Post-Kafakaesque

Date: 20-08-2021

Kafka is one of the most impactful and relatable authors that I have ever read. Another author with that level of deep effect on me is Dostoyevsky. It is like looking at the society but without its thin shell of fake civilization. Maybe, I can write a separate document where I compare them in-depth.

I am not new to paperwork. As a Pakistani who has lived in three foreign countries for education purposes, documents regarding visa, healthcare, banking, rental and travel applications have been a constant presence in my life over the last six years. My first try at applying for PR (permanent residence) in Canada felt so overwhelming, defeating, and grinding that I gave it up in the middle, even after being accepted into the later stages of the process. This particular experience vividly reminded me of Kafka’s story “The trial”. It is about a guy who is accused of something and does not even know what he is accused of. He is just helpless and small in the face of this invisible charge from the government. It uproots his life and engulfs his existence! He desperately tries to understand his accusation and the corresponding procedures and punishments but fails. Even though the judicial system existed to help him, in principle, it proved exhausting to try to get any help from it.

Many a time, bureaucracy seems so much bigger than all of us and it gets to control so much about our lives; endless loops and circles that you have to go through to get even an insignificant thing done. So much around me reminds me of Kafka. In the pre-covid era, every morning on my way to work, I would feel chilled at becoming part of the thousands-strong robotic army of line-forming, card-tapping, silently-looking-into-the-vacant-space subway passengers.

I wonder if and how society has changed since Kafka poured his brilliance out on paper and what processes can be described as post-kafkaesque.