Happy Birthday, Kafka!

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Franz Kafka’s 130th birthday:

The Author was taught by her Favorite English Teacher (her mother) that Kafka didn’t want the Ungeziefer Samsa to be illustrated, intentionally keeping Samsa’s metamorphosis ambiguous (is he a cockroach, dung beetle, vermin?).  In observance of Kafka’s wishes, the Author and her classmates obscured the beetle on the Penguin Classic cover with a photocopy of the original 1916 cover.

Still, she still appreciates the humor of this jolly, bow-tied Gregor coming home from a day at the office.

On the same topic, but a different note: the Author has been waiting for the right moment to share this simple postcard from the Jewish Museum in Munich.

‘I stay how I am’

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