/lit/ - Literature

Sorry Sunhawk, but you are retarded. I suggest you stick to reading YA fiction until you can handle real books.

Who gives a shit if some of his paragraphs are short and some are long?

And I guess I can see why the dialogue thing would bug you, but it's still really minor.

Maybe it's a German thing. I remember reading somewhere (I think it was a note on a Hesse translation) that Germans write long fucking sentences.

>>1740680

I haven't read a YA book since I was 16, thank you.

>>1740683

One of the reasons paragraphs exist, is to make things more readable. The white indentations provide points of reference on the page. Without them, reading is (unnecesarily) difficult. Why would someone not use them?

Having said that, I jsut finished By Night In Chile, which is one paragraph over 150 pages.

You just mad cos he STYLIN' on ya.

>>1741231
Molloy has this real nice 90 page paragraph. I think Kafka does it to add to the whole nightmare-like atmosphere he's got going on.

Kafka often made extensive use of a characteristic peculiar to the German language allowing for long sentences that sometimes can span an entire page. Kafka's sentences then deliver an unexpected impact just before the full stop—that being the finalizing meaning and focus. This is achieved due to the construction of certain sentences in German which require that the verb be positioned at the end of the sentence. Such constructions are difficult to duplicate in English, so it is up to the resourceful translator to provide the reader with the same (or at least equivalent) effect found in the original text.[28]
Another virtually insurmountable problem facing translators is how to deal with the author's intentional use of ambiguous terms and of words that have several meanings. One such instance is found in the first sentence of The Metamorphosis. English translators have often sought to render the word Ungeziefer as "insect"; in Middle German, however, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice"[29] and is sometimes used colloquially to mean "bug" – a very general term, unlike the scientific sounding "insect". Kafka had no intention of labeling Gregor, the protagonist of the story, as any specific thing, but instead wanted to convey Gregor's disgust at his transformation. Another example is Kafka's use of the German noun Verkehr in the final sentence of The Judgment. Literally, Verkehr means intercourse and, as in English, can have either a sexual or non-sexual meaning; in addition, it is used to mean transport or traffic. The sentence can be translated as: "At that moment an unending stream of traffic crossed over the bridge."[30] What gives added weight to the obvious double meaning of 'Verkehr' is Kafka's confession to Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of "a violent ejaculation".

tripfags dun goofed

Well his texts were never suppose to be published, so I don't think he tried to make anything easier to read.

Aside from that, I think the way The Trial was written is awesome. It is indeed hard to read, claustrophobic and all, which combined with the book itself.

Read the Pentateuch and come back. At least read the book of Job.

Anyone who thinks Kafka is a hard read is mentally disabled. He's one of the most accessible and compulsively readable writers in the canon. It's not often you can have a work be deep and readable at the same time.

I'm pretty sure you made a thread a while back anonymously, crying about how you can't read Kafka and we all laughed at you. Time for round 2.

>>1741242
About the long sentences, this post is the answer. Perhaps his long paragraphs are just a consequence of his use of long sentences?

I loved Metamorphosis, but gave up about a third of the way through on both The Trial and The Castle. I just found the writing style so dry. Perhaps it was the translations, but I don't think so. They were so emotionless and I imagine deliberately so. I enjoyed the situations - I even found a kind of humour in them - but those long sentences, long paragraphs and that dry prose made it feel a bit like being one of his characters battling his way through endless legal documents.

>>1741231

The, sometimes, your questions of yours are better, to read, if they (you) know how to use the comma(s).

moronic tripfag to block #9001
Sunhawk

Good day, sirs

If it makes people feel any better (it won't), I've read 2 and 3 quarters of Kafka's books, so I'm giving him a 'proper try'. Hey, you've got to give me credit for that. I didn't enjoy The Trial much, but I still read America (which was better), and am reading The Castle on and off.

I honestly don't understand why this board gets so hostile towards people who don't agree with it. I mean, I dislike Kafka and Pynchon, which people here like; I like Franzen and Atwood, which people here don't like. Big deal. At least I'm reading books, which is more than we can say for most people we pass in the street. Can we have solidarity on this?

Kafka AGAIN? Does this board only talk about 10 authors in constant rotation?

Seriously, every day it's the same books, same authors, same debates...is everyone under 20? I'm not saying we have to talk about obscure stuff but good God.

>>1740680
>>1741287
>>1741263
What's with all the insults about finding Kafka hard going? Honestly, such snobbery in this thread. This board disgusts me at times.

>>1741239
That's easily the longest paragraph I've read. It was in a way easier to read, since you more or less choose yourself which sentence to stop at, rather than doing it in places chosen by the author. Kafka is such that you might be ready to stop reading, but the paragraph length gives you a chunk more reading than you were expecting. I can see the argument that it adds to the nightmare atmosphere.

Also >>1740680 is fucking immature.

>>1741300
We definitely have solidarity, it's just that this thread has a high concentration of cunt.

>>1741309

I try not to be a cunt. Too much, you know? Sometimes it helps.

> kafka
> hard
> long paragraphs

lol, sure is little baby in here

what does /lit/ think of sikhism? seems like a pretty bro tier religion:

you can eat whatever you want, and meat is usually "jhatka" meaning decapitated in one stroke to reduce to animal's suffering

there is no heaven or hell, but instead sihkism focuses on union with god while living

you should carry a small sword to defend yourself

there is no priest class

superstitions are frowned upon and all things related to spirituality should serve a practical purpose

while homosexuality is generally discouraged by the majority, the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book) doesn't say anything about it and some progressive sikhs don't give a shit about gays

really the only shitty things I can see are a) the demographic, b) god isn't real*, and c) intoxication is forbidden, but this is because the gurus say that you should have a clear mind at all times

Long paragraphs are the least of your worries when it comes to 'difficult' reading.

Just got a large print book, you'll get all the space you want between your words, faggot.

Just imagine how much this fag will be whining when he reads Faulkner.

>>1741242
that's very feelsbadman. now if I ever pick up any more kafka all i will be able to think of will be that the german version is better.

goddamnit.

and

>kafka hard to read
>dissapointed joyce.jpg

>>1741520

>doesn't like long paragraphs

Hey Sunny I think you should look into some Proust bro. (tee hee!)

pic related it's sunhawk.