I'll start with the disclaimer that this blog post is actually intended for last week. Please still feel free to comment though: I'm sure you could count it as one of your two comments for this week.
This year, for me at least, Existentialism has been everywhere. I first dealt with it in AP Euro, came across it again in AP Composition, had a unit on it in Philosophy, and now am reading Kafka's Metamorphosis in College Lit. What interests me most about Existentialism is how loosely defined it is.
From what I've gathered, Existentialism is concerned with human anxiety, angst, and worry. It can take many forms--from plays to novels to poetry--but it's primary focus is a somehow corrupted human existence.
With that all in mind, and given the context of Metamorphosis (which explicitly deals with all of the above), the purpose of this blog is to share any thoughts--relating to Kafka's novella or otherwise--dealing with Existentialism. This could possibly be a personal story of an experience with anxiety or inadequacy, a response to Metamorphosis, an opinion of Existentialism, something to add to the definition I provided, or any other thoughts on the topic.
I hope someone reads this.
Indeed existentialism is everywhere, I have, however, found that the definition relates more towards the effort to find a purpose for human kind on earth, which leads to the anxiety, angst, and worry. Kafka has an interestingly depressed view of existentialism: "The purpose of life is that it ends." His view is as simple as we live and then die like start to finish. And his book, Metamorphosis, in my opinion shows how at any moment during our journey we can change drastically but it's all summed up with the definte end, death. Rather depressing isn't it?
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