Few words about ABSURD’s ‘Pure Wisdom’ series and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha.
ABSURD- a film and literary production house that is passionately committed to creating and appreciating the finest works of art and literature- has now introduced ‘Pure Wisdom’ Series that intends to be a collection of the greatest literature- fictions and nonfictions- that awakened and have still been awakening mankind. Wisdom is always pure, was it then really necessary to add and extra word ‘pure’ before the word ‘wisdom’? The answer is, ‘yes, it was’. By adding ‘pure’ before ‘wisdom’, ABSURD simply wants to put enough emphasis to confirm that it is stating about the literary works that are purified by the purest timeless wisdom. We cannot let mankind forget those works for the sake of mankind; those literary works should be read and re-read again and again, to purify ourselves while we are flooded with the books that are destroying us to become monetarily successful. ABSURD invites the readers to experience or re-experience some greatest, finest, literary works ever done in the history of mankind, through its ‘Pure Wisdom’ scheme.
This is the first book of ‘Pure Wisdom’ Series; it collects two finest literary works of all time- Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, and Hermann Hesse’s novel, Siddhartha.
Franz Kafka was really a rare man; once in a blue moon, the world can experience a man like him. He lived a very short life; he died at the age of 40, but in such a short life he contributed enough to be widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. Even though, he said, he struggled hard not to write, as what he wanted to write could not be written. So, he struggled hard, but he could not control the temptation to write, so he wrote. He wrote in one of his diaries, ‘‘I am writing because it is difficult not to write, and knowing well that it is
difficult also to write. Seeing no way out of it, I am writing.” Few of Kafka's works were published during his lifetime in literary magazines and received very little public attention and before he died, he told his lifetime friend Max Brod to destroy all his manuscripts, he said, “Please burn everything that I have written- my diaries, my stories, my parables, my sketches, my notes. And burn them without reading them. Because this is the only way that I can get rid of that constant anxiety that I have been trying to say something which cannot be said. And I could not resist so I have written. Now this is the only way. I have written it because I could not control myself. I had to write knowing well that it could not be written, so now, without reading it, destroy, burn everything utterly. Nothing should be left.” But Max Brod ignored his friend’s direction and published them after Kafka's death. And we are all lucky that Max Brod didn’t follow his friend’s order.
Most of his work, such as Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle), are filled with the themes and archetypes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent-child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, labyrinths of bureaucracy, and mystical transformations. The most influential authors like Albert Camus, Gabriel García Márquez, and Jean-Paul Sartre are among the writers influenced by Kafka’s work; the term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe existential situations like those in his writings.
And The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung in German) is one of the Kafka’s finest works. Needless to say, this is a translation from German and a translation- no matter how good translation it is, it is a good translation indeed- can never reach the literary merit of the original. But, even this translated version of his The Metamorphosis is strong enough to find us deeply moved.
Hermann Hesse, who was a contemporary and an appreciator of Kafka, was another influential figure in world literature of pure wisdom. He said, ‘‘Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.’’ And his literary works are the great efforts to communicate something
non-communicable. He also said, ‘‘You should let yourself be carried away, like the clouds in the sky. You shouldn’t resist. God exists in your destiny just as much as he does in these mountains and in that lake. It is very difficult to understand this, because man is moving further and further away from Nature, and also from himself.’’ Hesse has depicted in his works the duality of spirit and nature, body versus mind and the individual's spiritual search outside the restrictions of society. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge, and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style.
Siddhartha is one of the finest works of Hesse and one of the greatest books ever written in the history of mankind. The novel is immensely beautiful; it deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. Hesse’s Siddhartha repeats the story of Buddha in a different way, but in the same dimension, with the same meaning. Siddhartha is actually the name of Gautama the Buddha, given to him by his parents. He became known as Gautam Buddha. Gautama was his family name; Buddha simply means ‘the awakened’. Siddhartha was the real name given by his parents in consultation with the astrologers. It is a beautiful name. The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in the Sanskrit language; Siddha means ‘one who has attained’ and artha means ‘the meaning’, which together means ‘one who has come to the meaning of life’.
ABSURD has chosen these two finest works to be in the first book of its ‘Pure Wisdom' Series. The writers of these two novels are not only contemporary of each other, but also they, in a very different way, portray a very significant similar theme in their these two particular novels- change is the theme in both the novels. This change can also be called a transformation or a metamorphosis of the Self. Both the novels portray the protagonists, Siddhartha and Gregor, as obedient members of society who undergo momentous, life altering transformations. Both transformations considerably affect the character’s emotional and physical well being, as well as their roles and interactions with others in society, their established goals in life, and their overall peace and happiness with themselves. In Siddhartha and The Metamorphosis, both Herman Hesse and Franz Kafka describe Siddhartha’s and Gregor’s metamorphoses in a grotesque manner, as initially overlooked by the protagonists, and as crucial events in their lives, which ultimately change both characters in either a positive or negative fashion. Each character goes through different stages of the change, with each stage bringing them closer to their salvation. Thus, everything that the characters experience along their journeys is of importance. The necessity for change is more apparent in Siddhartha than in The Metamorphosis. However, both Gregor and Siddhartha must experience change and learn from their experiences before they are able to find the salvation that they desire.
Paperback:
Amazon (USA): www.amazon.com/dp/1536906956
Amazon (UK): www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1536906956
Amazon (Canada): www.amazon.ca/dp/1536906956
Amazon (France): www.amazon.fr/dp/1536906956
Amazon (Germany): www.amazon.de/dp/1536906956
Amazon (Italy): www.amazon.it/dp/1536906956
Amazon (Spain): www.amazon.es/dp/1536906956
Audio-book:
Audible: http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B06WW67HT7
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WWGRLKS
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/audiobook/kafkas-metamorphosis-hesses-siddhartha-transformation/id1210754936
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