No matter how many legs you have, however, October is an excellent time to scuttle off with one (or more) copies of The Metamorphosis. Dull and plodding, it has a stellar premise in that said cockroach morphs into the UK PM, and launches a policy of economic reversalism that quickly goes global. Instead it is a word from fairy tales used to describe the transformation, say, of a girl’s seven brothers into swans.Īppropriate to its contents, the meaning of Gregor's metamorphosis is shifty and blurred. McEwan has proven his skill with satire (Nutshell) and socio-political commentary (Solar), so this Kafka-in-reverse (a cockroach turns into a man) pastiche is a curious misstep. Unlike the English “metamorphosis,” the German word Verwandlung does not suggest a natural change of state associated with the animal kingdom such as the change from caterpillar to butterfly. The novella and the idea of awaking to find oneself transformed into an insect have been referenced in numerous memes online over a century after the novella's publication. ![]() In the New Yorker, translator Susan Bernofsky wrote that even the work's title isn't exempt from translation: The Metamorphosis is a novella by writer Franz Kafka, telling the tale of Gregor Samsa, a man who one day awakes to find himself transformed into an insect. ![]() The concept of such a radical, unexpected and repulsive change is utterly terrifying. A form of outer shell and waving feeble legs are first seen through their owner's eyes upon casting off a blanket. He wakes up one morning that is like every other morning, except for the fact that hes been transformed into a giant bug, usually depicted as a cockroach. Part of the horror the story inspires is derived from the manner in which it unfolds, after all, with the reader discovering what has happened to Gregor along with the protagonist himself. It has been argued that the reason for this is that Kafka didn't want to have a clear and easily accessible visual image of the transformation. As a result, there are many versions of Kafka's “insect.” Gregor is also defined as a monstrous vermin, cockroach, and a bedbug. He insisted that an insect not be depicted on the cover of the book and translations over the years have been fairly inconsistent in how they present Kafka's tragicomic protagonist. Kafka was in fact very careful to avoid specificity on that point. While Gregor in bug form is generally embarrassed and benign, Jawad awakens as a stinky and angry monkey-like dwarf with demonic powers: He can. What Gregor really is, however, a “Ungeziefer,” has no direct, literal translation.
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