I second the above comments, as always. You probably know this, and maybe Hofmann mentions it, I don’t know:
When 'The Metamorphosis' was to be published as a book in 1915, Kafka, fearful that the cover illustrator 'might want to draw the insect itself', wrote the publisher, 'Not that, please not that! ... The insect itself cannot be depicted. It cannot even be shown from a distance.' He suggested instead a scene of the family in the apartment with a locked door, or a door open and giving on darkness. Any theatrical or cinematic version of the story must founder on this point of external representation: a concrete image of the insect would be too distracting and shut off sympathy; such a version would lack the very heart of comedy and pathos which beats in the unsteady area between objective and subjective, where Gregor’s insect and human selves swayingly struggle.
(From John Updike’s introduction to the Schocken Books edition of The Complete Stories.)
I'm trying to track down an illo from many years ago that I'm pretty sure was his: a tightrope walker with a pen, walking on the line he was drawing. Not his tightrope album cover, this was a pen & ink sketch. I can't remember where I saw it, but the concept so perfectly captured the uncertainties of an artist's life, I've never forgotten that image... maybe you can help me rediscover the source? I'd be deeply grateful.
In-cred-i-ble.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these
amazing stuff as usual
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work
I second the above comments, as always. You probably know this, and maybe Hofmann mentions it, I don’t know:
ReplyDeleteWhen 'The Metamorphosis' was to be published as a book in 1915, Kafka, fearful that the cover illustrator 'might want to draw the insect itself', wrote the publisher, 'Not that, please not that! ... The insect itself cannot be depicted. It cannot even be shown from a distance.' He suggested instead a scene of the family in the apartment with a locked door, or a door open and giving on darkness. Any theatrical or cinematic version of the story must founder on this point of external representation: a concrete image of the insect would be too distracting and shut off sympathy; such a version would lack the very heart of comedy and pathos which beats in the unsteady area between objective and subjective, where Gregor’s insect and human selves swayingly struggle.
(From John Updike’s introduction to the Schocken Books edition of The Complete Stories.)
this blog is a real find! Thanks for collecting so much excellent yet somehow over-looked art! It's a feast for my brain!
ReplyDeleteHofmann's comment about Met. in the intro to that collection blew my mind when I first read it.
ReplyDeletethank you all.
ReplyDeletenotesfromaroom, a special thank you for the quote.
It doesn't sound like Kafka was thinking of a coleopterically correct beetle.
you can definitely tell this was done in the 70's
ReplyDeleteHow can you not love Folon??
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to track down an illo from many years ago that I'm pretty sure was his: a tightrope walker with a pen, walking on the line he was drawing. Not his tightrope album cover, this was a pen & ink sketch. I can't remember where I saw it, but the concept so perfectly captured the uncertainties of an artist's life, I've never forgotten that image... maybe you can help me rediscover the source? I'd be deeply grateful.
I'll see if I can figure it out!
ReplyDelete