The Basic Kafka

"Poseidon," a short piece by the sharply popular Franz Kafka, came to my attention today. After reading it with great enthusiasm I paused only to admire his efficient flexibility; sometimes the simplest measures will do in order to successfully construct a proper vehicle; the message was clear, his message for that matter, was clear.

"Poseidon" touches the human theme of monotony by describing the cumbersome process of administering the seas, that is, Poseidon’s only but yet notorious task. Kafka thinks, considering this piece particularly, that nobody can escape from the clenching tendrils of routine, nobody. Not even a God. Not even the God of the Sea. “It cannot be said that he enjoyed his work; he did it only because it had been assigned to him…” The intrinsically boring figures which he managed to go over every day without any sort of interest were the caging elements that rendered him an isolated soul.

It is quite likely and perhaps even more humorous to admit that every habit is a bad habit. Working with the same components day after day can make any human, or even any God, irritated with the confines of such repetitive realm. Poseidon besmirches the fact that he cannot even explore the seas which – as described by mighty law – he rules and omnipresently inspects.

I thought it would be appropriate to begin my blog with this story because of two reasons: first, it is my blog and I will do with it what pleases me and two, because Kafka is a very interesting sociologist who, fortunately, saw the essence of something that relates to all of those activities which we do not enjoy doing. Living and learning in automatic, in my case, would be plain misery. Poseidon’s case is divinely appropriate, today and tomorrow.

P.S. Thanks Alex for the book and Kevin for the chat.