pleasant. Here are some reasons why:

Check this shit out: "We are all Jews today, wanderers and heathens in a world exploding under the impact of those myths of necessity and the absolute which characterizes western civilization's preoccupation with the competitive and acquisitive spirit." (118)

What the fucking fuckative fuck???? That is some seriously anti-Semitic bullshit. What is wrong with this Neider guy?

And after THAT, Neider goes off on a long discourse about male and female symbols, including a discussion of K. drinking brandy which Neider identifies as symbolic of masturbation. Mmm-hmmm. To Neider, The Castle is primarily about K.'s desire to fuck his mother. But to do this, he needs permission from his father.

?????

Oh my aching balls. I hope this Neider motherfucker was high when he wrote this, because if he wasn't, he was one sick little puppy.

Oh...and how about this: "The assistants, however, belong to the preconscious (they merely imitate the real assitants, who would belong to the unconscious, since their function as testicles is to carry the libido)...." (131)

So let me get this straight (no pun intended): In The Castle, the surveyor K.'s two assistants represent testicles. In this particular scene, however, the two assistants are actually two other assistants who represent the true assistants, and these "stand-in" assistants do NOT represent testicles.

Check.

Keep in mind that the two assistants (and there are only two) are not round or hairy, nor do they shrink when they are afraid or come into contact with cold water.

This is why people hate English majors. Hell, this is why I hate English majors, and I was one.

An with that in mind...I'm going to read a bit more today. Not for any positive reason, but because I want to be finished with this terrible book and move on. Of course, I could just quit reading it, but I'm more of an in for a pound guy. So....

So this reference The Castle:

"K. is Saul before he was reborn on the road to Damascus." (151) Hmph. I don't remember Saul having a boner for his mother.

And this, vis-a-vis The Trial: 

"Joseph K.'s arrest is a symbolic one. It is not caused by a civil authority. He is not incarcerated. It is a psychic arrestation, a fixation classical in neurosis. He is arrested on the anal level of sexual development. And he is a victim of a castration complex." (153)

And here I thought K. was arrested in his bedroom by representatives from the court. I guess they were just testicles.

I don't even want to talk about the anal and castration stuff.

😲😨😰

But oh...we must not forget this: 

"A bank is a depository for money. Money is a symbol of ordure. Therefore K.'s bank has an anal character." (153 - 154)

To which I can only say...HOLY SHIT! This motherfucker is insane!

And as to Neider shifting his terms / propositions around whenever it suits him, check this out;

"The bank symbolizes the conscious mind...." (159)

So in the space of a mere 5 pages, the bank has gone from a symbol of an ass packed with shit to a symbol of the conscious mind. That is quite a journey, ennit?

Stopped reading at 165 (gasp, gag, retch), which means there are only 30 text bearing pages left in this thing.

That's going to have to be good enough for the day.

P.S. 3 pages emphasizing verbs and nouns having to do with SEEing. Big Revelation: there are lots if them. IN EVERY BOOK EVER WRITTEN. 

P.P.S. "As a painter, he [Titorelli] is corprophilic." (177)

I had to look that word up. Ewwwww. And all painters like that shit, huh? *

* Pun intended, of course.

P.P.P.S. Is it crazy (lack of respect for Freud is equal to authoritarianism)? 

Is it prescient (we certainly have been heading for authoritarianism for more than a few decades now)?

"At present, his hidden influence is great, while overt respect for him is slim. This is but one of the aspects of the general current movement toward authoritarianism." (182)

P.P.P.P.S. Ain't gonna be no Day 6. I finished this bitch off at 11:43 pm...after going to a St. Paul and the Broken Bones concert.

Done.

Hooray.

This book was so wretched the (1) I wrote a book review for goodreads--the first for this book, and (2) I actually thought, "Maybe I don't want to do a Complete Kafka thing after all." Yep, Neider was so bad that he made me lose faith in Kafka. 

That's some powerful bad. A stink for the ages.

Avoid it if you can.

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 1,001 to Day 2,000:
(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

DDR Day 2,001 to Day 3,000:

(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) 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 (!).

(3) Hard Times 11 days, 459 pages

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

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

(6) Great Expectations 16 days, 580 pages

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

(8) The Mystery of Edwin Drood 6 days, 314 pages 

FTR vis-a-vis Dickens: 18,671 pages in 468 days

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

(10) Franz Kafka: A Biography 8 days, 267 pages

(11) The Frozen Sea: A Study of Franz Kafka 5 days, 198