January 18, 2006
-
Metamorphosis
I have an English class in about 45 minutes and over the past week the required reading was Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I’m not going to give a whole book report similar to ‘Heart of Darkness’ a little bit ago, but it is basically about a man named Gregor who wakes up one day as a dung beetle and whose family reacts to him in a whole variety of ways.
Now I may find that I am wrong in a little bit, but I find it as a metaphor for how a person could be viewed by their family if they undergo a dramatic change. The story is all about a family’s reactions to physical change, but perhaps this could provide a great deal of insight into the reaction to dramatic mental change. Imagine how much you personally have changed over the past few years and imagine if that was somehow represented by a physical change when you woke up tomorrow morning.
Now sure, your family is going to react to internal changes because they will notice that you’ll think, act, perhaps even walk differently than you did before these past few years. But what if that steady realization of ‘Hey, you never used to think like that!’ gave way to ‘Whoa…um you’re a walrus!’ Perhaps your soul would best be represented by a chicken in 2001, and now if you were to change form tomorrow, it would best be represented by an eagle. And by no means does it have to be an animal. Your physical shape could change it’s form into anything, it all depends on the state of your soul. A Rabbit? sure. A Tree? sure. A Teacup? Whatever, but ok sure! Just picture to yourself what you would be if you were to wake up tomorrow and look in the mirror to find that shape looking back at you? How would your family and friends react to seeing you that way? We all try to hide our truths from others and ourselves, but what if we had no choice, it was right there for everyone and anyone to see. Could we remain sane? Would we really want to go back to our previous state?
If nothing else, it’s fun to think about and I can’t wait to toss some of this out there later in that class.
-Shadowrunner81
Comments (2)
that’s a good read. depressing though, esp. with all the existential themes, like isolation. there’s a comic on it in Peanuts style. It’s “Good Ol’ Gregor Brown” by Sikorvak, printed in RAW, vol 2 #2. I have a copy here. I may think on the internal/external changes later. but as a first thought, at this moment I’d be a hermit. I need time, space, sleep, wandering thought to juxtapose relatively too much academic thought. of course, this’ll change tomorrow, because then I may want to be social again.
i had to read that story back when i was here going to lee, in my last semester here. interesting points in the last paragraph. it really makes one think. what if i woke up tomorrow and everyone saw me for what i truely am and not what i want them to see? would it be that much harder to guard one’s secrets? would i like what is in the mirror or would it frighten small children? would i want it to frighten small children? would it change on a daily basis? and would that change always be for the better or not? if i woke up as a existential squirrel, would i want to plant a garden of watermelon seeds? (and i love that at first i typed waltermelon seeds so apparently now there are waltermelons… those of you named walter better beware!)
“Whoa… um, you’re a walrus!”
“A Rabbit? sure. A Tree? sure. A Teacup? Whatever, but ok sure!”
>>oh, one of these days i’m going to make a posts with ‘Comments from Dan: The Archives’…oh what a glorious post it shall be…