139 A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2018

⏱️ 84 minutes

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Summary

In 1922, the miserable genius Franz Kafka wrote a short story, Ein Hungerkünstler (A Hunger Artist), about another miserable genius: a man whose “art” is to live in a cage and display his fasting ability to crowds that don't always appreciate what he is trying to do. Inspired by actual historical figures, though suffused with nostalgia and Kafka’s penetrating insight, the story asks us to reconsider our conceptions of art and spectacle, life and death, hunger and humanity. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by superguest Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supporters Club, to feast on one of the greatest short stories ever written. For more on Franz Kafka, try Episode 134 - The Greatest Night of Franz Kafka's Life For more on short stories, try Episode 57 - Borges, Munro, Davis, Barthelme - All About Short Stories (And Long Ones Too) For a deep dive into Alice Munro’s “A Bear Came Over the Mountain,” try Episode 115 - The Genius of Alice Munro For a deep dive into Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” try Episode 110 - Heart of Darkness - Then and Now Help support the show at patreon.com/literatureor historyofliterature.com/shop. Learn more about the show at historyofliterature.com or facebook.com/historyofliterature. Contact the host at jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or via our new Twitter handle, @thejackewilson. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Jack Wilson.
0:11.0	Welcome to The History of Literature. Okay, here we go. We have a great show today. Mike
0:34.2	Pallandrome is here. Back for more good conversation. We're trying something
0:38.7	a little different today. We're going to focus on a short story, a hunger
0:42.0	artist by Franz Kafka, which is such a great story.
0:46.5	One of my all-time favorites.
0:48.0	For those of you who know and love this story, you are in for a treat.
0:51.3	You're going to get the chance to have fun with us as we talk about it
0:54.9	almost paragraph by paragraph for those of you who don't know the story don't
1:00.8	worry because I'm going to read the story the whole story. Here's how it will work.
1:06.0	Mike and I will introduce the story. Then we'll take a break and listen to almost the whole thing.
1:12.4	We'll save the ending. Then we'll come back.
1:15.8	We'll offer our thoughts. We'll listen to the ending and then we'll come back once again to wrap things up.
1:22.3	That sounds way more complicated than it's going to be.
1:26.4	It's like a roller coaster.
1:29.4	Think of it like a roller coaster, which I had more than my fill of recently.
1:33.4	That's the thing when you have a 13 year old and a 10 year old.
1:36.8	If the 13 year old wants to go on and the 10 year old doesn't,
1:40.8	dad steps in. I want him to have some company waiting in line, buckling himself
1:49.0	into that car. So even though I feel concussed and probably am concussed by those things, I keep going
2:00.1	coaster after coaster. Thrill after thrill.
	...

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