Stranger on Earth

The Übermeister  of alienation and paranoia shows us what it is like to be a man judged by the masses for no discernible reason in the uncompleted last novel America (1927). The novel may contain some of the most farcical passages in Franz Kafka’s entire oeuvre (the scene in Chapter 7 involving Karl being interrogated by a policeman and scrutinised by the entire neighbourhood is an apt example); but the oppressive Kafkaesque elements that have become so familiar to us through The Trial and The Castle can still be detected throughout lurking beneath the surface of the absurd comedy. America ’s protagonist Karl Rossmann is an immigrant left to his own fate. Through happenstance, he manages to secure himself a position as a lift-boy at the Hotel Occidental, where he attends to his duties as he has been instructed – only to be disrupted on one ill-timed occasion as his ruffian acquaintance Robinson drops by to borrow money. Karl leaves his station for a brief moment, ...

This is a penetrating article about dumbed-down culture and “kidult” literature, written by British author Will Self for bbc.co.uk. I share most of his views, which some may call “elitist,” and think that the public should become aware of the reading habits of 21 st -century readers. 20 April 2012 A Point of View: In defence of obscure words by Will Self (author of Cock and Bull, Great Apes , among others) We chase "fast culture" at our peril - unusual words and difficult art are good for us, says Will Self. We are living in a risk-averse culture - there's no doubt about that. But the risk that people seem most reluctant taking is not a physical but a mental one: just as the concrete in children's playgrounds has been covered with rubber, so the hard truth about the effort needed for intellectual attainment is being softened by a sort of semantic padding. Our arts and humanities education at secondary level seems particularly afflicted by fal...

Is there a need for another analytical essay on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s enduring The Great Gatsby (1925)? One would be inclined to say no. There is, however, a need for a reminder of the novel’s transcendental nature: its ability to cut through generations and zeitgeists to reach the 21 st -century reader. Ernest Hemingway had the privilege of reading The Great Gatsby first-hand in Paris, and was so awed by its artistry that he considered it Fitzgerald’s best work. Generations of readers after Hemingway would come to share his view. What makes the work so fascinating that it is still being read today by high-school students and literary enthusiasts around the globe, despite its opaque language and style? The attraction of The Great Gatsby lies largely in its unabashed presentation of romanticism – the blood that runs through the veins of our imagination. The towering titular character is a man of unconditional dedication. Having lost his love to a wealthy rival, Jay ...

Bumby (Jack/John Hemingway) One of the most endearing chapters in the memoir will have to be “The Education of Mr. Bumby,” in which Hemingway the father describes a conversation with his first-born in the Place St. Michel café. Bumby was a precocious and sensitive child. Having been told by his French tutor that the writing profession was a difficult metiér , he asked his father if it was really so. “… Tell me papa is it difficult to write?” “Sometimes.” “Touton says it is very difficult and I must always respect it.” “You respect it.” (204) Then Bumby asked if they could go by Silver Beach’s bookstore (Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company , the mispronunciation affectionately retained by Hemingway) because “she is always very nice to me” (205). Bumby Hemingway then refers to a quarrel he had with Hadley about something in which “she had been right and [he] had been wrong seriously” (205). This had been witnessed by young Bumby, who said: “Mother...

I came across this revealing interview with two of Haruki Murakami’s trusted translators: Jay Rubin ( 1Q84 ) and J. Philip Gabriel ( Kafka on the Shore ). It sheds light on how difficult it can be to translate a "culture." The interview can also be found at San Francisco Bay Guardian Online . Found in Translation Haruki Murakami's interpreters discuss the art of building literature anew 04.11.12 - 3:22 pm |  Soojin Chang   Jay Rubin & Haruki Murakami Ludwig Wittgenstein once said "the limits of my language mean the limits of my world." So for the sake of expanded horizons, let's say thank you to professional translators, the diligent souls who dedicate their lives to the subtleties of language. When interpreters dissolve linguistic barriers, we are able to peer into the worlds articulated in literature of distant lands to understand them as our own. But how do they do it? Surrealist Japanese author Haruki Murakami's translato...

In the nine “Voices” poems (“Die Stemmen,” 1902), we find Rilke speaking out for those who have suffered pain and injustice. He insists that in order for them to be heard, they need to “advertise” themselves, and this should be done through singing, or songs – like the castrati (referred to as “these cut ones”) who sing to God and compel him to stay and listen. This message is found in the “Title Leaf” – an introduction of sorts to the nine songs. It is tempting to read the nine songs (“Beggar’s,” “Blind Man’s,” “Drunkard’s,” “Suicide’s,” “Widow’s,” “Idiot’s,” “Orphan Girl’s,” “Dwarf’s,” “Leper’s”) as a collection of poetic pleas for social awareness. This is due to Rilke’s “casting choices”; he has selected society’s most conspicuous outcasts as the main speakers of his poems. When, for instance, the beggar in “The Beggar’s Song” says, “I go always from door to door/rain-soaked and sun-scorched,” we are induced to sympathise with his downtrodden fate. The same can be said for...

Hadley Hemingway Hadley and Ernest Hemingway in 1922 The intimate passages concerning Hemingway’s first wife Hadley reveal to us Hemingway the husband and lover. Some of these passages (especially those in the intriguing chapter “The Pilot Fish and the Rich”) were expurgated by Mary Hemingway, causing the man to come across as an unrepentant cheat who blamed his adulterous behaviour on Hadley. The Restored Edition tells us that this is quite far from the truth. Hadley and Hemingway had a close bond. They did many things together, even tried to grow out their hair together (humorously described in “Secret Pleasures”). When he describes their love-making, which facilitated his writing process, it is always with a touch of tenderness and hope. Hadley and Hemingway used to go skiing in Schruns in Austria (he had found it an agreeable place to write). Despite the awful avalanches that would occur now and then, Hemingway’s memories of the place were mostly romantic...