Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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gavesako
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Re: Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

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Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

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gavesako
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Re: Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

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Existentialist writer Franz Kafka was known for the absurdity and hopelessness in his work; a particular Kafka-inspired videogame plans to channel these themes.

The Franz Kafka Videogame is a classic adventure game based on the novels of Franz Kafka, including The Castle, The Trial, and The Metamorphosis. Playing with absurdism and hopelessness, Kafka examined the individual in a meaningless, absurd world. Evident in the game's trailer, The Franz Kafka Videogame will be surreal.

Developer Denis "mif2000" Galanin described his game to Polygon in an email: "The hero named K. gets a sudden offer of employment. And this event changes his life, forcing him to make a distant voyage. To his surprise, the world beyond his homeland appears to be not as normal as he would think. Together with the hero you will experience an atmosphere of absurdity, surrealism, and total uncertainty."

The Franz Kafka Videogame contains logic puzzles and an interesting art style in high-definition. Kafka fans should be able to spot some references to particular novels in the game's trailer. Be prepared for the surreal because any Kafka-inspired work is play around with the meaningless and unfair parts of the world. Anything could happen to anyone.

Read more at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... Rc3V4LQ.99


Developer blog:
http://kafkagame.blogspot.com/

:spy:
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
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Ceisiwr
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Re: Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

Post by Ceisiwr »

I read the centipede once by him


Freaked me right out

:shock:
“The teacher willed that this world appear to me
as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial.
Mind, let me leap into the victor’s teaching,
carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass.”
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gavesako
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Re: Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

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What Kafka’s popular image obscures is that the real punch line of his works is not the fantastical, but the mundane. In The Trial, Josef K. gets arrested for no reason, but he doesn’t get thrown in a cell, waterboarded, and convicted. He goes back to work, and then spends the rest of his life wrestling with a bureaucracy that is vast, staggeringly incompetent—and boring. The primary story of The Metamorphosis is not actually that Gregor Samsa is a giant and disgusting bug-creature, it’s that his family is really, really bad at managing their finances. The centerpiece of In The Penal Colony, a massive and intricate torture machine, isn’t “remarkable” simply for its gory details—it’s remarkable because its inventor was a fool who wrote in gibberish, and it doesn’t actually work.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/201 ... _tips.html

:shock:
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
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gavesako
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Re: Fwd: Franz Kafka 130's birthday

Post by gavesako »

When reading Kafka's text In the Penal Colony in which the elaborate torture machine appears, one is struck by the similarity with the Sutta similies for the four nutriments (ahara) of continuing existence, in particular the fourth one -- consciousness:

"And how, O monks, should the nutriment volitional thought be considered? Suppose, O monks, there is a pit of glowing embers, filled to cover a man's height, with embers glowing without flames and smoke. Now a man comes that way, who loves life and does not wish to die, who wishes for happiness and detests suffering. Then two strong men would seize both his arms and drag him to the pit of glowing embers. Then, O monks, far away from it would recoil that man's will, far away from it his longing, far away his inclination. And why? Because the man knows: 'If I fall into that pit of glowing embers, I shall meet death or deadly pain.'

"In that manner, I say, O monks, should the nutriment volitional thought be considered. If the nutriment volitional thought is comprehended, the three kinds of craving[11] are thereby comprehended. And if the three kinds of craving are comprehended, there is, I say, no further work left to do for the noble disciple.

"And how, O monks, should the nutriment consciousness be considered? Suppose, O monks, people have seized a criminal, a robber, and brought him before the king saying: 'This is a criminal, a robber, O Majesty! Mete out to him the punishment you think fit!' Then the king would tell them: 'Go, and in the morning strike this man with a hundred spears!' And they strike him in the morning with a hundred spears. At noon the king would ask his men: 'How is that man?' — 'He is still alive, Your Majesty.' — 'Then go and strike him again at noontime with a hundred spears!' So they did, and in the evening the king asks them again: 'How is that man?' — 'He is still alive.' — 'Then go and in the evening strike him again with a hundred spears!' And so they did.

"What do you think, O monks? Will that man, struck with three hundred spears during a day, suffer pain and torment owing to that?"

"Even if he were to be struck only by a single spear, he would suffer pain and torment owing to that. How much more if he is being struck by three hundred spears!"

"In that manner, I say, O monks, should the nutriment consciousness be considered. If the nutriment consciousness is comprehended, mind-and-matter are thereby comprehended. And if mind and body are comprehended, there is, I say, no further work left to do for the noble disciple."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .nypo.html
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
Dhammatalks.org - Sutta translations
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