Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. A surreal study of alienation. The opening line of this astonishing short novel personifies the Kafka style : 'When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed. He lay on his tough, armoured back, and raising his head a little, managed to see..., His numerous legs, pathetically frail by contrast to the rest of him, waved feebly before his eyes'
Hence the auctorial description 'Kafkaesque' used to describe surreal distortion and the feeling of impending doom - that has seeped into the contemporary lexicon. There is another author whose name too has become an auctorial description : 'Orwellian' (George Orwell) used to describe a dystopian nightmare of 'thought-crime' and 'thought-speak' under the auspices of a dark and all consuming cloud of totalitarianism.
So you think you're in control then???
Read Kafka
Read Orwell
