KAFKA’ S 130th ANNIVERSARY (Kafka, July 3rd, 1883 – June 3rd, 1924) MEDIUM GOBLIN KAFKA, A TRUE SORT OF HIDDEN MESSIAH-CHANGELING «DIE VERWANDLUNG», A TRANSPARENT «CHANGELING METAMORPHOSIS» : A "UNGEHEURES UNGEZIEFER", A "MONSTROUS VERMIN", A GOBLIN/TROLL, AND CERTAINLY NOT THE VULGARIZED “COCKROACH” AT ALL ! I saw with great emotion your statue in Prague years ago, not so far from centuries-old Hebrew cemetery, and the Jewish library where I bought an astronomy book. And I know now precisely WHY you wrote your Metamorphosis, for YOU HAD NO CHOICE LEFT. Poor crucified Franz, I will explain some day your luminous, hidden, unconscious, but SO IMPERATIVE PSYCHOANALYTIC, OBSESSIVE, FREUDIAN REASONS. When you suffered from insomnia, you feared being repulsive, and a burden to your family, and during this time your sister was your caretaker, while your father treated you harshly. As Kafka means Caucasian, BUT NOT ONLY, YOU CAN BE SURE, AS SURE AS THE REAL EXISTENCE OF THE EINSTEINIAN RELATIVISTIC SPACE-TIME. But after all, the cockroach’s speed is 1 meter per second (see Duncan Haldane’s Velociroach from Berkeley), equivalent for a man to some 214 km/h, much the same as the French TGV, being the most fast of all the insects, having even inspired the now defunct French sci-fi site « LE CAFARD COSMIQUE » (in French, cafarder is spreading a rumour). But «Ungeziefer» denotes a sense of separation between himself and his environment, as, being unclean, he must be secluded. However, Kafka wrote to his publisher on October 25th, 1915, about the first edition’s front cover illustration, using the term “INSEKT”, saying "The insect itself IS NOT TO BE DRAWN. IT IS NOT EVEN TO BE SEEN from a distance" (Briefe und Tagebücher 1915, Franz Kafka, ELibraryAustria). Vladimir Nabokov insisted that Gregor WAS NOT A COCKROACH, but a beetle with wings under his shell, CAPABLE OF FLIGHT. Nabokov left a beetle’s sketch annotated "JUST OVER THREE FEET LONG". In his accompanying lecture notes, he discusses the type of insect, concluding that Gregor "is not, technically, a dung beetle. He is merely A BIG BEETLE." For, in a sense, I AFFIRM THIS FLYING, HIDDING, AND ELUSIVE BEETLE SYMBOLIZES PERFECTLY WELL A TINY THREE FEET HIGH GOBLIN, SOME MISCHIEVOUS TROLL (SEE MY BOOK “LMDO”), A SORT OF FLYING NON-HUMAN GOLEM, TOO. In Prague, the most prominent person in Old Jewish Cemetery is the religious scholar YEHUDAH LEVI BEN BETZALEL, alias RABBI LÖW, THE MaHaRaL, Our Master Rabbi Löw (d. 1609, one of the greatest Aharonim, who wrote Tiféreth Israël, about the Sinaï encounter, and who is the ancestor of Karl Marx), associated with Golem’s legend. Among others in the cemetery, the Mayor of the Jewish Town Mordechai Maisel (d. 1601), the Renaissance scholar, historian, MATHEMATICIAN AND ASTRONOMER David Gans (d. 1613, who studied with Nicolas Kepler), historian Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (d. 1655), and rabbi and COLLECTOR OF HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED BOOKS David Oppenheim (d. 1736). But, after all, Franz Kafka warned us in his aphorism (n°1) from 1918 : “The true way is along a rope that is not spanned high in the air, but only just above the ground. It seems intended more to cause stumbling than to be walked upon”, “Der wahre Weg geht über ein Seil, das nicht in der Höhe gespannt ist, sondern knapp über dem Boden. Es scheint mehr bestimmt stolpern zu machen, als begangen zu werden.” He added that “THE DECISIVE MOMENT IN HUMAN EVOLUTION IS CEASELESS”, “Der entscheidende Augenblick der menschlichen Entwicklung ist immerwährend” (n° 6). And that “Martyrs do not underrate the physical body, as they allow the corpse to be sublimated by the cross. In this they are at one with their opponents”, “Die Märtyrer unterschätzen den Leib nicht, sie lassen ihn auf dem Kreuz erhöhn, darin sind sie mit ihren Gegnern einig” (n° 33). Kafka added: “Man cannot live without a permanent trust in something indestructible in himself, though both the indestructible element and the trust may remain permanently hidden from him. One of the ways in which this hiddenness can express itself is THROUGH FAITH IN A PERSONAL GOD”, ”Der Mensch kann nicht leben ohne ein dauerndes Vertrauen zu etwas Unzerstörbarem in sich, wobei sowohl das Unzerstörbare als auch das Vertrauen ihm dauernd verborgen bleiben können. Eine der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten dieses Verborgen-Bleibens ist DER GLAUBE AN EINEN PERSÖNLICHEN GOTT” (n° 50). Therefore, ANEW, SOME CHILDISH FAITH, as Kafka wrote: “It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will offer itself to you for its unmasking, IT CAN DO NO OTHER, bewitched, it will unwind, stark naked, as in ecstasy, writhing under your very eyes”, “Es ist nicht notwendig, daß du aus dem Haus gehst. Bleib bei deinem Tisch und horche. Horche nicht einmal, warte nur. Warte nicht einmal, sei völlig still und allein. Anbieten wird sich dir die Welt zur Entlarvung, SIE KANN NICHT ANDERS, verzückt wird sie sich vor dir winden” (n°109). Very profound, and SO ACUTE, AS SAID ONCE BY SUCH WISE MEN AS JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI AND DALAÏ-LAMA. Never forget, too, that in December 11, 1563 (25 Kislev 5327), Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Ива́н Гро́зный, suffering mental illness, ordered all Jews from Polotsk, one of the oldest Jewish communities in Lithuania, to be baptized. The 300 Jews who refused were DROWNED IN THE DVINA RIVER. kafka.org/index.php?aphorismen en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis jewishmuseum.cz/en/acemetery.htm jewishmuseum.cz/en/a-ex-pinkas.htm commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kafka_statue_Prague.jpg a-tout-prague/fr/actualites/les-legendes-de-prague-rabbi-low-et-le-golem/ akadem.org/medias/documents/NOUVELLE_FICHE_Maharal.pdf en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Loew_ben_Bezalel jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1560%3D1569 fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Cafard_cosmique inhabitat/velociroach-a-tiny-super-fast-robot-cockroach-made-from-cardboard-that-can-save-lives/ robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ronf/Biomimetics.html bcove.me/v0rfb8b8 (12 photos)
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 22:00:34 +0000
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