Franz Kafka

Zadie Smith on Franz Kafka

In the NY Review of Books, Zadie Smith reviews The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay by Louis Begley.

How to describe Kafka, the man? Like this, perhaps:

It is as if he had spent his entire life wondering what he looked like, without ever discovering there are such things as mirrors.

A naked man among a multitude who are dressed.

A mind living in sin with the soul of Abraham.

Franz was a saint.

Or then again, using details of his life, as found in Louis Begley’s refreshingly factual The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay: over six feet tall, handsome, elegantly dressed; an unexceptional student, a strong swimmer, an aerobics enthusiast, a vegetarian; a frequent visitor to movie houses, cabarets, all-night cafes, literary soirees and brothels; the published author of seven books during his brief lifetime; engaged three times (twice to the same woman); valued by his employers, promoted at work.

More on Zadie Smith at Wikipedia.

Why Dogs? (quotations)

Robert Benchley

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.”

Samuel Butler

“The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.”

Charles Doran

“A man’s soul can be judged by the way he treats his dog.”

George Bird Evans

“I think we are drawn to dogs because they are the uninhibited creatures we might be if we weren’t certain we knew better.”

Edward Hoagland

“In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn’t merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog.”

John Holmes

“A dog is not almost-human, and I know of no greater insult to the canine race than to describe it as such.”

Lonzo Idolswine

“My dog is usually pleased with what I do, because she is not infected with the concept of what I ‘should’ be doing.”

Franz Kafka

“All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers is contained in the dog.”

Rudyard Kipling

“When the Man waked up he said,
‘What is Wild Dog doing here?’
And the Woman said,
‘His name is not Wild Dog any more,
but the First Friend,
because he will be our friend
for always and always and always.’”

Milan Kundera

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.”

John Steinbeck

“I’ve seen a look in dogs’ eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts.”

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