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nuclearshill gau/cho 1yr ago (image post) Edited 1yr ago 1,725 thread views #174358

On Self inserts

From Dante to Tolstoy to Dan Brown, it seems like self inserts are and old technique with very different results depending of the author.

What are your favorite and most hated self inserts books or characters?

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MayflyAlt-98 Your/Grace Self-taught hypebeast 1yr ago #4247132 Edited 1yr ago

Metamorphosis - Kafka

Confessions Of A Mask - Mishima

Ulysses - James Joyce

Thy Tears Might Cease - Micheal Farrell

Those are my fave rn although my most hated is definitely Atlas Shrugged :marseysmug:

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Geralt_of_Uganda ray/cis Medallion's humming :marseygeralt:

MayflyAlt-98 1yr ago #4247245

Metamorphosis - Kafka

How?

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MayflyAlt-98 Your/Grace Self-taught hypebeast Geralt_of_Uganda 1yr ago #4247402 Edited 1yr ago

I view it as a reflection of Kakfa's relationship with his family and his self esteem. He was shy, yearned for intimacy yet hated exposing himself with a very strained relationship with his father particularly.

Gregor finding himself as vermin that repulsed everyone around him while still desperately clinging onto them so as to not lose himself echo this imo. Kafka struggled with tuberculosis and often became absent from work because of it unti he eventually succumbed to it. I always viewed the gradual realisation and despair of Gregor of starving himself so not to be a burden unto his family a bit sobering along with the callous disregard they showed him in the end.

I saw the book as an expression of resentment honestly yet I really enjoyed reading it :shadowrage:

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Geralt_of_Uganda ray/cis Medallion's humming :marseygeralt:

MayflyAlt-98 1yr ago #4247446

He was shy, yearned for intimacy yet hated exposing himself

Wow, he's literally me! :marseyme:

I always viewed the gradual realisation and despair of Gregor of starving himself so not to be a burden unto his family a bit sobering along with the callous disregard they showed him in the end.

I think he wrote it before any of that stuff happened to him, but I may be wrong. Then again, it could also be true that he made up his mind about this before his illness became serious, in which case it's even more grim cause he essentially had to live through what was his own made up depiction of heck.

I too very much liked the book, but I didn't delve into the private life of Kafka enough to know about these connections