Amerika: The Missing Person. A new translation, based on the restored text. So that's pretty exciting. XXXIII + 300= 333 pages...which is surely a sign of something or other, hmmm? If nothing else, A sign that I should be able to finish this book in 11 days.
So let's go.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,184) October 24, 2023
Read to page xxxiii, end of Translator's Introduction.
At one point in the Publisher's Introduction, reference is made to a two volume publication of The Castle. The first volume is the novel proper, the second is comprised of variant texts and notes. As I read that I once again felt like abandoning my Kafka Project. I'm not sure precisely why. It seems to have something to do with the impossibility of actually reading The Complete Published Works of Kafka, since (1) not all of the fragments have been published in English and (2) so many of the fragments I've read--indeed, almost all of them--have not been worth my time, so I'm sure that I would grow weary of reading the not-good. There's something else, though, and I think it has to do with the reverential attitude that's shown towards Kafka. This was epitomized in Max Brod's biography, wherein he literally said that every phrase Kafka wrote was a sign of his genius. But it also lies behind this publication of every scrap of writing that Kafka produced. I know of no other writer who has been accorded this kind of treatment...and it irks me. It also seems to me that it dishonors Kafka as a writer. In the same way that Elvis could elicits gales of applause and acclaim simply by flipping up his cape. After all, most or all of these fragments were committed to paper without much deliberation, and it's clear (from what Kafka said to Brod and others, as well as from the fact that Kafka destroyed many of his fragments himself) that Kafka did not want these pieces preserved.
Sigh.
That said, so far as I know I will be starting Amerika tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,185) October 25, 2023
Read to page 34. Which was Chapter 1, aka "The Stoker." Sorry to say that it was not very interesting. The only thing herein that really caught my fancy was the image of the Statue of Liberty wielding a sword instead of a torch. Seems much truer to the Real America.
Day 3 (DDRD 2,186) October 26, 2023
Read to page 60. Which was a bit of a struggle. For one thing, because I'm not feeling very engaged with this novel. For another thing, because I'm tearing through Jo Nesbø's latest Harry Hole novel, Killing Moon. Say what you will about popular fiction...at least if it's any good at all, it pulls you along.
In fact, I'm gonna go read some more HH right now.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,187) October 27, 2023
Read to page 90. And am now wondering what I ever saw in this book. The pace is so slow that it's excruciating, and the "action" so insignificant that it tempts me to just quit.
But I shall endeavor not to do that.
Day 5 (DDRD 2,188) October 28, 2023
Read to page 120.
Kafka makes reference to "The Bridge connecting New York to Boston.... " (96) That'd be one hell of a bridge, wouldn't it?
In other news...I'm pretty sure that I will be moving on from Kafka after I finish this book. I'm sorry to say that it is doing nothing for me at all. The mist "interesting " thing that's happened in today's reading is that three guys argued about the mistreatment of a suitcase. Fir fuck's sake. It's not funny, it's not interesting, it has no greater relevance. It's just tedious and frustrating. I'll push myself to finish this, but unless a miracle occurs, I'm calling it quits at that point.
180 bottles of 🍻 on the wall....
Day 6 (DDRD 2,189) October 29, 2023
Read to page 150. When I was a lot younger...in my early 20s...I remember writing to a friend that I'd been reading Kafka and it had made me feel that my own writings were worthless by comparison. Well...I've still got some live for FK, but I certainly don't feel that way any more. This novel is so tedious that it reminds me of Beckett. But Beckett is also clever and funny and deep, so once you acclimate yourself, the sense of tedium dissipates. But this? Page after page of an elevator boy at his job. The only good thing I have to say about today's reading is that I hit the halfway point in this novel.
Funny: I read a longer (489 pages) novel in just four days, and there was no sense of strain or even effort. Au contraire, I didn't want to stop reading it, even when it was past my bedtime. But this thing...it's just work. I know I shouldn't blame Kafka; he wanted the thing burned. Sorry to say it, but I think he was right on this one. In fact, having read his Complete Stories , I'd have to say that thus far I haven't read ANYthing that he ordered burned which "should" have been saved from the 🔥.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,190) October 30, 2023
Read to page 180.
Sigh.
JUST IN CASE...I put in a request for The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text (The Schocken Kafka Library), Translated by Breon Mitchell. I don't think I'm going to go there, but I like to keep my options open.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,191) October 31, 2023
Read to page 210. 43 more pages, then Fragments. Sigh.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,192) November 1, 2023
Read to page 241. End of Chapter, not extra interest / enthusiasm.
And me? I'm day dreaming about Uwe Johnson, H. P. Lovecraft, Wealth of Nations, Philip Wylie, The Brothers Karamazov, and some other stuff. Mmmm-hmmm.
Day 10 (DDRD 2,193) November 2, 2023
Read to page 253, where the text abruptly ends. And now the Fragments. Sigh.
Read to page 271. So tomorrow is it. And then...?
Day 11 (DDRD 2,194) November 3, 2023
Read to page 300. Finished. That was not a pleasant experience, and I would certainly recommend that if you live (or intend to live) Kafka that you skip reading thus "novel." It is tedious, boring, shallow, repetitive, and inelegant.
(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
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 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
(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
(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
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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