From uneasy dreams

July 20, 2015 11:17 AM

100 thoughts on Kafka's "Metamorphosis" to mark the 100th anniversary of its publication. (via)

Of interest:
-Vladimir Nabokov's lecture on "The Metamorphosis"
-The New Yorker: "On Translating Kafka's 'The Metamorphosis'"
-Ask MetaFilter: What version of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" should I read?

And a few translations:
-David Wyllie (2007)
-Ian Johnston (2003)
-Willa and Edwin Muir (1948)
-Stanley Appelbaum (1996)

posted by Iridic (4 comments total)

I can highly recommend the 2014 Susan Bernofsky translation, which I read last year and found flabbergastingly good. Its cover design still leaves me awe-struck.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:31 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Curiously enough, Gregor the beetle never found out that he had wings under the hard covering of his back. (This is a very nice observation on my part to be treasured all your lives. Some Gregors, some Joes and Janes, do not know that they have wings.)
My favorite part from the Nabokov's lecture, I'd never have thought about that.
posted by usertm at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

R. Sikoryak made an affectionate parody in Masterpiece Comics.

I also vaguely recall a subtle deadpan parody in a 70's Nat. Lampoon where Gregor wakes up beside a giant beetle, goes into work as usual, and has an awful day. Forget the author's name.
posted by ovvl at 1:22 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

21. Kafka’s famous literary death wish, delivered to Brod, was: “Dearest Max, my final request: Everything I leave behind in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters, from others and my own, sketches, and so forth, to be burned completely and unread”

22. Brod disobeyed Kafka, claiming that his friend had intimated his wish some years earlier, whereupon Brod had made it clear he would do no such thing. In other words, we may infer that Kafka was playing hard to get.

Well that is new to me and I enjoyed that part very much!
posted by bukvich at 5:41 AM on July 21, 2015