Franz Kafka's Resolution in Resolutions
Franz Kafka was a Czech-born German writer. He was born in 1883 and died just shy of his 41st birthday from complcations of TB. He wrote three novels and numerous short stories, some very short. He lost two older brothers making him the the eldest son. His father was ill-tempered and disrespectful toward Kafka’s writing which served to influence much of the conflict and despair not only in his life but his writing.
He would write nightmarishly complex and absurd plots in a very impersonal manner. Often his stories carried an under appreciated humour in them.
One of the possible definitions of the word “resolution” is: the point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out. The complication is usually a situation or detail of a character which attempts to thwart the main thread of the plot.
In his very short piece “Resolutions” Kafka deals with a problem that many of those who experience depression yet try to function within their lives can relate to. That is the problem of making life seem normal and all being well, while inside, really wanting to scream in outrage at the universe.
The story is in the public domain so let’s have a look.
“To LIFT YOURSELF out of a miserable mood, even if you have to do it by strength of will, should be easy. I force myself out of my chair, stride around the table, exercise my head and neck, make my eyes sparkle, tighten the muscles around them. Defy my own feelings, welcome A. enthusiastically supposing he comes to see me, amiably tolerate B. in my room, swallow all that is said at C.'s, whatever pain and trouble it may cost me, in long draughts.”
In modern terms, Kafka is suggesting the ‘fake it until you make it approach’. In the next sentence is the resolution or the chief complication. The very thought of letting slip the mask and revealing what is going on behind it can be horrifying.
“Yet even if I manage that, one single slip, and a slip cannot be avoided, will stop the whole process, easy and painful alike, and I will have to shrink back into my own circle again.”
Having realized how easily the mask could slip he then resolves to avoid the mask. He will just endure life as passively and unemotionally as he feels. Let the feeling of death inside be seen without explanation.
“So perhaps the best resource is to meet everything passively, to make yourself an inert mass, and, if you feel that you are being carried away, not to let yourself be lured into taking a single unnecessary step, to stare at others with the eyes of an animal, to feel no compunction, in short, with your own hand to throttle down whatever ghostly life remains in you, that is, to enlarge the final peace of the graveyard and let nothing survive save that.”
Finally he slips in a touch of the humour as if it would be the most normal thing in the world to be so deathlike and still make this odd movement. Can’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it.
“A characteristic movement in such a condition is to run your little finger along your eyebrows.”
A brief 221 word resolution to neither hide nor directly announce the depression within. Just display it in plain sight.
Until Next Time — Just Steem on
If you like this, please follow me and upvote the post.
I can also be found on Medium & Trybe
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://idesofmay.com/2019/01/20/franz-kafkas-resolution-in-resolutions/
Interesting, I'll to brush up a bit more on Kafka
I really enjoyed reading this, @shadowspub. Writing often gives us many clues that we might breeze right past, or perhaps not see them for what they are.
For example, I believe I have read The Catcher in the Rye at least three times, but it wasn’t until the most recent reading that I understood how depressed Holden Caulfield is throughput the story. Every melancholic writer deals with the subject of the blues in a different way, which makes it really interesting to study them. In graduate school I had an entire class devoted to Virginia Woolf, and we read and discussed one of her novels each week. I felt I had only just begun unraveling her mysteries by the end of the class.
good lord... i hated reading Catcher in the Rye once .. would never have if it had not been mandatory. Have never read Virginia Woolf but have come across several recommendations to do so in my area of interest so will be looking her stuff up.
Hi, @shadowspub!
You just got a 0.37% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.
Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!
You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue 376 (01/20/19)
Your post got us all talking during the DITO show last night @shadowspub. It is amazing how someone who can describe depression so fully can also add that touch of humour. I'm pretty sure we were all running our little fingers across our eyebrows. I know I was. :)
a lot of comedians and humourists are deeply depressed. It's like the humour is how they deal with the darkness.
I remember how in school we had to dissect novels and dig deeper to find out the actual meaning of the words beyond the words; you reminded me so much of that with this post.
While I read for pleasure now rather than for definition, I still find it marvelous to dig deeper through older author's writings. The ones I always remember from school include Tess of the D'Urberville's (was one of my favourites), East of Eden, Of Mice and Men to mention just a few.
I love to read and collect books... such a wonderful past time!
I enjoy reading as well. Most of the time I read for pleasure but as I get more serious about my own writing, it is informative to take a deeper look at writers who catch my interest.
I've only read Kafka ad a teen and got scareded when I woke up as a butterfly
Posted using Partiko Android
as a butterfly ... now to be as light as that eh.
Can I be a snowflake on someone's cheek?
I read something of his that was published after his death: "Letters To Milena"
I could tell he had a different style, not easy to relate to him or even understand the way he thinks, but he had a very interesting character.
I saved some lines that I thought most interesting: