I would almost argue that obsession can be an element of Kafkaesque.  If this book can indeed be considered a Kafkaesque product, then obsession must play some role in Kafkaesque.  Just like K. became obsessed with his trial,  Spiegelman is totally obsessed with 9/11.  It is as if he cannot move on from these events even though most new yorkers probably don’t give a second thought everyday when passing ground zero.   I took the back inside cover to mean this because Spiegelman is the only one still in some sort of color, all the other images are a glossy black, which are easily faded in with the black background.  These people still remember the events and will never forget, but they are not obsessing over the events.  The only other question is that the donkey on the ack side is also colored in.  Could this mean that Spiegelman feels he is the only one still feeling the pain from the events on 9/11?  I would hope not, but that could be his view.

Im sure those newspaper titles represent only a fraction of those titles.  America was obsessed with what will happen now that the twin towers fell.  People started putting up flags and wanting to go to war, now most of the population wants to get out.  whether people want to stay or pull out, both people are still obsessed and often to the point where it gets out of hand.  Maybe that is a Kafkaesque element, having obsession of something to the point where harm is done where is could have been prevented.  After all, we all know that K. led himself to death and that if he wasn’t so obsessed with his trial, that he probably could have kept on living just the way his was.

On comic 10, I read the left side first and noticed about half way down that Hapless hooligan is wearing the same clothes as Art in the comic and so is the girl that gives me the fax, that is portraying his wife.  I found this very interesting but haven’t quite figured out what the meaning behind that is, possibly political?  One other “Kafkaesque” element that appears in 9 is the strip where his head is a hand and his hand is the head.  We had a discussion about some paintings that could be considered Kafaesque or had elements of the Kafkaesque in it, where some parts were misplacd but they didn’t seem that out of place, this reminded me of that conversation.

It is hard enough to make sense of his comic, that I either fail to realize the Kafkaesque in it, or it’s too confusing.  I don’t want to say that he is mocking the events of septembr 11th, but I think by making it into a cartoon or a comic, he is making the reader feel something different other than what we felt on that day. As of right now, I am unconvinced that these two comics are Kafkaesque or have Kafkaesque elements.  I thin amount of evidence I pulled does not mean that is can be considered Kafkaesque.

Page 6 seemed to organized for me, it followed an organized course of path.  But then, that image interupts the flow of everything.  This seems similiar to life in Manhattan before the attacks.  the towers are broken apart, not burning, and there are many flames, demons, planes that look like sharks and a skeleton that holds a big boxcutter, the weapon used to hijack the planes.  Snakes are coming from her eyes and one is wearing what looks like a turben, but she is wearing a Yankees hat.  This picture looks chaotic  and hot, temperature wise, which I am sure was very hot that day near the burning towers.  Somehow, Spiegelman is relating this woman to the attacks that happened.  I think this has soemthing to do with her shouting antisemitic remarks to him, and how she blames the Jews for everything.  She seems to me, that she could be theone controlling the horror and flames that are seen or she is a vechile to which the demons speak through.  The box that contains the words “Her inner demons had broken loose and taken over our shared reality”  that is still confusing for me a bit.  who is he calling the demons and what purpose do they serve?  throughout the entire picture, people are falling, obviously this can represent the people falling from the towers but it also seems like Spiegelman is wanting to tell the reader something else, or make a connection.  When I was in Italy, I got to see the painting of the last judgement.  This almost reminds me of that painting.  It seemed that new york and more specifically the towers were a symbol of power and defense, like it couldnt be stopped, also showing the wealth that protected America.  Now that they were destroyed, many people felt that it was judgement day because it seemed impossible or just so caught off guard.  this is comparable to the page, everything was going along as normal and this huge event, or picture was slapped right in the middle.  yeah new yorkers still remember that day, but i have a feeling most of them now go about their business as usual just like after that picture, the panels went on in an organized fashion.

some if the images confused me as well.  They are very abstract which again might be the way you are suppose to write comics but the strip where his head is a mouse, what is that all about, is he referring to his other comic that he mentioned Maus?  I did not realize how long it could take to write a comic and I would also like to know a little more on why it took him so long at times to finish a page, was he worried about his readers feeling offended or does he always take that long when he writes comic strips.  I want to know where he is going with this comic book too, how is he planing on ending it?  The thing that confused me the most was inthe beginning where the shoe was falling and he said that company was jihad.  I cannot make sense of this part it is just really strange and weird.   It will be interesting discussing this in class and I like the change of pace or reading, I think we will come up with a lot of good ideas and discussions.

One theme or trend in the kafkaesque is the sense of impending danger and even though after reading the book and during the film, I knew what was going to happen, I still felt this sense of impending danger that K. might fall upon, for instance him going into the whipping room, I thought there was a possibility that he could get whipped too, or at the end when K. is leaving with the two “thugs” as we have called them.

The looming buildings and the vast open space during the scene with K. and Frau Montag gave a specific Kafkaesque feel.  As a reader is reading soemthing of Kafka, the reader must often think for themself or decide for themself because Kafka leaves a lot up to the reader and that was reflected somewhat throughout the film such as the veiled statue, was that the statue of justice with wings or was that something intirely different.  We never get to see the picture that the painter painted that he describes and when K. puts on the glasses.  We as the viewer must imagine that portrait ourselves and that neat thing about that is that we will each see or imagine something different just like every reader can conclude something different from Kafka’s works.

Sexuality is a big thing with Kafka and the film truly reflects that as well with the multiple girls K. has conversations with and then some.  Almost every female around his age is beautiful and as discussed in class the Femme Fatal character. The film keeps the minor but arguably important details such as the webbed hand that Leni has.  Comparing the two to the most elementary level, it is safe to say that neither the book or the film are something just to pick up and watch or read for the fun of it with no thinking imvolved.  They both require one’s full concentration in order to “get the full experience” even though I believe no one can get the “Full experience” from kafka if there even is one.

There were numerous things in the final third of the film that struck my attention.  Most of the striking moments came at the end, but there were several in the beginning and middle as well.  The first thing I noticed in this third was what appeared to be a shadow of a figure, I would assume a man on the upper floor when K. entered the room where Eleni was.  There were big pane windows and only two shadows were casted.  One of this figure and another of this structure.  It comes five and a half minutes into the youtube version of the film.  The use of props and beams also did not go unnoticed appearing to give this house/office an industrial feel.  When I read the novel, I did not picture Block as crazy as he seemed in the movie, paraniod about his trial, sure, but crazy, this guy was a whack job that at some points made K. look like one of us and how in the hell did he know that K. was with that gaurd?

There were also several pictures in different places of that house of Judges but they all looked to be the same pose and possibly even the same person.  Who is judging who in this scene and what true authority do the judges in the paintings actually have?

The scene where K., Eleni, and Block were standing all very close and she was playing with his button, I felt like I was standing there with them, RIGHT next to them.  Have any of you heard of personal space??  which for Americans is about 4 feet.  No one else was in the room and the lawyer was laying in his bed, he would not have heard anything you all were talking about.  There was no need to be that close, what was Orsen trying to accomplish?  I remember talking about the homoerotic scene with Block and K., but I found that the lawyer was more “homo” than K. or Block.  He ranted on for several minutes about attractively accused men and seemed almost turned on by it.

What I found more weird for lack of a better vocabulary was the painter and the choice of music, which had a jazz feel to it.  That painter was so CREEPY, he actually reminded me of the character from scary movie 3 i think, the one with the gimp hand, “grab my strong hand child!”  I could not tell from the movie and I know he said they were the same, but they were also different sizes and they did not show a close up of the paintings.  The wooden hallway was straight out of a horror film, or a haunted house and the use of light and shadow was extremely effective in this scene, combining that with the hunt of K. by the hound dog, excuse me, little girls.  I pictured a group of mice yelling at each other as they are making their way down an underground tunnel.  K. and I finally both have something in common, we were both scared of those girls.  This movie really took a strange twist and turn making it even more dark and twisted.  All of the buildings seemed connected as well, I know he did not enter a church to see the painter, but when he left, he walked right out of the front of a church.  Could this be or say that judgment and religion are closely connected with K.’s trial and if so, who is the judge? God?  The choice of free will and submission can play a huge part in it I believe.  No one forced K. to his death, it was his choice.

The most significant thing that stood out in the entire movie was when the lawyer projected that story on the wall or screen.  K. was walking towards the screen, which just happened to be showing the door to the law.  It is easy to tell that he is walking towards it BUT, BUT his shadow gets neither bigger or smaller, he is making no progress towards the door, he might be walking to it, but he is not getting anywhere.  This reflects that K. can in anytime go free but for some reason for him, he does not choose that fate.  he might act like he wants it (actually doing the action of walking towards the door on the screen) but he will never get any closer than he already is.  Maybe I am completely off cause a lot of this stuff seems to go over my head, but I thought that was interesting.

I am frustrated with the ending, TNT? really? whomp whomp.

There is a minor thing I disagree with in the book, on page 222, the priest says to K. “So why should I want anything from you?  The court wants nothing from you.  It reeives you when you come and it dismisses you when you go.”  First of all, those two sentences contains the word “you” 6 times.  second, I thought the court made K. come to interrogations and I thought the court sent the warders to his house, but those could just be minor contradictions.

Time to talk about the hottie Frau Buerstner or who appeared to be her.  one word “why?”  she just appears again out of no where, and he follows her for a bit which is in the direction of his death.  So was that spot picked out beforehand or was that just a thing that happened, like the killers were like, “well this seems like a good spot, prop him up and shove that long sharp thing in his heart.”  I cant remember if it was nicole, garratt or brians blog, but someone said something about the police, yes, they were just right there, why couldnt K. just been like, help help!  He even ran away from the cops.  K. could have been growing so paranoid that he trusted the court and law more than anyone else because that is what he has been thinking about all the time.   Maybe he was expecting for the police to go along with it, I don’t know, I’ll leave that one up to Kafka himself.  That is a valid point though.  I will not voice my thoughts about K. following Buerstner or women in general and how that can get any man into trouble.  :  / Im just kidding I love you girls.

As you can see, I still have many questions as I probably should considering Kafka has never really answered any of them in the first place.

As a reader, im frustrated because there is no real end to the book, there are still unanswered questions, as a person, I dont know, I am alright I guess.  It did not make me depressed or even sad, my thoughts and emotions don’t really care about K. or his well being, they are more concerned with making sense of the meaning in the book and what Kafka wants us to take away.

“In your short sleeves?”  I had to read that line twice because it cracked me up so much.  I feel the tone of that would be high pitched of course asked as a question and the expression would be one of uneasy awareness.  This is one of the first comments that we can tell that K. is not being a very nice guy in this chapter.  As the reader reads on, there are numerous comments that K. barks out that degrades women and insults men with virtually no remorse.  I think it is important because we can see a shift of K.’s behavior from earlier in the book, it is almost a shift of power and the shift of women.  Turn them 180, or at least it seems like the roles have switched, because K. also refuses to kiss Leni after it is obvious that she is crazy about him.  we can see the urgency and anxiousness of K. as the case is going no further, or is at a standstill.  Other quotes that support his shift in manners are “get on” “Lead the way!” “give me an answer!”  This chapter is filled with orders that K. screams mostly directed toward Leni.  I am excited to see if this behavior will stick or leave and then K. will become his sorry self once more.