BGM: Chapterhouse - Alpha Phase (Retranslated by Global Communication)
When I was a college student (about 19 or 20 years old,) I read an impressive book. It was Gustav Janouch's "Conversations With Kafka [グスタフ・ヤノーホ『カフカとの対話』]", which contains various fragments of memories of this author Janouch who once had had a connection/friendship with Franz Kafka. TBH, today was the day Franz Kafka passed away so I chose this book to spend my morning time with.
Before reading this book, I had thought Kafka's books must be so absurd/irrational that I couldn't understand them. At that time, I had found that my life had already been full of troubles, therefore I had not been interested in such a surrealistic world (maybe at that time, I had already found that my real life had been already absurd enough... although I had not been diagnosed as an autistic one.) So, I had not read any of Kafka's works yet (besides that marvelous "The Metamorphosis".)
But, by encountering the quote from this book in an exam in high school (I remember so,) I became interested in this Janouch's book, and also "another" figure of Kafka I had never learned from any books or other sources. At least from Janouch's, I could have become a small fan of Kafka because this book has described Kafka as a tiny, but charismatic person who kept a certain intimate friendship with Janouch.
Since my first contact with this book, I have lived this life by reading this so many times. Of course, I am not so young now... but even now by reading this book, I can find an emotion of adoration toward him as a saint or living God for me, even though Janouch describes Kafka as a modest and friendly worker with his sensitive style. In a way, Kafka must have that kind of "double faces" I guess. An ordinary worker who must have a God mentality... I adore him, even though I won't be able to reach his stage forever.
This afternoon I learned a piece of news about the Yasukuni shrine where a Chinese person had drawn graffiti. On WeChat I talked about this news with a Chinese friend. Of course, it's so easy for me to get angry about this. But I need to learn how those people have had "their" emotion of anger toward us (the Japanese nation/people) through the whole history.
