Carl Jung said that most men don’t truly begin to live until their fathers have died. This story illustrates the kind of power, control and influence a father may have over his son, and the insidious, manipulative way he sometimes commands it.
It seems to me the father is a parasyte who derives his energy from misery which he inflicts. The success that followed after the death of the wife was somehow a corrupt transference of energy I believe to have transpired through the father. A similar situation is observed as the father berated his son and mustered supernatural strength for his aged body. The father also supposedly interfered in the correspondence between his son and friend, contorting what was in many ways, his son's goodwill--the son revising his letters and removing details of success so the friend who was descending into failure wouldn’t think worse of himself. The friend shows incredible restraint in his letters taking into account that the father likely makes his son come across as a braggart. This creates a space for the father to again absorb negative energies which would explain the friends illness. The son constantly shows how genuinely concerned he is for others and when he approaches such things as happiness, his father awaits to ruin him and feeds off the malevolence he inspires. This short story has a firm basis in Kafkas real life as he endured a very verbally abusive father who constantly obliterated joy, romance, and confidence within Kafka.
.. Going with a kind of Modernist alienation reflection where Georg is having a dream or daydream where the older generation feels the younger generation is to be railed against. To wit, Georg used to be an able gymnast and in sync with his parents but now they project their fears onto him and he knows it. This is one view. Also, I was a JOE FRANK fan and I can hear echoes to Joe's radio shows, absurdist and alienated. Anyway, it's like we are witnessing the million thoughts in a nanosecond as Georg wonders if Killing Himself NOW would ever satisfy his father. As a person who's contemplated it for feeling so empty in the center of being, I vibed with this story, I wonder if Georg also suffered some Borderline personality stuff too after WW1. Anyhoo.....
Yet another one of Kafka's archetypal stories; a boisterous, imposing, narcissistic and neurotic father who till the end of his days tries his hardest to emotionally blackmail and control his offspring. The control seems centralised in a more physical fashion, during his prime. Which gradually turns into a sort of emotional blackmail and pity seeking devilry as his hair turn grey and his palour withers. The son despite having grown up physically and becoming more than capable of rejecting this arguably father figure, finds himself more entrenched into a seeming moral obligation as a son to nurture the tyrannical old fool. This moral obligation is but exploited by the shrewd parent. And the end of which is quite the substance for modernist domestic tragedies. A parasitic father plaguing the life of an underdeveloped son's persona. Like termite, eating his hollowed existence from within. It is quite chilling the son ended his life impulsively, overcome by the verbal assualt of his father. And a fitting kafka-esque imagery is produced forth as we realise the dying of Georg would be drowned in the noise of the bustling city life. Absolutely ignored.
Carl Jung said that most men don’t truly begin to live until their fathers have died. This story illustrates the kind of power, control and influence a father may have over his son, and the insidious, manipulative way he sometimes commands it.
While I did not much care for the content, as a adult with severe dyslexia, finding audio books is always a great joy.
Thank you
dude your voice is amazing
It seems to me the father is a parasyte who derives his energy from misery which he inflicts. The success that followed after the death of the wife was somehow a corrupt transference of energy I believe to have transpired through the father. A similar situation is observed as the father berated his son and mustered supernatural strength for his aged body. The father also supposedly interfered in the correspondence between his son and friend, contorting what was in many ways, his son's goodwill--the son revising his letters and removing details of success so the friend who was descending into failure wouldn’t think worse of himself. The friend shows incredible restraint in his letters taking into account that the father likely makes his son come across as a braggart. This creates a space for the father to again absorb negative energies which would explain the friends illness.
The son constantly shows how genuinely concerned he is for others and when he approaches such things as happiness, his father awaits to ruin him and feeds off the malevolence he inspires.
This short story has a firm basis in Kafkas real life as he endured a very verbally abusive father who constantly obliterated joy, romance, and confidence within Kafka.
I love Kafka so much
Thank you for this reading! I'm more of an audio learner, and this helped me digest the content. Great voice too, very soothing!
Beautiful
Thank you, this has helped me with my college finals!
love kafkas books
.. Going with a kind of Modernist alienation reflection where Georg is having a dream or daydream where the older generation feels the younger generation is to be railed against. To wit, Georg used to be an able gymnast and in sync with his parents but now they project their fears onto him and he knows it. This is one view. Also, I was a JOE FRANK fan and I can hear echoes to Joe's radio shows, absurdist and alienated. Anyway, it's like we are witnessing the million thoughts in a nanosecond as Georg wonders if Killing Himself NOW would ever satisfy his father. As a person who's contemplated it for feeling so empty in the center of being, I vibed with this story, I wonder if Georg also suffered some Borderline personality stuff too after WW1. Anyhoo.....
Story starts at 42 seconds!
Yet another one of Kafka's archetypal stories; a boisterous, imposing, narcissistic and neurotic father who till the end of his days tries his hardest to emotionally blackmail and control his offspring. The control seems centralised in a more physical fashion, during his prime.
Which gradually turns into a sort of emotional blackmail and pity seeking devilry as his hair turn grey and his palour withers.
The son despite having grown up physically and becoming more than capable of rejecting this arguably father figure, finds himself more entrenched into a seeming moral obligation as a son to nurture the tyrannical old fool.
This moral obligation is but exploited by the shrewd parent.
And the end of which is quite the substance for modernist domestic tragedies.
A parasitic father plaguing the life of an underdeveloped son's persona. Like termite, eating his hollowed existence from within.
It is quite chilling the son ended his life impulsively, overcome by the verbal assualt of his father. And a fitting kafka-esque imagery is produced forth as we realise the dying of Georg would be drowned in the noise of the bustling city life. Absolutely ignored.
22:08
I don't get it. Why did he kill himself?
father blamed his son, but it was his son who had kind heart and actually more successful in business and life than him.
That's a pretty shallow, superficial and one-sided way of seeing such a multifaceted story.
@@candide1065 what is the correct way to look at it?
What?
Module is real HAHAHA
That's horrible parenting...
Getting this 3 words out of such a ambiguous story is probably the endlevel of "why yes I'm murican and I love reading 50 shades of gray".