Looking Back At Kafka's Stories (Fragments)

"Honored members of of the Academy!

You have done me the honor of inviting me to give your Academy an account of the life I formerly led as an ape." [from A Report to an Academy]

"During these last decades the interest in professional fasting has markedly diminished." [from A Hunger Artist]

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from an uneasy dream he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." [from The Metamorphosis]

"Whoever leads a solitary life and yet now and then wants to attach himself somewhere, whoever, according to changes in the time of day, the weather, the state of his business, and the like, suddenly wishes to see any arm at all to which he might cling - he will not be able to manage for long without a window looking on to the street." [from the Street Window]

"Give it up! Give it up!" [from Give It Up]

*For what reasons does one look back at the past? What can he find there? Only memories - but no longer himself, but no longer the experience of life or the experience of art - only memories. In fragments. I collect them like one would collect broken pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but without the desire of putting them together.