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December 22, 2008

Jean-Michel Folon's Metamorphosis

This post now resides on my other site 50 Watts:

6 comments:

  1. Wow, those are some great illustrations--and I say that despite The Metamorphosis being one of my least-favorite Kafka stories.

    And yes, your Kafka fandom is obvious. You needn't have worried.

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  2. Levi, I just added this to the post, something I've been meaning to mention for awhile:

    In his introduction to Penguin's 2007 Metamorphosis and Other Stories, translator Michael Hofmann writes of "Kafka's suggestion as to how his story might be illustrated, if it had to be illustrated -- not, pace Nabokov, with an entomologically or coleopterically correct beetle... but with a picture of a man lying in bed."

    I haven't read "The Metamorphosis" in a long time -- I'm interested to read it again with "Kafka's illustration" in my head!

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  3. hey will, i've never been much of a folon fan, no idea why not but so it goes with gut feelings, but these images are incredible! i would imagine a love of kafka is shared by most of your readers. he's become in spite of himself perhaps the most visible sun that all these planets of wonderful writers hover around in terms of what little the rest of teh world knows of this literary universe we readers (and book cover covet-ers) inhabit. great stuff as always, happy holidays,
    steve

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  4. I've been enjoying reading your blog. If you are a Kafka fan, you need to dip into "Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life" a fascinating study of the man and the life behind the stories.

    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=19079807

    ~Lydia

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  5. Beautiful pictures. The combination of Kafka and Michael Hofmann is too much to resist: I read anything he translates, because it's always great stuff.

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  6. --Perhaps this is painfully obvious.--

    Not painful, just obvious and thankfully so.

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