Sunday, November 8, 2015

Homage to Kafka's Metamorphosis

 


After reading a letter from Franz Kafka to his narcissist father here, I remembered the great impact reading his Metamorphosis  had on me when I was 17 years old. I even used it as the theme of an AP Art Studio final project. 





I have just read it again, in English this time. It's amazing how closely the idea of 'capture-bonding' links to the vermin I have been creating recently, see Los Bichos post.  Gregor is treated as the vermin, the 'problem child' of the family, and finally has evolved into the vermin, much to 'his shock and horror at being unrecognizable' (Ian Johnson translation).

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheueren Ungeziefer verwandelt”.  

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

I've been toying with vermin/beetle shell effects.