“Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn’t pull a corpse from its grave, I can’t be dragged from my desk at night.”
–FRANZ KAFKA
Died this week in 1924
Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Jewish Czech writer from Prague, whose work is considered a cornerstone of modern literature. His writing is known for its dreamlike, surreal narratives and exploration of complex psychological conflicts, particularly between authority and the individual. Kafka’s most famous work is the novella The Metamorphosis, in which the protagonist wakes up transformed into an insect, reflecting themes of alienation and existential dread.
New Thinking Jul 6, 2023 Jason Reza Jorjani is a philosopher and author of Prometheus and Atlas, World State of Emergency, Lovers of Sophia, and Novel Folklore: The Blind Owl of Sadegh Hedayat. Here he describes the important plot threads of Franz Kafka’s posthumously published novel. The main character seems to be trapped in a nightmarish scenario, in which he is put through a mysterious legal proceding, from which he cannot seem to escape. Jorjani elucidates several important folklore and mythological references. Ultimately, he believes that the protagonist is trapped inside of his own inability to take himself less seriously. Edited subtitles for this video are available in Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. (Recorded on April 6, 2018)
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