Perceptive reading! I am always haunted by the use of the word “empty” to describe Gregor’s dying thoughts in the translation that I favor. Maybe the greatest tragedy is the anticlimactic death stripped of catharsis & shaped by self-objectification in response to the cruel treatment he has received from his family members—the utilitarian monsters of this subversive fable.
I'm not sure that I would call them utilitarian. For them to be so, it would denote some form of deliberation. I think their dispositions are reflexive and incidently appear utilitarian within the occurences, as they could easily be inconsistent. It makes it more bleak that there is something perhaps immutable about the scenario as such. I also am unsure if it is subversive--maybe somewhat in form--as I don't think it is aimed to upend but only display, as Werner Herzog would put it, an ecstatic truth.
Oh, this was wonderful. The metamorphosis has a profound impact of me, too, and now I feel I must go back and reread. Thank you so much.
Thank you for the kind comment. Do read it again, and then again.
Perceptive reading! I am always haunted by the use of the word “empty” to describe Gregor’s dying thoughts in the translation that I favor. Maybe the greatest tragedy is the anticlimactic death stripped of catharsis & shaped by self-objectification in response to the cruel treatment he has received from his family members—the utilitarian monsters of this subversive fable.
Yes, the emptiness is key.
I'm not sure that I would call them utilitarian. For them to be so, it would denote some form of deliberation. I think their dispositions are reflexive and incidently appear utilitarian within the occurences, as they could easily be inconsistent. It makes it more bleak that there is something perhaps immutable about the scenario as such. I also am unsure if it is subversive--maybe somewhat in form--as I don't think it is aimed to upend but only display, as Werner Herzog would put it, an ecstatic truth.