Vladimir Nabokov
FRANZ KAFKA (1883-1924)
Of course, no matter how keenly, how admirably, a story, a
piece of music, a picture is discussed and analyzed, there will be minds
that remain blank and spines that remain unkindled. "To take upon us
the mystery of things" -what King Lear so wistfully says for himself
and for Cordelia-this is also my suggestion for everyone who takes art
seriously. A poor man is robbed of his overcoat (Gogol's "The
Greatcoat, " or more correctly "The Carrick"); another poor fellow is
turned into a beetle (Kafka's "The Metamorphosis")-so what? There
is no rational answer
to
"so what." We can take the story apart, we can
find out how the bits fit, how one part of the pattern responds to the
other; but you have
to
have in you some cell, some gene, some germ
that will vibrate in answer to sensations that you can neither define,
nor dismiss.
Beauty plus pity-that
is the closest we can get
to
a
definition of art. Where there is beauty there is pity for the simple
reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the manner dies with
the matter, the world dies with the individual.
If
Kafka 's "The
Metamorphosis" strikes anyone as something more than an entomo–
logical fantasy , then I congratulate him on having joined the ranks of
good and great readers.
I want
to
discu ss fantasy and reality, and their mutual relation–
ship.
If
we consider the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. H yde" story as an
allegory-the struggle between Good and Evil within every man-then
this allegory is tasteless and childish. To the type of mind that would
see an allegory here, its shadow play would also postulate physical
happenings which common sense knows to be impossible; but actually
in the setting of the story, as viewed by a commonsensical mind,
This essay is excerpted from
Lectures on Literature
by Vladimir Nabokov, edited by
Fredson Bowers. To
be
published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/ Bruccoli Clark.
Copyright
©
1980 by T he Estate of Vladimir Nabokov. Quoted material from "The
Metamorphosis" is reprinted by permission of Schocken Books, Inc. from
The Penal
Colony
by Franz Kafka. Copyright
©
1948 by Schocken Books, Inc. Copyright renewed
©
1975 by Schocken Books, Inc.
