I can't wait to read this story! I found a PDF of it online after you mentioned it on the podcast a few weeks ago. As a huge fan of Kafka's work, I couldn't help but wonder if he was partially inspired by it when writing "The Metamorphosis" due to the similarly absurd circumstance discovered upon waking.
I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that Kafka "considered Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gustav Flaubert, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Grillparzer, and Heinrich von Kleist to be his 'true blood brothers'". So, I'm thinking 'yes'.
It thought this quote from R. Karst that is discussed in the piece to be an interesting way to contrast their approaches:
"The basic difference is that Kafka makes illusion real while Gogol makes reality illusory—the former depicts the reality of the absurd, the latter the absurdity of the real”
Oh wow I have always wanted to read Gogol thanks for the recommendation. Matt I am really happy to see you also having a newsletter on books I really love it 😊
Mission accomplished- I laughed out loud at the excerpts of this story as well as your descriptions of it. My hands-down favorite university class was 19th Century Russian Literature. The professor herself was Russian, and is the only professor whose name I still recall. The class read The Overcoat and I remember the lively, laughter-filled discussions about it. I realize this is an old post. I hope there will be more forthcoming.
Thank you for writing this. I read some Nikolai Gogol as a lost and impressionistic teenager and it made an impression. It may have been the overcoat. I really appreciate your take on it! I was into it but also a little confused, so it is nice after all this time to harken back. Another one I read, something about a dog, similarly strange..
"Random neurological gibberish of sleep". Ha not even close. Dreams are the same as athletes' visualization exercises, but for one's life instead of for sport. Unless you have been ingesting interesting chemicals, your dreams during the Twitter files pressure period were all related to possible scenarios that could come of you working on them, weren't they?
Back some decades ago I had a professor who taught a class, "Appreciation of Story" in a Lit course. This was a pleasure to read and reminded me of that professor who was so great at getting us excited about things and telling the Why. Like a voiceover on the Director's cut, great read. Starving and leeches though, oof. Comedians always kneading into the dark.
I love this example of using absurdity in writing. While the humor of it is obvious, I also see this as having value in that characters reacting to the absurd may also prove a path for social commentary that has the ability to evade the censors of the time.
I can't wait to read this story! I found a PDF of it online after you mentioned it on the podcast a few weeks ago. As a huge fan of Kafka's work, I couldn't help but wonder if he was partially inspired by it when writing "The Metamorphosis" due to the similarly absurd circumstance discovered upon waking.
I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that Kafka "considered Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gustav Flaubert, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Grillparzer, and Heinrich von Kleist to be his 'true blood brothers'". So, I'm thinking 'yes'.
I'm in the middle of reading an interesting piece that contrasts the two of them here: https://thirdtriumvirate.wordpress.com/2018/08/24/on-gogol-and-kafka/
It thought this quote from R. Karst that is discussed in the piece to be an interesting way to contrast their approaches:
"The basic difference is that Kafka makes illusion real while Gogol makes reality illusory—the former depicts the reality of the absurd, the latter the absurdity of the real”
When I studied in Moscow, we went to an opera based on “The Nose.” It was pretty amazing.
Oh wow I have always wanted to read Gogol thanks for the recommendation. Matt I am really happy to see you also having a newsletter on books I really love it 😊
Mission accomplished- I laughed out loud at the excerpts of this story as well as your descriptions of it. My hands-down favorite university class was 19th Century Russian Literature. The professor herself was Russian, and is the only professor whose name I still recall. The class read The Overcoat and I remember the lively, laughter-filled discussions about it. I realize this is an old post. I hope there will be more forthcoming.
Thank you for writing this. I read some Nikolai Gogol as a lost and impressionistic teenager and it made an impression. It may have been the overcoat. I really appreciate your take on it! I was into it but also a little confused, so it is nice after all this time to harken back. Another one I read, something about a dog, similarly strange..
"Random neurological gibberish of sleep". Ha not even close. Dreams are the same as athletes' visualization exercises, but for one's life instead of for sport. Unless you have been ingesting interesting chemicals, your dreams during the Twitter files pressure period were all related to possible scenarios that could come of you working on them, weren't they?
Matt and Anyone on here please respond with your rules or opinions.
I want to write and I have a limited vocabulary. Using an AI app doesn't count as my writing.
What do you consider to be "my" writing?
To consider it my work do I have to open a dictionary, learn new words, close the dictionary, and then write?
Or if I am writing with my limited vocabulary but during or after it's written can I use a computer's thesaurus or application?
Lastly, if you think using an application or a computer thesaurus is fine, is there a maximum limit on the number of times I can use a thesaurus?
"The circus is gone, but the clowns remain."
Back some decades ago I had a professor who taught a class, "Appreciation of Story" in a Lit course. This was a pleasure to read and reminded me of that professor who was so great at getting us excited about things and telling the Why. Like a voiceover on the Director's cut, great read. Starving and leeches though, oof. Comedians always kneading into the dark.
I love this example of using absurdity in writing. While the humor of it is obvious, I also see this as having value in that characters reacting to the absurd may also prove a path for social commentary that has the ability to evade the censors of the time.
Nice.