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What kind of funny is Kafka?

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Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#11

Post by doug1001 »

samclemens wrote: post #5
TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."

and with every one of the hundreds of split-second network partitions that occurred each day, he is forced to choose between consistency and availability; sadly at any given instant, he can never have both. Until one day he learns how; he open sources this project, much to the disappointment of his employer who as punishment chains him to a cliff

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#12

Post by rayiner »

oldspiceman wrote: post #8

The kind of funny where you deplore your best friend to burn all your writings after you die but then he publishes them anyway. "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod

But the original papers are still caught up in a legal battle between the daughter of the secretary of his friend, and the State of Israel. Seems apropos.

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#13

Post by applecore »

samclemens wrote: post #5
TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."

“I have no mouth, and I must data stream.”

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#14

Post by RobertKerans »

Osmium wrote: post #4

David Foster Wallace also has a good essay on this in Consider the Lobster . I think this is the same one: http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-0...

That Foster Wallace essay is great: when he was good, he was really very good, and that's one of his better pieces.

Milan Kundera's Testaments Betrayed is pretty excellent as well; the last chapter (and title) cover Brod not burning Kafka's papers, and then manufacturing tortured genius Kafka instead of sticking with the fairly ridiculous reality (the one that actually matches how his characters behave, as this posted essay describes)

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#15

Post by ubernostrum »

TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

Is anyone else proud of the fact that when they hear the name of a famous author/artist/historical figure their first response is to think instead of a buzzwordy tech project?

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#16

Post by leoc »

samclemens wrote: post #5
TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."

In the horrifying finale, Daniel Dennett turns up to reveal that nothing has changed! He was really just a distributed, persistent messaging service all along. And then Samsa wakes up and it was all a silly dream.

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#17

Post by drcomputer »

RobertKerans wrote: post #14
Osmium wrote: post #4

David Foster Wallace also has a good essay on this in Consider the Lobster . I think this is the same one: http://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-0...

That Foster Wallace essay is great: when he was good, he was really very good, and that's one of his better pieces. Milan Kundera's Testaments Betrayed is pretty excellent as well; the last chapter (and title) cover Brod not burning Kafka's papers, and then manufacturing tortured genius Kafka instead of sticking with the fairly ridiculous reality (the one that actually matches how his characters behave, as this poste…

There are layers to being a tortured genius. A person who is observer, participant, and transcriber of a ridiculous reality is one who glimpses through the lens of his own device.

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#18

Post by jessaustin »

pimlottc wrote: post #9
oldspiceman wrote: post #8

The kind of funny where you deplore your best friend to burn all your writings after you die but then he publishes them anyway. "Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Kafka#Max_Brod

You mean Kafka implored Brod, and /then/ he deplored him, posthumously...

That seems impossible?

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#19

Post by [deleted] »

kansface wrote: post #6
samclemens wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a high-throughput distributed messaging system."

I'd really like to read this story, although I'd envision the ending closer to Animal Farm than The Metamorphosis. After all, I don't think a distributed, persistent messaging service is quite as shameful/unclean and useless as a cockroach/vermin thing.

[deleted]

Re: What kind of funny is Kafka?

#20

Post by TallGuyShort »

ubernostrum wrote: post #15
TallGuyShort wrote: post #2

Did anyone else make it all the way to the word 'Franz' thinking this was going to talk about the distributed commit log service?

Is anyone else proud of the fact that when they hear the name of a famous author/artist/historical figure their first response is to think instead of a buzzwordy tech project?

I wouldn't interpret my comment as pride. We're on a traditionally software-oriented website, and I thought of software
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