Post: #1

Quote:Rejection
by Franz Kafka

When I meet a pretty girl and beg her: 'Be so good as to come with me,' and she walks past without a word, this is what she means to say:

'You are no Duke with a famous name, no broad American with a Red Indian figure, level, brooding eyes and a skin tempered by the air of the prairies and the rivers that flow through them, you have never journeyed to the seven seas and voyaged on them wherever they may be, I don't know where. So why, pray, should a pretty girl like myself go with you?'

'You forget that no automobile swings you through the street in long thrusts; I see no gentlemen escorting you in a close half-circle, pressing on your skirts from behind and murmuring blessings on your head; your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint; you are wearing a taffeta dress with a pleated skirt such as delighted all of us last autumn, and yet you smile - inviting mortal danger - from time to time.'

'Yes, we're both in the right, and to keep us from being irrevocably aware of it, hadn't we better just go our separate ways home?'

Kafka recalls approaching and begging a girl to go home with him, she ignores him and then he creates a hypothetical meta dialogue between them trying to make excuses for his poor game where she blames his lack of status, fame, attractiveness, worldliness and not being exotic enough. He responds that her attitude is too entitled, then delivers an unusual backhanded compliment ("your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint") , even in this imagined scenario Kafka decides the girl will reject him with a vague existential line.

Post: #2

Kafka understood what it's like to be lowly.

Post: #3

Damn I thought this was about Kefka...

Post: #4

Assume the sale, Kafka. Assume the sale.

Post: #5

Every girl is gonna reject you if you look like a giant cockroach. Game can only do so much!

Post: #6

hahaha great comment!

Post: #7

Kafka later learned about game and metamorphosed into a solid player. He named that whole process - the trial.

Post: #8

I have this hypothesis.

Without The Holocaust. Franz Kafka would never have become famous.

Even though he died about 17 years before The Holocaust.

Post: #9

+1 for quoting classics related to game and illuminating timeless principles.

Post: #10

Male disposability seems to be one of Kafka's main themes. He was definitely red-pilled and way ahead of his time in this regard and others.

"The Metamorphosis": Gregor Samsa is seemingly respected (or at least tolerated) as long as he's able to work and contribute to his household. When he morphs into something that a) not only cannot provide but needs to be provided for, and b) is hideous to look at, his family ultimately rejects him and are happy to let him die.

"A Hunger Artist": The title character makes money for his employers by making a spectacle out of his propensity for self-denial as a form of self-harm (which we eventually learn he secretly enjoys).

The Trial: Josef K., a successful and productive 30 year old, is accused of a crime that his accusers refuse to name. He is taken into custody by an unknown government bureaucracy and is told he needs to stand trial for this unnamed crime, and is offered only further abuse and humiliation when he tries to get to the bottom of things. The more he digs, the more of a brick wall he hits. After being entirely betrayed by all of society he submits to his own execution.

These are the fates of average (and sometimes above average) men in societies wealthy enough to become fully gynocentric. It is actually men who suffer the most under the tyranny of supposedly patriarchal structures like the nuclear family and government bureaucracy. These structures tend to provide shelter and safety for women, at the expense of the men whose labor and brainpower sustain them. Interestingly Kafka (a Jew) had a badly abusive childhood and died in 1924 at age of forty, around ten years before the Nazis came to power. Most of his family died in the Holocaust.

Post: #11

I remember reading Amerika, Kafka had some strange ideas about what the US was like.

Post: #12

(06-26-2013 05:51 PM)Citlalli Wrote:  

Quote:Rejection
by Franz Kafka

When I meet a pretty girl and beg her: 'Be so good as to come with me,' and she walks past without a word, this is what she means to say:

'You are no Duke with a famous name, no broad American with a Red Indian figure, level, brooding eyes and a skin tempered by the air of the prairies and the rivers that flow through them, you have never journeyed to the seven seas and voyaged on them wherever they may be, I don't know where. So why, pray, should a pretty girl like myself go with you?'

'You forget that no automobile swings you through the street in long thrusts; I see no gentlemen escorting you in a close half-circle, pressing on your skirts from behind and murmuring blessings on your head; your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint; you are wearing a taffeta dress with a pleated skirt such as delighted all of us last autumn, and yet you smile - inviting mortal danger - from time to time.'

'Yes, we're both in the right, and to keep us from being irrevocably aware of it, hadn't we better just go our separate ways home?'

Kafka recalls approaching and begging a girl to go home with him, she ignores him and then he creates a hypothetical meta dialogue between them trying to make excuses for his poor game where she blames his lack of status, fame, attractiveness, worldliness and not being exotic enough. He responds that her attitude is too entitled, then delivers an unusual backhanded compliment ("your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint") , even in this imagined scenario Kafka decides the girl will reject him with a vague existential line.

And yet when as is said and done, it's Kafka we remember almost 100 years after his death, not any of the girls who passed him by. It's Kafka who changed literature, changed the way people think, and even inspired a Frank Zappa song ("In The Penal Colony" from 1968). Bookstores and libraries carry works by Kafka, not picture books of that girl's breasts and hips.

In that sense, Kafka won the game in the end. There's a lesson there.

Post: #13

(08-04-2018 03:42 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  And yet when as is said and done, it's Kafka we remember almost 100 years after his death, not any of the girls who passed him by. It's Kafka who changed literature, changed the way people think, and even inspired a Frank Zappa song ("In The Penal Colony" from 1968). Bookstores and libraries carry works by Kafka, not picture books of that girl's breasts and hips.

In that sense, Kafka won the game in the end. There's a lesson there.

Very well said.

Counterpoint: We now live in a culture where the average person spends far more time looking at IG models than reading Kafka (ask anyone under 30 their favorite Youtuber or IG model, then ask them their fav Kafka story, if they've even heard of him). So yeah, he made a tremendous impact, but I can't help but wonder, so what?

Post: #14

(08-04-2018 03:42 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 05:51 PM)Citlalli Wrote:  

Quote:Rejection
by Franz Kafka

When I meet a pretty girl and beg her: 'Be so good as to come with me,' and she walks past without a word, this is what she means to say:

'You are no Duke with a famous name, no broad American with a Red Indian figure, level, brooding eyes and a skin tempered by the air of the prairies and the rivers that flow through them, you have never journeyed to the seven seas and voyaged on them wherever they may be, I don't know where. So why, pray, should a pretty girl like myself go with you?'

'You forget that no automobile swings you through the street in long thrusts; I see no gentlemen escorting you in a close half-circle, pressing on your skirts from behind and murmuring blessings on your head; your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint; you are wearing a taffeta dress with a pleated skirt such as delighted all of us last autumn, and yet you smile - inviting mortal danger - from time to time.'

'Yes, we're both in the right, and to keep us from being irrevocably aware of it, hadn't we better just go our separate ways home?'

Kafka recalls approaching and begging a girl to go home with him, she ignores him and then he creates a hypothetical meta dialogue between them trying to make excuses for his poor game where she blames his lack of status, fame, attractiveness, worldliness and not being exotic enough. He responds that her attitude is too entitled, then delivers an unusual backhanded compliment ("your breasts are well laced into your bodice, but your thighs and hips make up for that restraint") , even in this imagined scenario Kafka decides the girl will reject him with a vague existential line.

And yet when as is said and done, it's Kafka we remember almost 100 years after his death, not any of the girls who passed him by. It's Kafka who changed literature, changed the way people think, and even inspired a Frank Zappa song ("In The Penal Colony" from 1968). Bookstores and libraries carry works by Kafka, not picture books of that girl's breasts and hips.

In that sense, Kafka won the game in the end. There's a lesson there.

Quote: Despite his deteriorating physical condition, Kafka maintained dreams of moving to Israel with Dora and opening a restaurant. He met with her father and asked permission to marry her, but was refused. He died shortly thereafter, in 1924. Kafka’s father and mother both died years later, in 1931 and 1934 respectively, and were buried with him in their family plot; his three sisters were all killed by the Nazis

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.myjewis...kafka/amp/

In terms of the game, I'd say he lost on every front. That gave him a unique perspective to write from and in regards to people knowing who you were after your death sure, he won. But in life, while breath still flowed through him, I can't agree.

Post: #15

Quote:Counterpoint: We now live in a culture where the average person spends far more time looking at IG models than reading Kafka

I was thinking the same thing. One could say that boobs and hips have won. How much money has the latest Kardashian attention-whore made?

Quote:Kylie Jenner has posted 5,435 photos on Instagram, and though she might not be the celebrity with the most followers (Selena Gomez still holds that title), she's become one of social media's top influencers. According to a new report, every single one of Kylie's posts is worth a whopping $1 million.

https://www.marieclaire.com/career-advic...am-income/

Post: #16

(08-04-2018 04:26 PM)Thot Leader Wrote:  

(08-04-2018 03:42 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  And yet when as is said and done, it's Kafka we remember almost 100 years after his death, not any of the girls who passed him by. It's Kafka who changed literature, changed the way people think, and even inspired a Frank Zappa song ("In The Penal Colony" from 1968). Bookstores and libraries carry works by Kafka, not picture books of that girl's breasts and hips.

In that sense, Kafka won the game in the end. There's a lesson there.

Very well said.

Counterpoint: We now live in a culture where the average person spends far more time looking at IG models than reading Kafka (ask anyone under 30 their favorite Youtuber or IG model, then ask them their fav Kafka story, if they've even heard of him). So yeah, he made a tremendous impact, but I can't help but wonder, so what?

Very well said.

Counterpoint to your counterpoint. Back in the '80s I spent far more time reading a magazine called Gallery* than I ever did Kafka. But I still remember Kafka and not the names of the myriad of women whose tits and asses I salivated over.

* Gallery was a mag where women or their husbands would send in nude shots of themselves. This was sort of a proto version of the Instagram selfie. I preferred seeing real women to airbrushed models. Still do.

When I got into Elvis Costello, I got a kick out of his reference to "reader's wives" in his song "Sunday's Best." Guess Elvis was reading Gallery, or its British counterpart.

Post: #17

(((Franz Kafka)))

Post: #18

(08-04-2018 08:00 PM)Mercenary Wrote:  (((Franz Kafka)))

One of the best and most influential writers of the last century.

Post: #19

(08-04-2018 07:49 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  

(08-04-2018 04:26 PM)Thot Leader Wrote:  

(08-04-2018 03:42 PM)Days of Broken Arrows Wrote:  And yet when as is said and done, it's Kafka we remember almost 100 years after his death, not any of the girls who passed him by. It's Kafka who changed literature, changed the way people think, and even inspired a Frank Zappa song ("In The Penal Colony" from 1968). Bookstores and libraries carry works by Kafka, not picture books of that girl's breasts and hips.

In that sense, Kafka won the game in the end. There's a lesson there.

Very well said.

Counterpoint: We now live in a culture where the average person spends far more time looking at IG models than reading Kafka (ask anyone under 30 their favorite Youtuber or IG model, then ask them their fav Kafka story, if they've even heard of him). So yeah, he made a tremendous impact, but I can't help but wonder, so what?

Very well said.

Counterpoint to your counterpoint. Back in the '80s I spent far more time reading a magazine called Gallery* than I ever did Kafka. But I still remember Kafka and not the names of the myriad of women whose tits and asses I salivated over.

* Gallery was a mag where women or their husbands would send in nude shots of themselves. This was sort of a proto version of the Instagram selfie. I preferred seeing real women to airbrushed models. Still do.

When I got into Elvis Costello, I got a kick out of his reference to "reader's wives" in his song "Sunday's Best." Guess Elvis was reading Gallery, or its British counterpart.

Not really an answer, more of a starting point for thought:

Does it take the average person reading a book for a book to heavily influence a society?

Example one way: the myth that only a tiny minority of Germans were actually Nazis or supported Hitler's ideas. This myth is adequately rebutted by the fact that Mein Kampf was a bestseller in the 1920s, not an underground work passed from hand to hand.

Example the other way: I doubt anyone average outside a union like the SEIU has ever actually read Das Kapital. Yet in 250 years Marx's book has killed more people and caused more suffering than any other bar maybe the Quran, founded and assured the destruction of modern Russia and will assure the destruction of America in time.

God save us from people who mean well. -storm

Post: #20

I wonder what kind of novel Kafka would have written if he had suddenly gotten a lot of pussy... Probably not a very good one.

Suffering tends to be the best way to fuel creativity.

Post: #21

(08-05-2018 06:41 PM)questor70 Wrote:  I wonder what kind of novel Kafka would have written if he had suddenly gotten a lot of pussy... Probably not a very good one.

Suffering tends to be the best way to fuel creativity.

I've had a similar thought. He likes his whores, as did Joyce. A lot of the best writers were degenerate losers. Bukowski. Iunno. I find my best creative insights come via the struggle, but then in order to sustain any kind of meaningful output I need all the basic comforts in place, the rent paid, food in the fridge, and some pussy. It's a bit of a tightrope.