Kafkaesque

Freakscene

Freakscene

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Kafkaesque [kafkə(r)ˈɛsk] adjective
1. characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.
2. Like the world Kafka invented; recognisable but unreal, precisely detailed and dreamlike

Post your Kafkaesque photos here.

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“Fotografieren? Das ist wirklich ziemlich unheimlich*. Und Sie vergrößern sie auch!” / “Taking photographs? That’s really rather unsettling. And you enlarge them too!”
Kafka to Friedrich Thieberger

*Edit: this is one reason that Kafka is very difficult to translate. In this context for unheimlich, 'creepy' is too simple, 'uncanny' is probably closest but it sounds wrong, unsettling is ok but lacks the emphasis of strangeness. It is unheimlich, but what exactly that works out to in English is hard. And saying 'strangely unsettling' is closest, but then you've made one word into two and wrecked the cadence of the sentence. Kafka is Kafka.
 
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Freakscene said:
Kafkaesque [kafkə(r)ˈɛsk] adjective
1. characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.
2. Like the world Kafka invented; recognisable but unreal, precisely detailed and dreamlike

Post your Kafkaesque photos here.

View attachment 4847819

View attachment 4847820

“Fotografieren? Das ist wirklich ziemlich unheimlich. Und Sie vergrößern sie auch!” / “Taking photographs? That’s really rather unsettling. And you enlarge them too!”
Kafka to Friedrich Thieberger
Click to expand...

Surreal, the unreal reality of a dream.
 
Freakscene said:
Kafkaesque [kafkə(r)ˈɛsk] adjective
1. characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.
2. Like the world Kafka invented; recognisable but unreal, precisely detailed and dreamlike

Post your Kafkaesque photos here.

View attachment 4847819

View attachment 4847820

“Fotografieren? Das ist wirklich ziemlich unheimlich*. Und Sie vergrößern sie auch!” / “Taking photographs? That’s really rather unsettling. And you enlarge them too!”
Kafka to Friedrich Thieberger

*Edit: this is one reason that Kafka is very difficult to translate. In this context for unheimlich, 'creepy' is too simple, 'uncanny' is probably closest but it sounds wrong, unsettling is ok but lacks the emphasis of strangeness. It is unheimlich, but what exactly that works out to in English is hard. And saying 'strangely unsettling' is closest, but then you've made one word into two and wrecked the cadence of the sentence. Kafka is Kafka.
Click to expand...

Thanks for initiating the thread. Kafka ist unmöglich auf Englisch. We can get close but never quite there. It is like what Oma said about gemütlich. You can say what it is not but can never quite what it is in English. You are lucky to have read him in the original.
 
An underestimated film from the ‘90s Una Pura Formalita (A Pure Formality) had many Kafkaesque resonances. But my wife and I saw it exhausted after a long day. We returned home to our wonderful intelligent babysitter, with same name as our daughter. She was most interested to hear about the film and gently enlightened us about what it all meant. I sat back, relaxed. I then put a proposal to A. She should come in a fortnight and we’d pay her the same rate, but we’d mind the child and she should go to the cinema.
 
boojum said:
Thanks for initiating the thread. Kafka ist unmöglich auf Englisch. We can get close but never quite there. It is like what Oma said about gemütlich. You can say what it is not but can never quite what it is in English. You are lucky to have read him in the original.
Click to expand...
Of course, mental images depend on vocabulary, words depend on language. Native speakers of different languages think differently - this has always been the case and will be the case.and this is wonderful.
 
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