I prefer his short stories. Among the unfinished long works, Amerika is my favourite, rather than The Trial. I always welcome comments Kafka's stories can be a little hard to get along with on some levels, and I don't think this is any different.
This is a dark comedy of the human comedy, full of the freeing chortles of gallow humor. Someone must have slandered Josef K. One can be sure of their innocence, yet fall to the blade all the same. The most startling and accurate portrayal of mankind is found when K.
At the bottom of the steps a small child was lying face down on the ground, crying, but it could hardly be heard above the noise coming from a sheet metal shop… We, humanity, are prostrate and bawling in a toxic wasteland, unloved and ignored by the absent parents. Not even passersby stop to help the child, or are even away, for the noise of industry drowns it out. The worst part is that we accept this. We tow the party line, we uphold something meaningless and only given power by our collective acceptance.
Children, such as the child crying in a pool of yellow filth, are a key motif in the novel. Their parents are never apparent and they run like wild animals. One girl is described as hunchbacked and not yet an adult, yet full of sexuality which she asserts over K.
Take, for example, the student in the attic courtroom who asserts his dominance over the married women through his power. He, too, is slightly deformed with bow-legs that call to mind classic depictions of Satan with his animalistic torso and hoofed feet, and bushy red beard like something from nature and not urban society.
He also snaps at K. Seemingly we are nothing above the beasts of the world. Even all the textbooks are actually just pornography, the court filled with carnal desires instead of logic and learned reasoning. This is the force of nature K, and all of us, fight against when attempting to address our condition with logic. We are nothing but dogs pit into a dogfight of which we had no free will in being placed. They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway.
It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves. A world where trying to go up against it will only lead to frustration and futility. Through all his proceedings, all his legal advice, nothing is learned.
Lawyers and confidants only seem to discuss the workings of the trial and court system; the more we learn, the less we understand. The system is so complicated that it stalemates itself, and it seems almost pointless to investigate. Is there purpose in assessing our lives, our condition in the world?
Not if we address it with logic. This is futility. That is why this story is presented as an allegory. The Trial is not a story about the Law or bureaucracy despite the outward appearance. This is society as a whole and pushes towards a religious allegory that is difficult to swallow.
Our reputation is unshakable and even when you prove your innocence over slander, people will still hold it against you. Nobody even knows who these lawyers are. There is also higher courts, higher judges that nobody knows the name of that also seem to exist only in legend. These unseen, unknowable eyes of justice are like the eyes of God.
One may be acquitted amongst their peers, but their soul goes to a higher court that will rule the final verdict. He proceeds with a parable that summarizes K. He waits his whole life, pestering the gatekeeper. Moments before his death of old age, the gatekeeper reveals that the entrance was meant solely for him, then closes the gates. The perfect expression of futility. What we have is the absurd, K. I always snatched at the world with twenty hands, and not for a very laudable motive, either.
His fate was already decided, and his efforts are in vain. It should come as no surprise, then, that K. The court wants nothing from you. It receives you when you came and it dismisses you when you go.
The painter shows K. Justice is painted with winged feet, in motion at the request of the court, to also represent Victory. Yet the real horror is revealed when K.
We have a court system, a religious system, a moral system, that is more concerned with victory than actual justice, and seeks out prey for sport. Nobody is safe from the system, and nobody is not a part of it. It is a book that will leave you gasping for air, and thankful for it. View all 71 comments. Thanks for doing this possible.
Yea, this is definitely one that sticks with me as well. The whole lawyer scene with the girl who only likes criminals, that part is so eerie and unsettling. That is a good way to go I think, just let this one pass through you and the best bits stick and work their way into understanding. Glad you enjoyed! Albert Mendoza Beautiful review This actually made me consider reading the book again for I think I have missed a lot of points Kafka had made which metaphorizes Beautiful review This actually made me consider reading the book again for I think I have missed a lot of points Kafka had made which metaphorizes the horrifying aspects of life itself the girl lying face down on the ground crying and ignored by the masses due to the noise of the industry should have been pretty obvious.
Thanks for pointing that out! Has this ever happened to you? You're chugging your way through a book at a decent pace, it's down to the last legs, you've decided on the good ol' four star rating, it's true that it had some really good parts but ultimately you can't say that it was particularly amazing.
And all of the sudden the last part slams into your face, you're knocked sprawling on your ass by the weight of the words spiraling around your head in a merry go round of pure literary power, and you swear the book is whisper Has this ever happened to you?
And all of the sudden the last part slams into your face, you're knocked sprawling on your ass by the weight of the words spiraling around your head in a merry go round of pure literary power, and you swear the book is whispering 'You know nothing, you snot nosed brat' through its pages of magnificence as the author leaves you far behind. If you haven't, read this book. If you have, and crave more of the same, see the previous. Now, what did the Goodreads summary call this book again?
Yes, I suppose you could say that. I mean, it is terrifying, it is psychological, and it makes for one hell of a ride. But, you see, those three words strung together convey the sense of otherworldliness, some diabolical satire that's made a nightmare of a reality that's usually pretty good about behaving itself.
The problem with that is the fact that this story adheres more closely to reality than most books dare to dream of doing. There's no phantasmagorical twisting of the entire face of reality. This is reality. And it needs no aid in inspiring the most abject of terror. Arrests of innocents. Hazy procedures. Courts obscured by other courts. Files disappearing into the dark. Judgment determined by accusation rather than by trial.
Do you call that justice? Guilty until proven less guilty. Less guilty via the right connections rather than the right evidence. Innocence with an expiration date. Complaints about any of the previous injustices accelerating the inevitable, and for what?
The hope that the future might be better? What difference will that make to you, the individual life currently at stake? The invisible pendulum will still be suspended over the more invisible pit, and your every forthright movement will still be swallowed in the obscurity of the Law, and nothing will result but a building sense of anxiety and despair. Look at the Law of the past and more importantly the Law of the present, and tell me none of this applies, in the days where banks are 'too big' to be brought to justice and everything from the individual to the government is held hostage from a better tomorrow by the inane struggles of today.
History repeats itself. History fucking repeats itself. Get it? Got it? Doing something about it is another matter entirely. View all 25 comments. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor to the reader. Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never completed, although it does include a chapter which brings the story to an end.
View all 6 comments. Guilt and innocence: Who can be considered innocent and who can be considered guilty? After all, K. The gradations and ranks of the court are infinite Guilt and innocence: Who can be considered innocent and who can be considered guilty?
The gradations and ranks of the court are infinite, extending beyond the ken even of initiates. The proceedings in the courts of law are generally a mystery to the lower officials as well; therefore they can almost never follow the progress of the cases they are working on throughout their course; the case enters their field of vision, often they know not whence, and continues on, they know not where. Once the machinery of soulless bureaucracy started working, there is no way to stop it.
An apparent acquittal is handled differently. There is no further change in the files except for adding to them the certification of innocence, the acquittal, and the grounds for the acquittal. These paths are unpredictable.
Externally it may sometimes appear that everything has been long since forgotten, the file has been lost, and the acquittal is absolute. No initiate would ever believe that. No file is ever lost, and the court never forgets. To the state, there is no such thing as an innocent person. Aug 17, Lynn Beyrouthy rated it did not like it. The protagonist, a pretentious banker named Josef K. The reason for his conviction is never revealed and even the officers who came to deliver the news are uniformed.
In the next chapters, we follow K. Nothing is explained or elucidated and yet people seem to abundantly laud Kafka for an unfinished, miserable excuse for a novel which the author himself wanted to be burned posthumously. It was an excruciating experience from which my brain cells are still suffering aftershocks. Kafka intentionally delineated an inhuman world inflicted with the depravity of the law which is ironic because Kafka was a lawyer himself. That was a waste of time.
There, I said it. View all 46 comments. This book haunts me. What is the trial? Is K actually guilty or is he innocent? Is this novel a nightmare sequence or a paranormal encountering?
Why are so many characters never heard from again? And who is that mysterious figure at the end of the novel that witnesses K's fate? There are just so many questions, This book haunts me. There are just so many questions, but no damned answers! This is frustrating, so frustrating. The novel leaves the reader with an overwhelming sense of perplexity.
There is no definitive explanation as to what has actually happened; there is no logical sense of the events. There are no answers! K wakes up on the morning of his thirtieth birthday; he goes outside his room and finds several men eating his breakfast. They give him a location, but no time. He storms out of the room and is hounded by the situation ever since. A year later, on his thirtieth birthday, view spoiler [ two men arrive and sentence him; he is taken to a quarry and murdered.
He chases the couple at the stair is where he encounters a fog and is forced to retreat. The event is never mentioned again. The situation is nightmarish, and like a dream, is forgotten about quickly. This tells us that no meaning will be had from the Trial; it tells us that there will never be any answers. What exactly is this wierd court? The court that conducts the trial is shrouded in even more mystery.
Just who are these people that can psychologically manipulate with so little effort? They are a powerful order, which is indicated by their sessions always accruing on the highest floor of the building; this evokes their, strange, authoritative presence. There are even suggestions that this court hold sessions in each, and every, building in the city, which again creates more weirdness. Tiny black eyes darted about, cheeks dropped like those of drunken men, the long beards were stiff and scraggly, and when they pulled on them, it seemed as if they were merely forming claws, not pulling beards.
Beneath the beards, however — and this was the true discovery K. However, one thing that remains clear through the novel is the characterisation of K. He is completely bland; he has no endearing qualities whatsoever, yet the women seem to throw themselves at him on multiple occasions.
This resonates in the dream world, because only in a dream world could a man like K be such a womaniser. He is meek, powerless and accepting of his unjust fate, so only a dream could a shadow of a man like K be so attractive an irresistible.
I like to think a little bit of Kafka comes through here. Perhaps he wanted to show what it would be like cut off from the rest of civilization. Overall, this is an iconic piece of literature; it is one that every serious reader should read before they die because it is completely unique.
Its strange narrative resembles a dream; its events are pointless and impenetrable like a nightmare that stays with you forever. Indeed, this book will never be forgotten by those that have read it, as the unanswered questions will haunt for the rest of their days. Review Update: I bought a Folio Society edition of this and just has to show it off Doesn't it just look great? View all 36 comments. Arrested and executed without knowing why "The Trial" is my favorite Kafka novel, written in It tells the story of Josef K.
It is horrifying uncertainty, anxiety and powerlessness put into words. The Law Josef K. He stands accused of an unknown crime but is certain that his trial will bring him justice and transparency.
Court documents, legal proceedings, and even the text of the Law that determines his fate are all forbidden to Josef and often even to the officials or court functionaries that control and dominate him. Each functionary simply fulfills a role without regard for the purpose of that role or the logic of the larger system that contains it. More than anything he seems to be the victim of frightening injustice and bureaucracy.
The Unknowable and Absurd The absurd universe of "The Trial" is utterly immune to any attempts to influence or understand it. Accordingly, there is nothing any individual—defendant, lawyer, and functionary alike—can do. For the accused, every course of action is equally ineffective. Josef strives endlessly, but never achieves any progress; there is no decisive way to make sense of his situation.
Even in his last moments of life, Josef is unable to ascertain a definitive meaning to his story. The Kafka effect is unexpected change, or encountering something that doesn't make sense. Heavily influenced by Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and "The Brothers Karamazov", Kafka even went so far as to call Dostoyevsky a blood relative. Kafka is next level of disturbance. In my opinion one of the best books in the world. View all 19 comments. This famous opening line becomes yet more intriguing as it pitches us directly into a scene whereby the first two protagonists are granted a degree of anonymity by the author, as he seeks to lure us into his philosophical daydream.
Who are they, K wonders? They look as if they might be policemen, but neither he, nor the reader, can be certain. They could be pranksters for all he knows. So many unanswered questions: Who is he? Who are they?
Why has he been arrested? Where are we? Does time have a beginning or an end? Why did the chicken cross the road? This , my fine bibliophilic friends, is an enigma burritoed in a paradox.
There is something farcical about the situation he finds himself in; the ensuing cockeyed exchange of dialogue was almost Monty Pythonesque. I shall paraphrase apologies to Mr Kafka Beautiful plumage. There follows a kangaroo court and the comically surreal appearance of a whip-man, whose job it is to give people a damn good flogging. Kafka uses existentialism like Banksy uses a spray can. K is trying to remain rational while the world around him has become irrational - something most of us have experienced at some stage in our lives.
I found it to be neither. If anything, I found it rather droll. Let me explain myself thus… I have a lugubrious friend. His name is Mark. Mark is so overly pessimistic and melancholic, that he creases me up with laughter. View all 75 comments. If, like me, you walk a plain and decent path, the world is probably none too friendly toward you.
Figuratively speaking. Welcome to the Absurd. I think that anyone who has lived a highly idiosyncratic life, like Franz Kafka and my own totally colossally unsuperstar self, has in time developed a larger ideological container for their intellectual life. Sorta like quantum mechanics does, for we have come to see the laws and customs of the world under that selfsame Aegis of Absurdity. And that is the sense in which we appreciate the Rule of Law in this world.
Even if should we ourselves should be put in the dock. But, allowing it to be a constant, can we learn to Love it, as being in itself in a state of Absolute momentary transcendence over an Absurd physical universe?
Even if that transcendence means our death? And we ALL have to take the Fire as punishment - now - or later.
I could be wrong, but this seems to be the one novel the great hag-ridden Franz Kafka completed. It would give him Closure. And pain. Except now, in the Pain - was Hope. The law of the world is right. And the universe, in fact. Remember that feeling? Anyone for Hegel? For this is just Hegel rehashed. But a Hegel Redux for postmodernists! You see that in spades in that famous story in which his Dad tells him to jump off the long end of a short pier.
And he does. My way or the highway, kid! As you and I do too. He was finally gonna take the straight and narrow path. Cause it was so right, it was absurd. Did he go ballistic as a result? You bet! Every day of our lives! For the Trial IS our daily workaday grind. We are accused; we are belittled; we are slandered behind our back. And we go on. We NEED our job. We get enraged. But we go on We let loose on the phone; we harangue our tormentors in our dreams; we get even.
We HATE the conditions that are laid out for our life. But law is law. Can we learn, maybe, to follow it in spite of itself?
Not one law at the office, and one law at home and on vacation. One small step And his ultimate faith in the Law as Love. A faith he finally starts to absorb in his last work, America. Thus Kafka presents a bleak world where a once respectable bank clerk is suddenly prosecuted for apparently no reason at all, and does not even have the benefit of an effective lawyer to represent him.
It is, therefore, not a particularly heart-warming read, and requires plenty of close attention to understand the intricate concepts — though the language is thankfully relatively direct and simple. For example, the story of a doorkeeper who prevents a man entering the realm of 'the law', is explained to K. Yet I felt that this only made the story more chilling, as he seems to have a few imperfections like every human, but these in themselves do not warrant his arrest.
Initially K. However, his resolve is beaten down by the inevitability of prosecution, and only at the nightmarish end which I do not want to ruin by describing does the reader truly understand the extent to which K.
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