Letters to Felice

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Esta puja nunca cejará y ahondará el conflicto. Kafka, completamente fuera de control presionará con sus palabras una y otra vez a Felice quien por momentos no entiende cuál es el punto al que el escritor quiere llegar. Kafka ορισμένες φορές έχανε τον έλεγχο των συναισθημάτων του, στην προκειμένη περίπτωση είναι η επιτηδευμένη σοβαροφάνεια του εργασιακού του περιβάλλοντος αυτή που πυροδοτεί την έκρηξή του: Kafka resisted putting their epistolary relationship to the real-life test. After finally agreeing to meet Bauer, he sent a telegram in the morning saying he would not be coming, but went anyway – and remained sullen and withdrawn, later complaining that he had been hugely disappointed with the real Felice. Three decades have passed since Kafka's demise, and his standing in global literature continues to ascend. Did Bauer, toward the end of her life, wonder where her own letters to Kafka ended up? I actually think, counterintuitively, Kafka would make an excellent partner. He gives great credit to Felice's intelligence, wit, and education, and above all else sees her as an equal in every way (and bear in mind, these letters were written in the early 1910s, where that certainly wasn't a default). He's constantly concerned with her well-being and places her happiness above his at all times.

He's also somewhat less depressive than you'd guess from some of his writing. You could, on its face, easily interpret his writing as that of a highly depressed, maybe even suicidal man, but the reality, as revealed by these letters, is that he wrote such grim stories with a kind of excited zeal (he enthusiastically refers to his Metamorphosis as "this exceptionally repulsive story"). He's more Addams Family than Sylvia Plath. in any case, what business have my hands to write letters if all they are made for and all they want is to hold you ! (Olivie Blake has a quote like this in "Alone w you in the ether", she thought I wouldn't notice, but I did girl!! Kafka fans, let me hear you)

Why try to change people, Felice? It is not right. One has either to take people as they are, or leave them as they are. One cannot change them, one can merely disturb their balance."

These letters give you a little more insight to the man behind the mad genius. Maybe even more so than his private journals, which tend to swerve between mundane recitings of his day and outright kooky insane quips. Kafka με τη Felice Bauer με βοήθησε ιδιαίτερα στο να κατανοήσω τις ιδέες αλλά και τις εμμονές που βρίσκονται μέσα στο λογοτεχνικό του έργο. Και στην περίπτωση αυτή, όπως και στις άλλες συλλογές επιστολών του, οι απαντήσεις της Felice δεν σώζονται. Αν έπρεπε να απαντήσω στην ερώτηση για το κατά πόσο ο Kafka προσπάθησε να δημιουργήσει μια παρασιτική σχέση εις βάρος της νεαρής αρραβωνιαστικιάς του, νομίζω πως θα έπρεπε να πω πως, ναι, αυτό ισχύει. Το ήξερε πως για εκείνον το να την κόψει και να την ράψει στα δικά του μέτρα ήταν θέμα επιβίωσης και δεν έπαψε να βασανίζεται από ενοχές γι' αυτήν του ανάγκη. The letters offer an insight into Kafka’s genius and are reflective of his works, often filled with paranoia, nervousness, and feelings of isolation. There is a lot of emotion there as well – passion, a need to be loved, jealousy. Here’s an example, “I am jealous of all the people in your letter, those named and those unnamed, men and girls, business people and writers…”

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Kafka, along with Rilke (I love me a good turn-of-the-century German), was the first "serious" writer I fell in love with (though for the record you'll never see me denigrating a good YA, fantasy, or sci-fi). I came across A Hunger Artist when I was about 10 or 11, and I was captivated. He gets it I thought-- he puts into words what I feel but can't explain! Along with In the Penal Colony I still think Hunger Artist is the greatest short story ever written. Gregor has significantly weakened by the final chapter of the novella. His family sinks deeper into despair; his father wears his uniform constantly, ready to go to work at any given moment, while his mother has to sew clothes, and his sister works as a sales clerk. The family begins to sell off their valuables to supplement their meager incomes. They even want to move to a smaller, cheaper apartment, but they cannot think about relocating Gregor. The discomfort of this wildly disorienting bidirectional pull is what 29-year-old Franz Kafka articulated in a beautiful and heartbreaking letter to Felice Bauer, a marketing rep for a dictation machine company whom the young author had met at the home of his friend and future biographer Max Brod in August of 1912. Young Franz and Felice immediately began a correspondence of escalating intensity, with Kafka frequently exasperated — as was Vladimir Nabokov at the start of his lifelong romance with Véra— over his beloved’s infrequent and insufficiently romantic response. Over the five-year course of their turbulent, mostly epistolary relationship, they were engaged twice, even though they met in person only a few times. During that period, Kafka produced his most significant work, including The Metamorphosis. Five hundred of his letters survive and were posthumously published in the intensely rewarding and revelatory Letters to Felice ( public library). Milena was an aspiring journalist at twenty-three when she reached out to Kafka, a thirty-seven-year-old writer who was primarily unknown, asking for permission to translate his short story, the Stoker. She would become the first translator of several of Kafka's short stories into Czech, including The Judgment, Metamorphosis, and Contemplation.

Tal vez, ambos fueron arrastrados bajo el influjo de esa famosa frase de Franz que dice "A partir de determinado punto no hay retorno. Ese es el punto que hay que alcanzar." Kafka αναφέρεται αδιάκοπα και φαίνεται πως αισθανόταν πως υπήρχαν δυνάμεις που του υπαγόρευαν τα όσα έγραφε. Δεν ξέρω αν όλα αυτά τα εννοούσε συμβολικά ή αν πίστευε πως υπάρχουν ως ανεξάρτητες οντότητες, κάτι παρόμοιο με τους μεσαιωνικούς δαίμονες. Άλλωστε η ιδέα που έχει για τον εσωτερικό Πύργο της Βαβέλ του υποδεικνύει πως το ίδιο γεγονός μπορεί να ερμηνευθεί με διαφορετικούς τρόπους, μπορεί να υπάρχει σε διαφορετικά επίπεδα και να παίρνει την ανάλογη μορφή. Sin darse cuenta al principio no nota que hay una dama sentada allí. Viene de Berlín y se llama Felice Bauer. Se produce así el primer encuentro entre Franz y una mujer que lo llevará hasta los rincones más recónditos del amor. Para que lo sepas, mi amor, pienso en ti con tanto amor y devoción como si Dios te hubiera confiado a mí con las más inequívocas palabras." After Gregor sleeps for several hours, his sister, Grete, tries to bring him one of his favorite foods. He finds he no longer has an appetite for foods he once loved; he is more attracted to rotting food. Grete carefully handles any dishes she brings to or takes from Gregor’s room.

Erratic letters

El la ama, se siente completamente absorbido por la relación y está a sus pies, pero rehúye constantemente a la posibilidad de casarse y es lógico, ya que su único propósito es escribir: "Mi empleo me resulta insoportable porque contradice mi único anhelo y mi única vocación que es la literatura, dado que no soy nada más que literatura y no puedo ni quiero ser otra cosa". La relación epistolar será una necesidad, una dependencia emocional muy fuerte, un amor extraño y controvertido entre ambos, pero principalmente para Kafka que entrará en un torbellino de pasiones que le deparará su corazón, el cual lucha con su necesidad de establecerse definitivamente como escritor. Milena Jesenská, Πράγα, τέλη Μαρτίου 1922, συνδέει τα φαντάσματα - δαίμονες με την επιστολογραφία και κατ' επέκταση με όλες αυτές τις χάρτινες σχέσεις τις οποίες αδυνατούσε να διαχειριστεί στον πραγματικό κόσμο (αυτόν τον οποίο αντιπροσωπεύει η Felice): This is a book of love letters sent by Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer between 1912-1917, the woman he was engaged to marry several times. A prolific letter writer, sometimes Kafka would write her twice a day. The following is a line from one of his more famous letters to her and it’s quite intense:

Todo lo que escribía era de calidad, poderoso e inigualable y si tenemos en cuenta que ponía su corazón en ello, todo adquiere un relieve aún más hermoso. Kafka first studied chemistry at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague but after two weeks switched to law. This study offered a range of career possibilities, which pleased his father, and required a longer course of study that gave Kafka time to take classes in German studies and art history. At the university, he joined a student club, named Lese- und Redehalle der Deutschen Studenten, which organized literary events, readings, and other activities. In the end of his first year of studies, he met Max Brod, a close friend of his throughout his life, together with the journalist Felix Weltsch, who also studied law. Kafka obtained the degree of doctor of law on 18 June 1906 and performed an obligatory year of unpaid service as law clerk for the civil and criminal courts. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-09-13 19:06:26 Associated-names Bauer, Felice, 1887-1960 Autocrop_version 0.0.14_books-20220331-0.2 Bookplateleaf 0006 Boxid IA40688106 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier lodgers rents a room in the apartment, and though it is the Samsa household, the family retreats to the kitchen for meals and allows the men the run of the house. When Grete plays violin one evening, and Gregor is drawn to the music, the lodgers spot him for the first time. They refuse to pay any rent and threaten to press charges against Mr. Samsa. Prague-born writer Franz Kafka wrote in German, and his stories, such as " The Metamorphosis" (1916), and posthumously published novels, including The Trial (1925), concern troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal world.

Curious contradictions

News of Bauer's marriage reached Kafka through his correspondence with a second lover, Milena, whose letters to Kafka have also been lost to history. An emaciated figure Bauer emerges as an unassuming woman from Berlin with aspirations of marriage and family. However, places his writing as a barrier between them – betraying her through his literary pursuits. As for Bauer, she couldn't fathom this peculiar form of treachery. Curious contradictions Por otro lado, la idea de convivir con una esposa lo aterra. Íntimamente ella lo sabe y seguramente se habrá dado cuenta que nunca iba a funcionar. Es claro, ella quiere vivir con él en Berlín mientras que él prefiere establecerse en Praga y vivir de la literatura. Es más, juntos averiguan distintos apartamentos y casas para alquilar pero nunca llegan a zanjar la cuestión. Though his family cannot understand his voice, Gregor can hear all of their conversations. He learns that they have some money left in what they had saved after Mr. Samsa’s business went bankrupt. However, they do not want to dig into those funds yet, and they wouldn’t last very long. This revelation causes Gregor to feel guilty and ashamed, particularly at the idea that his mother and sister may have to find work. Milena Jesenka was born in Prague in 1896. Her father was a dental surgeon and professor at Charles University in Prague; She studied at Minerva, the first academic gymnasium for girls in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After graduation, she enrolled briefly at the Prague Conservatory and the Faculty of Medicine but abandoned her studies after two semesters.