Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
Originally reviewed on November 26, 2023.
A little known fact about this book is that in the beginning Gregor Samsa actually wakes up transformed into a giant bug.
We get all sorts of details explaining the sensory aspects of his new body. New sensations, new limbs, new shortcomings, new everything. Not to be crass as I know normal people are out there, but I couldn't help but be reminded of the transformation fetish art that I see online. And I mean that positively, it makes me wonder what the true difference between this classic and their online fiction is, could it all just be in presentation? Publication? Or is the deeper intention the differentiator? What if a work of fiction could be both? Could there be countless other literary classics buried in the bowels of DeviantArt, sitting with 3 views because only people with very specific desires bothered to check it out? Sheesh, anyways.
As he spends more and more time as an insect, you start to wonder if it really be so bad if Gregor found a chance to run away and live as an insect in the wild? Away from work, away from his neglectful family, away from his new prison? But responsibilities keep him trapped there. There has to be hope that he could return to work again, because everything in life hinges on the ability to work.
Everything in this book hinges on the ability to work. Gregor's first thought isn't why or how he is suddenly a bug, but instead, how is he going to get to work when he can't roll out of bed and off of his big round carapace? Life under capitalism means you must perform flawlessly every single day, not even transforming into a new sort of vermin will stop that.
I found this book strangely relatable in a way unrelated to work, though. I am transgender and autistic. Every day I wake up in a body that is not my own. Often I think I'm communicating my thoughts in a clear way only for everyone else to react with offense because even though it was reasonable to me it was interpreted as something rude and blunt by everyone else. So, basically, Gregor waking up as a big bug that everyone thinks is aggressive even though he's innocently trying to communicate, yeah, I feel it.
I wonder, if people who just don’t get this book simply can’t relate to the concept of being disconnected from your body and from your society? But I feel like that can't be it. You don't have to relate to it to find a meaning to the metaphor. This could just as easily be interpreted through a lens of sexuality, disability, culture, capitalism, anything. Oh well.
Four stars because while I say it’s a classic that deserves to be so, it does drag towards the end. It felt like Kafka didn’t know how to end the book, so it draws on until it feels like it could conclude… Then it draws on a bit longer, just to be sure it's really done.
★★★★☆
Audiobook - Audrey