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Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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Symbolic Literary Metaphysical Philosophical Qualities of Paperclips and Also an Unrelated Picture of Kafka-Inspired Art
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Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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Quit your dayjob now
What's the deeper artistic symbolism of this statement and how can I use its themes in a short story?
Spoiler :
What's the deeper artistic symbolism of this statement and how can I use its themes in a short story?
Many complain that the words of the wise are always merely parables and of no use in daily life, which is the only life we have. When the sage says: "Go over," he does not mean that we should cross over to some actual place, which we could do anyhow if the labor were worth it; he means some fabulous yonder, something unknown to us, something too that he cannot designate more precisely, and therefore cannot help us here in the very least. All these parables really set out to say merely that the incomprehensible is incomprehensible, and we know that already. But the cares we have to struggle with every day: that is a different matter.
Concerning this a man once said: Why such reluctance? If you only followed the parables you yourselves would become parables and with that rid yourself of all your daily cares.
Another said: I bet that is also a parable.
The first said: You have won.
The second said: But unfortunately only in parable.
The first said: No, in reality: in parable you have lost.
AdamCrock
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If You saw a penis that must have been "Metaphysical Extrapolation of Ziggy Freud Subconscience Thinking over a Kafka-induced Art"
But that's Darwin.
Terxpahseyton
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I disagree with this (assuming I understood the dialogue correctly, which I am not sure of).
Wisdom is abstraction. But as soon as we emotionally attach ourselves to something concrete, we abstract in the process anyway, don't we? So there is some concrete truth to the idea of living a parable I believe.
edit: Okay I am really confused by the dialogue.
It is one of the very rare cases where Kafka actually produces a story which is clearly (non-allegorically) about the examination of a mental state, in this case that of parabolic thought as opposed to thought centered on a 'reality'.
The piece can have many meanings, i am sure. In my view (my own translation of it anyway) it refers primarily to the non-breeched gap between parable and "reality", which remains open even if one tries to examine the parable. The person makes a (possibly) lighthearted comment on the parable, but later on is told that he was mistaken to think that he won in regards to the parable anyway, for he only further distanced himself from the parabolic thought, so in a sense he "lost in parable".
Terxpahseyton
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I really see no sense in that dialogue then beyond a trivial one. 
But perhaps it is a personal thing of Kafka and can only show its sense in the context of his work/life/thoughts.
But perhaps it is a personal thing of Kafka and can only show its sense in the context of his work/life/thoughts.Depends on what you mean, although i did like your own account of what it could have been about.
I think Kafka meant to note that a parable is not just a different way of speaking of 'reality', but something seperated from it with chasms so deep and ominous that the "sage" cannot really help even himself navigate through them, let alone communicate effectively what he meant to someone else.
But indeed i would tend to view the piece in connection with the rest of his work.
*
Around the same time (well, a decade later) Pessoa was writing a pretty similar note, that the writer can only speak in terms of metaphor when he wants to try to convey a deeper mental experience, cause the metaphor will have some element of common understanding, but at the same time it will not be close to the actual experience to be conveyed anyway.
I think Kafka meant to note that a parable is not just a different way of speaking of 'reality', but something seperated from it with chasms so deep and ominous that the "sage" cannot really help even himself navigate through them, let alone communicate effectively what he meant to someone else.
But indeed i would tend to view the piece in connection with the rest of his work.
*
Around the same time (well, a decade later) Pessoa was writing a pretty similar note, that the writer can only speak in terms of metaphor when he wants to try to convey a deeper mental experience, cause the metaphor will have some element of common understanding, but at the same time it will not be close to the actual experience to be conveyed anyway.
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Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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