But it is good if the conscience receives wide wounds, because in this way it becomes more sensitive to every bite. One should read, I believe, only books that bite and sting. If the book we read does not wake us with a punch to the skull, what is the use of reading it? My God, we would even be happy if we had no books, and the books that make us happy we could eventually write ourselves. But we need books that act upon us like a misfortune that causes us great pain, like the death of someone dearer to us than ourselves, as if we were rejected by the woods, away from all men, like a suicide; a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. This I believe. [Franz Kafka, letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904]
Interesting, of course "the books that make us happy we could eventually write ourselves" said by a writer, who wrote what he wrote...
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Carlos
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Reply 3 by Carlos
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Frank wrote:
Interesting, of course "the books that make us happy we could eventually write ourselves" said by a writer, who wrote what he wrote...
Kafka's phrase refers to: "If the book we read does not wake us up with a punch to the skull, what is the use of reading it?". In other words: "My God, we would be happy even if we didn't have books, and the books that make us happy we could eventually write ourselves".
Great Carlos, interpreting Frank's remark ...at this point he hasn't written books for himself, and if it were a universally valid phrase ...think of the "poor" Poe...what do you say?
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Carlos
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Reply 5 by Carlos
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759
.
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Carlos
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Reply 6 by Carlos
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759
Rotore wrote:
Great Carlos, interpreting Frank's remark... at this point he didn't write books for himself, and if it were a universally valid phrase... think of the "poor" Poe... what do you say?
I believe no writer writes for themselves... but honestly I didn't understand the excuse.
Which phrase should have universal value (and, above all, why?). And should I think of the "poor" Poe as a writer or as a reader?
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Gassy
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Reply 7 by Gassy
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...Poe...perhaps in the relationship between happiness and the content of the stories ... ? ... ... who wrote? ...
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Carlos
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Reply 8 by Carlos
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Happiness? Well... Kafka speaks of "wide wounds," of books that "bite and sting" and must act upon us like "a misfortune that hurts us deeply, like the death of someone dearer to us than ourselves, as if we were rejected by the woods, away from all men, like a suicide, a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." It doesn't seem to me that he seeks happiness in a book. In any case, he speaks as a reader and not as a writer, so perhaps one should ask what effect Poe's books have on those who read them, not why he wrote them... But then: what does Poe have to do with it? Wouldn't it be better to try to understand if Kafka's books represent for the reader what he himself was looking for in a book?
