Reading as an activity is a much more nuanced and complicated process than it might seem at first glance. In addition to understanding the meaning of the narrative created by the author, readers also contextualize it and apply it to their cultures and perceptions. Furthermore, reading invites a range of opportunities for engaging emotionally in the story, thus, connecting with the author. In his “Letters to Friends, Family and Editors,” Franz Kafka ponders over the significance of reading and the overall role that it plays in people’s lives. Though the specified excerpt contains an array of themes to address, three core ones should be distinguished as the foundation on which the author sets his premise. Namely, the emotional rapport with the author, the opportunity for personal development, and the overall meaning of art should be regarded as the core themes in the specified excerpt. Due to multiple overlaps in the essential ideas and conclusions, the themes in question can be related to the ones introduced in Allende’s “Our Secret,” Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” and Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist.”
One of the main themes that leap out of the excerpt under analysis concerns the opportunity to build a rapport with authors and their ideas. Specifically, Kafka states explicitly that “we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us” (Kafka, n.d.). On the surface, the specified sentiment implies that audiences should engage only with the content that challenges them to a significant extent. However, on further speculation, one will have to admit that the specified assumption involves building a clear and strong rapport with the author of the book. Specifically, by reading the piece that challenges one’s philosophy and overall ideas on how the world should operate, one engages in the dialogue with the author, therefore, becoming an active participant of the discourse.
A similar concept is rendered in Allende’s “Our Secret.” Namely, the idea of developing a connection that is inherently flawed and even harmful to all those involved, yet is stubbornly supported and sustained as the means of building a semblance of a rapport, is rendered in the story. Specifically, the following sentiment is especially poignant and relevant to Kafka’s ideas expressed in the piece in question; “Her friend, he thought, not her lover, her friend, to share quiet moments, without demands or commitments” (Allende, 1991, p. 167). The despair that rings in the specified quote is paralleled to the need for a connection, unpleasant6 or even painful it might be, with the author and their experiences.
However, in the specified excerpt, Kafka does not limit himself to one theme. In addition to the concept of an emotional connection, he introduces the notion of change and the associated personal development as an inevitable part of one’s life. Namely, when explaining why people need books that enter their lives like a hurricane, Kafka explains that “we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply” (Kafka, n.d.). The specified statement could be interpreted as the desperate need to move forward and progress. Indeed, the urge to evolve is baked into the very core of the human nature, encouraging people to seek new experiences and environments to adjust to them.
However, in a range of cases, the specified change is a product of external forces, which another Kafka’s story exemplifies. Specifically, the concept of change is rendered perfectly in “Metamorphosis.” At first, the transformation into an insect terrifies the protagonist, yet in the middle of the second paragraph, he decides that his ordinary life with its troubles and turmoil can “all go to Hell!” (Kafka, 2005). The recognition and acceptance pf change as a likely unpleasant yet inevitable and, ultimately, necessary process is conveyed perfectly in this scene. Thus, the ideas in the excerpt under analysis intersect with the concept of change represented in “Transformation,” the latter providing a solution to the problem of adjusting to external change communicated in the excerpt from “Letters to Friends, Family and Editors.”
Finally, Kafka encourages the reader to ponder over the meaning of art itself in the specified piece. Specifically, he asks directly, “what are we reading it for?” (Kafka, n.d.). Though the author’s answer is quite clear and unambiguous, implying that reading is a crucial way of gaining experience and wisdom, the specified process could also be interpreted as exploring an art piece and, ultimately, immersing oneself into it. A similar concept is rendered in Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist”: “What comfort could he possibly need? What more could he possibly wish for?” (Kafka, 1922, p. 3). The specified sentiment allows questioning whether art can exist independently from its creator, and conveys clearly that it cannot exist without the audience.
Remarkably, both works recognizer the problematic aspect of the dialogue between the artist and the audience. Specifically, the lack of understanding in the latter and the challenge in discovering new means of self-expression in the latter creates premises for a conflict, both on the external level and internal one. While the former is represented by the loss of interest to the artist and art in the audience, the latter suggests exhaustion and loss of enthusiasm in the artist. The specified sentiment is communicated perfectly in “The Hunger Artist”: “His public pretended to admire him so much, why should it have so little patience with him; if he could endure fasting longer, why shouldn’t the public endure it?” (Kafka, 1922, p. 2). Moreover, the quote above exemplifies the connection between the two experiences, implying that the audience constitutes a crucial part of the experience of creating art.
Since the excerpt under analysis encourages the reader to speculate on the topics of the meaning of art, the unique path of personal progress, and the significance of building an emotional connection with the author of the message, the specified passage can be thematically related to Kafka’s “the Hunger Artist,” “Metamorphosis.,” and Allende’s “Our Secret.” The specified stories invite the reader to examine the broader implications of the issue at hand, therefore, introducing additional opportunities and solutions. However, at their core, the messages that the specified stories convey are inevitably linked to Kafka’s writing on the meaning of reading. Specifically, each of the stories under analysis conveys the importance of reading as an activity that advances both one’s personal development and one’s social skills. Remarkably, the stories in question do not imply that the changes occurring in an individual as a result of continuous reading and exploring other authors’ ideas will be irrefutably positive. Nonetheless, the significance of change compared to the state of emotional and intellectual stagnation is outlined in each story.
References
Allende, I. (1991). Our secret. In Stories of Eva Luna (pp. 165-169). Sudamericana.
Kafka, F. (2005). Transformation (D. Wyllie, Trans.). Project Gutenberg. Web.
Kafka, F. (1922). A hunger artist. Web.
Kafka, F. (n.d.). Kafka on Books and What Reading Does for the Human Spirit. The Marginalian. Web.