Today’s thoughts brought me to Kafka’s Hunger Artist. My vision of him in his straw laden cage there to prove something. The something was his art. As you may have guessed, as an attraction he starved himself for profit.
Although there was something to be viewed of his person and reading how many days he had gone without sustenance, after awhile he mattered not to others as to how long he would last. People tired of the show. Perhaps to test his own endurance, he held steadfast to his art until the point came to which the cage was barren save for the straw. He was forgotten about and replaced by a panther. Had his bones been so small that recognition was not had?
Then again where is the recognition in The Metamorphosis? Kafka dreams up a tranquil man who lives an ordinary life until he starts to morph into a bug. Will his family recognize him for who he is or will they kill him?
An interesting note is that neither The Hunger Artist nor the Metamorphosis left their containers (cage/room), yet within, they were altered. One to nothingness and another from needed and useful to a monster. Granted one chose the alteration, however, the other did not. Can it be said that both scenarios can in fact happen even if not to the same degree nor the same exact reel?
My real is reel to reel and is running in my head.
Come friends! Let’s drink a cask. Amontillado shall not seal you behind the wall. Perhaps it is a spin of Iago that needles your mind. Will Mercutio frolic and die at the hand of another only to be followed by Romeo from the hand of self? Margery, did you not see your place in history? Why did you write so ignorantly whilst so much was happening in your time? Fainne I cried for you when you could not! Then again, perhaps Arthur would have been a happy goose.
Literature and history...all finely written awaiting the reader to bring it all to life. The grand feel of being the character but for an instance. ~ Arachne sometime in 2008.
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