Just Finished Reading: Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka (FP: 1931) [57pp] 

Back in my 20's I got it into my head that I 'should' read "The Classics" if I wanted to call myself a reader despite, at the time, reading almost purely Science-Fiction. One of those authors I tried, having heard SO much about him elsewhere, was Kafka. So, I tried several of his most famous works and DNF'd all of them. 

That experience certainly gave me pause when a Kafka short work was the next booklet in my Penguin Modern Classic boxset. The tale (pun intended!) followed the efforts of a young dog investigating the world trying to build on the canine philosophy he'd picked up along the way. Unsurprisingly, he failed to get anywhere and at the end of the story nothing had been resolved and no notable progress had been made. I don't know if this was the highlight that most people's thinking is flawed or if the author was trying to say that philosophical progress is impossible (or at least VERY difficult). Try as I might I couldn't really see what the point of the narrative was – unless that WAS the point? The problem with the dog's thought process is that there was no attempt to prove or disprove anything, so any suppositions floated in the air without any foundations. Then, on top of these original ideas even more ideas where added – all without any substance. No wonder no progress was, or could, be made. Again, maybe THAT was the point? 

Thankfully this was a very short work. If it had been a novel, it'd definitely have been my 3rd DNF of the year. Needless to say, I am still not encouraged to try Kafka in a longer format. Life, I think, is just too short for that. Not recommended. 

Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann