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are dreadful. But in Ka fk a's world the sacred does not ex ist, only
dread is left.
Ka fk a's life, a nd es pec ia ll y the las t ten years, mi ght be given the
Kierkegaardia n title
Sickness unto Death.
Fear and tremblin g can be
found on a lmos t every page of hi s di aries, letters, and stories. It is,
however , a different kind of fear and a different kind of trembling
than in Ki erkegaard.
As hi s di a ries show , Ka fka was scared to death of mice. When
he heard them squealing and sc ra tching, he would tremble and
become nauseous. The exampl e is vul gar. Nevertheless, in Ka fk a's
life, in almos t eve rything he wrote, horror is always phys ical, a lways
of the fl esh . Dread ,
horrendum, Angst- and
thi s is one of the
singul a riti es of Ka fka's writin g - always mean humili ati on and
shame, and a re often ridicul ous. As M ax Brod a ttes ts, Ka fk a roa red
with laughter when he read hi s work to hi s fri ends. The same has
been said of Gogol. But in Ka fk a, thi s Gogoli an "horrible laughter"
is even more horribl e.
When the a rti st in
A H unger Artist
is ca rried out of his cage after
many weeks of fas tin g, he whi spers diml y into the ear of the circus
ove rseer , "I have to fas t , I can't help it. .. . I couldn't find the food I
liked .
If
I had found it , bel ieve me, I should have made no fu ss a nd
stuffed myself like you or a nyone else ."
The canine na rra to r of
In vestigation oj a Dog
is upse t and
astonished tha t food some times is found on the ground , a nd
sometimes fa ll s from above into hi s mouth . H e dec ides to retire to a
secluded spo t a nd wa it fo r food from above. But no food fa ll s from
the sky.
In Ka fka's wo rld , the hungry awa it nouri shment from heaven .
Yet the image of thi s me ta phys ical hunge r is a hunge r arti st in a
circus cage, a nd a dog squa tting on his hind legs with hi s mouth
agape. In K afka's world there is no God and no biblical Abraham.
All tha t rema ins of Abraham is the eve rprese nt dreadful shadow of
the vindictive Father. 1 here is no Sina i and no mount of Mori ah ;
instead of the cho e n , the re a re onl y the sac rifi ced . From the biblical
arche
there rema ins onl y Isaac, but a n Isaac without God or
Abraham . Isaac is murde red with a knife thrust into hi s heart and
turned there twi ce. Thi s i why Ka fk a is often read as a
foreshadowing of the H olocaust.
"Someone must have traduced J oseph K ., for without hav ing
done anything wrong he was a rres ted one fine morning." He waited
in va in for the landl ady's cook to bring him breakfas t as usua l. Two
strange rs had ea ten it a nd entered hi s bedroom . Grego r Samsa also
