Another joke that may work only in my head, in reference to Kafka’s day job at an insurance agency. I like to think it was a wacky workplace where sitcom-worthy situations arose regularly, but I don’t think Czech insurance offices[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged literature
I don’t quite know why I find the phrase he’s not strong so delightful. Partially it’s the recollection of the episode of Ren and Stimpy in which Stimpy piously asks God to “please watch out for my best pal, Ren.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
So far I’ve mostly drawn Kafka looking alarmed or terrified or otherwise incapable of dealing with human existence, but he was a funny guy too — you can’t be all that serious when you’re writing a story about a guy[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It Can’t Happen Here, his 1935 dystopian vision of an America dragged into fascism by its unfit president, is the current bestseller, but most of Lewis’s books portray the American character in ways that are still relevant about a hundred[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I hope you enjoyed your Purim, Small Peculiarteers! Remember that it commemorates the events in the book of Esther, the only book of the Bible that makes no explicit reference to God. I think it was God’s way of showing[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
By James Stephens, circa 1916. Versions vary slightly in punctuation; this text is taken from The New Poetry: An Anthology, eds. Harriet Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson, 1917.
Am I making a dumb joke or some kind of statement or do I just like the word hidalgo? It’s mostly the last one.
These days, of course, Germany is very proud of Kafka, even though he was Czech. I’m told he is often praised for the “purity” of his German. Awkwaaaaard.
War in Heaven, Day Two
Satan invents the gun, the loyal angels respond by ripping up hills and throwing them. I think it’s clear who has the brains in this war.