Franz Kafka discussion

I propose that a vegetarian perspective is critical to an understanding of many of kafkas' stories beginning with metamorphosis and throughout, most importantly a hungerartist. the problem of our laws, the penal colony, a burrow,trial.also key to understanding his relationships, his closest family member ottla was vegetarian as was dora diamond, his first and last real girlfriend. he met her in a jewish peoples home while she was cutting fish and famously remarked "such beautiful hands and such bloody work!" critical literature has been silent on this point, is it a blindspot? or something more? certainly the point was not lost on the great vegetarian writers who were friends of k, i.b.singer, j.m.coetzee. I would most love to hear a word from Coetzee on his beloved kafkas diet.

Ah, there's actually a lot of (German) critical work on this topic. I highly doubt being a vegetarian would help you to understand Kafka better; the man wasn't even a real vegetarian. His not-eating-meat was mainly due to health reasons and because he wanted to distance himself from his meat-eating (farmer type) father. There are quite a few entries in K's diaries where he records eating meat & that there is no ethical reason behind (partially) abstaining from it. Many German-language studies see Kafka as the first real anorexic (that's probably exaggerated), in any case his relationship with food in general (not only meat) was rather disturbed; he would sometimes punish himself with fasts/excessive sports for eating certain kinds/amounts of food. There is also the anecdote where he came upon on of his sisters eating buttered bread, remarking: 'how can you eat all this fat! The healthiest food is a lemon.'

Note also how food is mysteriously absent from his writing (except Der Hungerkünstler, though even here food is never explicitly mentioned), his personal writing (journals/letters), on the other hand, abounds with food descriptions and what he's eating and how food makes him feel coarse and guilty... He wrote to Felice (paraphrasing): 'My greatest joy is sitting at a large table where there is an abundance of hot steaming food and all the people are eating, except me'.

Funnily enough there exists an Austrian hot dog variety that is called 'Kafka' ha-ha

well I guess youre right.
be just

Now that was a really interesting discussion ;D

"Gregor pushed his head forward...would she noticed that he had left the milk as it was, realise that it was not for the lack of hunger and bring him in some other food that was more suitable? ... he would rather go hungry than draw her attention to it....through himself at his sister feet and beg her for something good to eat".

"...in orther to test his taste, she brought him a whole selection of things, all spread out on an old newspaper. There were old, half-rotten vegetables..."

At least Gregor was not a vegetarian nor anorexic :-)

But here too food is not really seen as something positive; the bug Gregor cannot get it himself, and whatever his sister brings him is garbage from the kitchen. The only good thing, a fresh apple, is thrown at Gregor by his father (some hint at the eviction from Eden?) which is then stuck in Gregor's back and is left there to rot. As he is slowly dying more and more old and rotten food covers his back...

Right! Here food is a proxy for "I love you, I care for you" or "I do not understand you" and as the whole story develops, "I stopped caring for you, I give up".