Found Kafka

sbmorrison / works / found-kafka

A Very Serious and Scholarly Introduction to the Provenance of the Work

Much of what we know today as Franz Kafka’s work was not published during his lifetime, and it is believed that Kafka burned ninety percent of what he wrote while he was alive. After his death, his literary executor, Max Brod, famously published many of Kafka’s most well- loved works against Kafka’s wishes that all his unpublished work be destroyed. When Max Brod fled Prague, he did so with a suitcase full of Kafka’s notebooks, letters, and journals. Much of this material was published later, but there still remain notes and letters that are unpublished and the subject of ongoing lawsuits between competing estates of the descendants of Brod and Brod’s wife. Similarly, Kafka’s last great love, Dora Diamant, also secured away many of Kafka’s notes and letters against his wishes. These notes and letters were believed lost during a Gestapo raid of Diamant’s apartment in 1933 and searches for these missing papers have been undertaken by Kafka scholars for years.

Unknown to many scholars, an apocryphal set of “Kafka” manuscripts were “found” in 1996 by the “interpreter” of this work. The materials were found in an antique briefcase that was checked at the Prague train station, sometime in the 1930s. Because of a mixup in claim tickets, the interpreter was not given back his knapsack, but instead was handed this dusty leather briefcase filled with notebooks. It was several months before the interpreter understood what he had in 3. his possession and several years before he was able to interpret and translate the first of the works. His knapsack was never recovered. The Cubicle represents the first of these works. Originally written as a collection of dialogues, setting descriptions, and stage directions, the interpreter has chosen to set it as a “play.” Ever prescient, Kafka, who died in 1924, chose to set the work in a multimedia conglomerate at the beginning of the 2000s. The interpreter has attempted to be as faithful to the original German whenever possible; however, some liberties were taken to update the wordplay, much in keeping with what is understood as Kafka’s original intent, which of course, can never be understood.

–Herr Professor Doktor Rev. Addle

The Interpreter’s Note

What he said.

— S. B. Morrison

• the-cubicle.play

  Francis K. first day of work, where he tries to find the correct cubicle.

  in reviewv0.9.1out since [202-03-08][85] min

• the-meeting.play

  A consultant convinces attendees that this meeting is the most important place to be.

  in revisionv0.6.0updated [2019-05-19]

• the-deal.play

  Everything is a deal.

  open issue—no draft yet

Archived

Archived, and noted here because pretending it never existed would be dishonest and uninteresting.

• airport-lounge.play

  A series of delayed flights creates long stays at the airport lounge.

  archivedv0.2.3last touched [2018-12-31]