The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka - Episode #3 - The lessons on becoming an isolated insect.

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka - Episode #3 - The lessons on becoming an isolated insect. Hi, I’m Christy Shriver. And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to love lit Podcast.  Thanks for being with us. If you’re enjoying our podcast please tell a friend! This is our third and final week to be discussing Kafka’s popular novella The Metamorphosis. In episode one, we looked at the author’s life, his difficult relationship with his abusive father, and the context of the turn of the century to somewhat situate ourselves in Kafka’s world.  We also took a look at the title and the first line of the story, trying to navigate the German, albeit poorly, but one of the main takeaways that we want to keep in mind from that discussion is the idea that Kafka is writing a story about a person who has changed into a vermin, a dirty bug unfit not even for human sacrifice. Great point to have in mind as we continue to the end of the book.  By way of one interesting little anecdote about Kafka’s life and that word vermin in regard to his father- now, lots and lots has been written and many people ask about Kafka’s Jewishness and how much of his writing is about his experiences as a Jew- especially knowing what we know about the coming holocaust, I don’t think it is necessarily interesting for us to discuss, except for this one story- so Franz had made friends with these Eastern European Jews who were poor and he was hanging out with them about the time he was writing this book.  Hermann Kafka did not like Franz hanging out with them and actually used the word “vermin” to describes these people who he found to be unacceptable and beneath kafka’s station.  There is speculation that this personal interaction is where he got the name, but I’m not sure anyone knows for absolutely sure.  We know the Nazis used it in reference to Jews later, but I couldn’t any direct connection in that regard, although I stand to be corrected if there’s one I don’t know about.  Last week, we turned to philosophy and kind of looked at this book, as you called it, through the lens of the existential world view.  We talked about how the core value of existentialism is human agency and the importance of taking personal responsibility for one’s life looking at everything through the lens of choice.  And, Christy, it was obvious, at least to me, that as an expression of existentialism, you found Gregor to be lacking.  Indeed, I do find him lacking.  He is passive about his own life.  He’s always been passive about his own life.  As you said, in his mind, he seems to justify this in his own mind by viewing this irresponsibility as being willing to take responsibility for every one else in the world, and perhaps there is good in that, but yet he refuses to take any responsibility for his own self.  He  finds ways to justify in his own mind this refusal to assume agency- and even sees it as a noble or as a good thing to do for others but not himself – as a reader, we can clearly see this perspective as confining to his personal growth- it’s expressed as claustrophobic- like being locked up and it breeds despair and what ultimately is killing him really. True- and this is where so many of us can relate.  When we look at Gregor’s transformation into a bug and how repulsive he is- it’s easy for many of us to see ourselves.  To say- Holy CRAP- this is my life.  I’ve been a bug.  I AM a bug!  I’m letting other people make decisions for me that I should be making.  I’m making excuses for my own inaction or using my personal power.   Or, maybe it’s just easier to be a martyr in our own minds and serve other people than to figure out what we want for ourselves- questions that are actually harder than you would think.  Gregor seems to never ask these kinds of questions.  And what you find out- after you have turned yourself into a bug is that you absolutely do NOT get what you thought you would- this kind of living is actually repulsive to others and it doesn’t get for us the meaning in life we think it might.  But the other way doesn’t work all that well either- because living selfishly- which is what bug life primarily leads to- isn’t all that great either.  Gregor clearly valued his family.  He clearly loved his family.  He was sacrificing his whole life for his family, but he did not demand reciprocity of respect from them for whatever reason- and so they didn’t give it to him- not even before physically turning into a bug and definitely not after.  The relationships in this family were never truly healthy to begin with, and what we see develop into the second and third parts of the book- are larger and larger illustrations of isolation and alienation which ultimately overwhelm Gregor. Indeed- before we move on through the rest of the book, I did want to revisit one more important take away from last week and this is what Kierkegaard calls negative independence- the idea that if you are trapped in a situation like what we’ve be