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The Top (short Story)
“The Top” (German: “Der Kreisel”) is a short story by Franz Kafka, written sometime between 1917 and 1923. It concerns a philosopher failing to understand the world. Plot summary A philosopher believes that he could understand everything in the world if he were to understand a single element in it. To this purpose he tries to catch a child's top as it spins, hoping that it would continue spinning in his hand, but it always stops the moment he grabs it. Interpretation The top could be seen as a symbol of the spinning earth - the populated world which the philosopher tries to understand. The irony implied herein is that by focusing on the top itself the philosopher ignores the other forces that set it in motion - the children and the string. Some critics have noted a correspondence between the structure and theme of the story - the spiraling movement of the top is echoed by the spiraling structure of the story, as the sentences are at first of uniform length, then get gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the short story "The Metamorphosis" and novels ''The Trial'' and '' The Castle''. The term ''Kafkaesque'' has entered English to describe absurd situations, like those depicted in his writing. Kafka was born into a middle-class German-speaking Czech Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today the capital of the Czech Republic. He trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education was employed full-ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras (6th century BCE).. In the classical sense, a philosopher was someone who lived according to a certain way of life, focusing upon resolving existential questions about the human condition; it was not necessary that they discoursed upon theories or commented upon authors. Those who most arduously committed themselves to this lifestyle would have been considered ''philosophers''. In a modern sense, a philosopher is an intellectual who contributes to one or more branches of philosophy, such as aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, logic, metaphysics, social theory, philosophy of religion, and political philosophy. A philosopher may also be someone who has worked in the humanities or other sciences whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Complete Stories Of Franz Kafka
''The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka'' is a compilation of all of Kafka's short stories. With the exception of three novels (''The Trial'', '' The Castle'' and '' Amerika''), this collection includes all of his narrative work. The book was originally edited by Nahum N. Glatzer and published by Schocken Books in 1971. It was reprinted in 1995 with an introduction by John Updike. The collection includes all the works published during Kafka's lifetime, with the exception of '' The Stoker'' which is usually incorporated as the first chapter of his unfinished novel ''Amerika''. Some of the stories included in the book are fragmented or in various states of incompletion. Most of the stories are translated by Willa and Edwin Muir, with occasional translations by Tania and James Stern. Several fables, parables and philosophical pieces are not included in this collection, as they were never meant to be independent stories or never intended for publication. These can be found in Kafka' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global cultural, financial, entertainment, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, health care and life sciences, research, technology, education, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schocken Books
Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman Schocken as Schocken Verlag in Berlin, the company later moved to Palestine and then the United States, and was acquired by Random House in 1987. History Schocken Books was founded in 1931 by Schocken Department Store owner Salman Schocken. Schocken has published the writings of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Franz Kafka and S. Y. Agnon, among others. After being shut down by the Germans in 1939, Schocken, who immigrated from Germany to Palestine in 1934, founded the Hebrew-language ''Schocken Publishing House'' in Mandatory Palestine. Schocken moved to the United States in 1940. In 1945 he founded the English-language Schocken Books in New York City. In 1987 it was bought up by Random House. Schocken Books continues to publish Jewish literary works. Selected English publications Franz Kafka * '' The Trial'' * '' The Cas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Kuper
Peter Kuper (; born September 22, 1958) is an American alternative comics artist and illustrator, best known for his autobiographical, political, and social observations. Besides his contributions to the political anthology '' World War 3 Illustrated'', which he co-foundedNeil Gaiman, ed., The Best American Comics 2010 (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), 321 in 1979 with Seth Tobocman, Kuper is currently best known for taking over ''Spy vs. Spy'' for ''Mad'' magazine. Kuper has produced numerous graphic novels which have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Slovenian and Greek, including award-winning adaptations of Franz Kafka's '' Give It Up!'' and ''the Metamorphosis''. Early life Peter Kuper was born in Summit, New Jersey, and moved to Cleveland, Ohio when he was six years old, where he graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1976. He lived in Israel with his parents in 1969–70. In 1970 Kuper and his childho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Give It Up! (comics)
''Give It Up!'' is a comics adaptation of nine short stories by Franz Kafka drawn by Peter Kuper. In the introduction, by Jules Feiffer, Kuper's adaptations are described as "riffs, visual improvisations." The Stories * A Little Fable * The Bridge * Give It Up! * A Hunger Artist * A Fratricide "A Fratricide" (German: Ein Brudermord) is a short story by Franz Kafka written between December 1916 and January 1917. It is one of Kafka's most realistically descriptive and graphically violent stories, and tells the story of a murderer, Schmar ... * The Helmsman * The Trees * The Top * The Vulture References Kafka, Franz (Writer) and Peter Kuper (Illustrator). ''Give It Up! And Other Short Stories''. Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing. 1995. Adaptations of works by Franz Kafka {{comics-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
