![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the story of Kafka
Feb. 24th, 2001 02:52 pmTo understand this, you should know that Kafka was forbidden in Czechoslovakia, except for a brief period in the 1960s. Kafka was persona non grata, his name one of the most dangerous a person could say. His oddly prophetic works were censored by the Communists, because they so accurately depicted the nightmares of a totalitarian system.
When Professor P. was a high school student in 1978, literature was heavily censored by the Communists. In class, a few older works like Shakespeare were taught, along with a Russian WWII novel and a few Soviet works. Czech literature was almost totally non-existant. Very few people had any access to literature at all, unless they had inherited libraries from their parents. Because so many books, like Kafka, Orwell and the Bible were illegal, one had to hide those books in double stacked shelves. Neighbors could not give denunciations if they could not see those books.
Banned books were lent under the strictest circumstances between close friends, for one night only. Someone lent Professor P. a copy of The Metamorphisis for one night, wrapped in a plain book cover. She was 17 years old. She sat on the Metro for two hours, riding back and forth while she read this book. A book that could have sent her to prison, sent her parents to prison, a book so illegal that it could end any possibility of a real future for her.
"It changed my life. I finished it and I thought, the bugs are real, Kafka is real, everything is real. I have to study literature and I can not do that here. You don't ever have that experience again. That I could be arrested, that my parents could be arrested, that everything could end just because you're reading a few words. This book totally changed my life, and that is why I am here today teaching you." -Professor P.
I sat there in class yesterday, just stunned by this story. To hear her speak, to look at my professor and imagine her so young, riding the subway reading Kafka... To imagine that something I've always taken for granted could be so dangerous and could so dramatically change someone's life. God. I wanted to thank her, to say something to tell her how moving and wonderful her story was to me. I've always had a certain respect for literature and a love for words. I don't think I've ever realized just how powerful it could be.
When Professor P. was a high school student in 1978, literature was heavily censored by the Communists. In class, a few older works like Shakespeare were taught, along with a Russian WWII novel and a few Soviet works. Czech literature was almost totally non-existant. Very few people had any access to literature at all, unless they had inherited libraries from their parents. Because so many books, like Kafka, Orwell and the Bible were illegal, one had to hide those books in double stacked shelves. Neighbors could not give denunciations if they could not see those books.
Banned books were lent under the strictest circumstances between close friends, for one night only. Someone lent Professor P. a copy of The Metamorphisis for one night, wrapped in a plain book cover. She was 17 years old. She sat on the Metro for two hours, riding back and forth while she read this book. A book that could have sent her to prison, sent her parents to prison, a book so illegal that it could end any possibility of a real future for her.
"It changed my life. I finished it and I thought, the bugs are real, Kafka is real, everything is real. I have to study literature and I can not do that here. You don't ever have that experience again. That I could be arrested, that my parents could be arrested, that everything could end just because you're reading a few words. This book totally changed my life, and that is why I am here today teaching you." -Professor P.
I sat there in class yesterday, just stunned by this story. To hear her speak, to look at my professor and imagine her so young, riding the subway reading Kafka... To imagine that something I've always taken for granted could be so dangerous and could so dramatically change someone's life. God. I wanted to thank her, to say something to tell her how moving and wonderful her story was to me. I've always had a certain respect for literature and a love for words. I don't think I've ever realized just how powerful it could be.
