The Metamorphosis
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In light of the new Beatles documentary, shout out to a funny tweet I saw recently (@FireBeets):
“Date: who’s your favorite Beatle
Me, panicking: uhh, um- Gregor Samsa”
So, if you're an illiterate swine and you don’t get the joke, I’m here to help you. Kiddingggg- I just read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka for the first time, even though it’s supposed to be one of those that you read a long time ago blah blah blah.
Gregor Samsa is the main character in The Metamorphosis and we are immediately- like, first sentence immediately- privy to the fact that he wakes up as a beetle. I really like the suspension of disbelief here. Sure, he is confused as to why he’s a beetle, but mostly because he’s embarrassed and he’s late for work. He’s frustrated and he wonders what the heck is happening, but he accepts his fate rather than question the physics of it all. He describes this rather extraordinary event in a very straightforward way, and there’s something about that juxtaposition that’s funny to me. Rather than being concerned about the fact that he’s a freakin beetle, he’s concerned about being able to comfortably sleep on his side. This is absurdism at its finest. The universe is chaotic and purposeless. Sometimes you inexplicably wake up as a beetle. (Shout out to the father of absurdism, Camus).
No one told me that this book is only 60 pages; if they had, I probably would have read it much sooner. It’s not filled with a bunch of hoity toity language, and the symbolism is accessible. It’s not in my top 10, but it’s a solid book. I always find it impressive when a book published so long ago in such a different place (1915 Germany) can still hold water today. It’s also pretty badass that Kafka’s very name represents something meaningful-- the phrase “Kafkaesque” is used to describe something nightmarish and oppressive. It was even the title of a Breaking Bad episode, and you can’t get much better than that. Overall, The Metamorphosis receives 4 out of 5 flames.
