I love Harman's translation of Kafka's The Castle. When I say reverse-engineer read, I mean reading and then asking myself: How did he do that? The protaganist of The Castle is named K. I wont give any spoilers, but this guy is one of the most fall down funny author's I have read. His character's are just wandering through life and ending up in the most absurd situations predictable. Every page is a treasure chest full of wtf!

 

-----signature-----

Kafka is many times quite hilarious.

That's the thing, comedy/tragedy are often tightly intertwined.

 

-----signature-----

The Harmon translation is much more enjoyable than the Brod/Muir translation.

I prefer The Trial to either of them however. Very surreal and quite funny in a tragic kind of way.

Yes, I read then entire reasoning behind the translation. That was fascinating. For those who have not read it. Kafka died and gave explicit instructions to Brod to destroy everything unfinished (i.e. The Castle). Evidently Brod was one guy Kafka could entrust to publish everything he did. The Brod and Muir translations interprets The Castle in a religious sense. The Harman translates in a more secular way.

Ptilk , how about the bathtub scene in the beginning? Or calling both his assistants Artur! What an imagination.

 

-----signature-----

Read the Trial (Der Prozess) a couple times, but been a while.
The Castle I haven't tried yet, neither translation.

Off to the library tomorrow so gonna check for it.

 

-----signature-----

Normally I'm not one for movies based on books but the German film The Castle was FKING amazing. It got the awkwardness of the characters perfectly.


One of my favorite thinkscapes.

 

-----signature-----