Another Day, Another Word

Words encompassing and arising from a person's name

Kafkaesque [kahf-kuh-esk]

Ah Kafka, a surrealist before the term was coined. You may notice that many of the word's in the current theme are auctorial descriptives. (ok, so guess I have to define that as well: Auctorial descriptives are a series of adjectives based on authors' names)

Not surprising, since few things have the power to change the way we see the world than the pen of a master writer.
But Franz Kafka holds a special place for me as the term Kafkaesque has a very fluid meaning and differing interpretations.

EG:

"marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies"
"marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence"

The main reason I see for this is that Kafka wrote in an intentionally ambiguous language in his native German. Which has caused many problems for the people tasked with translating his works. To really get the taste of his works I would suggest his novella The Metamorphosis but in line with the issues I mentioned about translation I would strongly recommend finding a copy translated by either David Wyllie or Joachim Neugroschel.

To give an example of what Kafkaesque is, the first line of The Metamorphosis:
"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin"
And so it goes from there.