17 votes

Books Kafka would be proud of

Kafka once wrote in a letter that he thought we ought to read only the books that wound or stab us. The quote is longer (because it's German), but I think we all get the drift.

This thread was inspired by a question that @scituselectrum asked me in the last book-reading thread: what books have you read that have allowed you to see the world in a new light? Put in Kafka-esque terms, what books have impacted you like a disaster and acted as an axe for the frozen sea within you?

I thought it was such a good question that I wanted to know other answers. Maybe add some reading to my already intimidating list.

9 comments

  1. [4]
    nacho
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    For me, reading history, especially first hand accounts from those who lived through special events have been very impactful. Sadly, a lot of those stories are only available in their native...

    For me, reading history, especially first hand accounts from those who lived through special events have been very impactful. Sadly, a lot of those stories are only available in their native languages, few are translated; none of my favorites are available in English.

    Freakonomics gives an interesting perspective on how things are interconnected in non-obvious ways.

    Command and Control by Eric Schlosser gives an absolutely haunting retelling of the security surrounding nuclear weapons.

    In fiction, just to mention a couple of works, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys really gives an interesting refocusing of the classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. When we read classics, whose story are we really reading? What about other groups of people who weren't afforded voices in the 19th and early 20th centuries?

    The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin gives a real science fiction feel with a great premise, and also with a Chinese cultural outset. Riveting, even in translation.

    6 votes
    1. [3]
      Cirrus
      Link Parent
      I had some friends try to convince me to read the Three-Body Problem, but I could not for the life of me get interested in it. I have seen some hours long summary of the entire series, and it...

      I had some friends try to convince me to read the Three-Body Problem, but I could not for the life of me get interested in it. I have seen some hours long summary of the entire series, and it seems like a pretty deep sci-fi epic. The scientific ideas put out were mind blowing, though I don't know how much of it is rooted in reality. The general story is very interesting, but I was a bit put off from reading the books due to how pessimistic the author seems towards life and human nature in general. The dark forest concept - how every intelligent civilization is constantly on guard and annihilates any other civilization on contact. The lost ship whose passengers were tricked back to Earth and sentenced to death. Liu sees love as the thing that dooms mankind, while other authors usually see it as the thing that sets humans above other lifeforms. In general it seems like a dark and depressing dystopian novel. I'm curious to why you like it, maybe you can shed some light on the matter?

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        nacho
        Link Parent
        To me, the dystopian view is part of the appeal, as are the rest of the depictions of society. Is that a general trend at least some volume Chinese live and feel every day? Technocratic and...

        To me, the dystopian view is part of the appeal, as are the rest of the depictions of society.

        Is that a general trend at least some volume Chinese live and feel every day?

        Technocratic and western depictions of sci fi futures with incredible technology often show a rose-tinted view that everything's just gonna sort itself out because technology. People are human. If history shows us anything, it's that we can be really creative in the ways we treat each other poorly.

        1 vote
        1. Cirrus
          Link Parent
          It is a critique of society from a different viewpoint, for sure. My mind certainly got opened to different horizons. It's just that the theories put out were pretty logical, and it made reality...

          It is a critique of society from a different viewpoint, for sure. My mind certainly got opened to different horizons. It's just that the theories put out were pretty logical, and it made reality seem bleak. I delve into fiction to escape from the real world and find the precious bits of humanity I'm lacking in real life. This series, with its dystopian, nihilist outlook threatened to crush all my beliefs in our species with one fell swoop. To put it frankly, I'm not ready to read it yet. Maybe in the future, but right now I don't think I can read it without getting depressed myself. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

          1 vote
  2. BuckeyeSundae
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    Since I've already answered this question deep in the comments of another thread, I might as well put that answer here too. So my favorite world-rending literature that I can think of right now...

    Since I've already answered this question deep in the comments of another thread, I might as well put that answer here too.

    So my favorite world-rending literature that I can think of right now (in no particular order):
    Fiction

    • Ibsen's "Enemy of the People" - (A play inspired largely by the failed revolutions of 1848 depicting a scandinavian doctor trying to get his town to grapple with findings that the local major employer is poisoning the town's water supply.)

    Non-Fiction

    • Robert Thaler and Cass Sunstein's Nudge - (Using choice architecture to guide and make good choices easier than bad choices--while not taking away the ability to choose.)
    • Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan - (You don't know what you don't know, and pretending you do can lead to the greatest and most rocking vulnerabilities.)
    • Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life - (Never looking at institutional oppression the same way, nor am I going to have wool over my eyes when it comes to the horrors of slavery)
    • Joe Sacco's Palestine - (An Israeli journalist goes to Palestine and draws his way out. Really doesn't pull many punches.)
    • Barry Schwartz' The Paradox of Choice - (This was a necessary relief to me. I've always been told I was so smart that I could do literally anything, and my reaction to that was paralysis and fear. This book affirms that reaction as normal and makes me feel a little less of a failure for not being on Mars right now.)
    • Robert A. Burton's On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not - (This is a neurologist arguing that certainty is a feeling much like joy or fear or anger, not a rational experience.)
    3 votes
  3. [2]
    scituselectrum
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    Thanks for mentioning me! I think it is just fair for me to answer the question after I asked for your input. White Noise by Don DeLillo - (Touches four main topics: the American culture, mainly...

    Thanks for mentioning me! I think it is just fair for me to answer the question after I asked for your input.

    • White Noise by Don DeLillo - (Touches four main topics: the American culture, mainly in the aspect of how we were growing to become an irrational society, the good and bad of technology, death as a human condition, and religion).
    • Life is a Dream by Pedro Calderón de la Barca - (Talks about our existence as human beings and the mystery of human life).
    • Marianela by Benito Pérez Galdós - (This book talks about the selfishness and shallowness of human beings).
    • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - (Mary Shelly tries to convey some really important critiques of the society in which she lived in. The most obvious one is how the evil that most people see in others tend to be the first picture that they get from another person instead of taking their time to really get to know what they consider the "monster").
    • Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - (Consider this book to be the philosophical notes of someone well educated several thousand years ago. It reads like the bible in the sense that it talks about philosophy and moral teachings. You will notice that many of the teachings presented throughout the book are still applicable nowadays).
    • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984/Animal Farm by George Orwell - (I place these books together because, in essence, they present the same topic. The present all the evils that worried older generations that they thought were imminent dangers to future societies. It is interesting to read the books and compare them to what we have in place today, mainly because you can find out that many of those dangers presented in the book exist in our society).
    2 votes
    1. BuckeyeSundae
      Link Parent
      I think one of my favorite things about Frankenstein is the circumstances it was written in. Of course it was published in January 1818, but much of the writing was inspired by a dream she had in...

      I think one of my favorite things about Frankenstein is the circumstances it was written in. Of course it was published in January 1818, but much of the writing was inspired by a dream she had in the cold, awful, no-good wetness of 1816 (which was known as the year without a summer because of the ash from the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia).

      Nothing quite inspires the darkness and hopelessness of a good book like looking outside midday in June and seeing snow.

      1 vote
  4. Renazance
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    I'll second historical accounts. The Gulag Archipelago is one of those that I didn't enjoy, per se, but it made me really think about things. Animal Farm, while oft considered a book for children,...

    I'll second historical accounts.

    The Gulag Archipelago is one of those that I didn't enjoy, per se, but it made me really think about things.

    Animal Farm, while oft considered a book for children, is one that I feel is important to reread as an adult to make sure you understand what is being said.

    Brave new world is another one I think most people should read, even if it's not exactly one that fits into the role so nicely.

    All the other suggestions would probably be better than mine, but those are the ones I can really think of off the top of my head. Most tend to challenge your notions and preconceptions about the time, and the subject. Not to mention, they're good books to read in these times of change.

    2 votes
  5. kafkaesque
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    Just sittin back, watching this thread play out.

    Just sittin back, watching this thread play out.