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Kafka on the shore

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Eyal10+
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Kafka on the shore

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Hey guys, reading the murakami novel here. Got this passage i wanna share with you to know what you think, about kafka's thoughts of franz kafka's "the penal county".

"That's my favorite of his short stories."
"No kidding?"
I nod.
"Why's that?"
It takes me a while to gather my thoughts. "I think what Kafka does is give
a purely mechanical explanation of that complex machine in the story, as sort of a
substitute for explaining the situation we're in. What I mean is..." I have to
give it some more thought. "What I mean is, that's his own device for explaining
the kind of lives we lead. Not by talking about our situation, but by talking
about the details of the machine."
... Oshima most likely found my explanation of the Kafka story convincing. To
some extent at least. But what I really wanted to say didn't get across. I wasn't
just giving some general theory of Kafka's fiction, I was talking about something
very real. Kafka's complex, mysterious execution device wasn't some metaphor or
allegory--it's actually here, all around me. But I don't think anybody would get
that. Not Oshima. Not anybody.

What did he mean by stating that franz's mechanical focus on the machine in the story reflects the lives we lead?
And how come the machine is REAL- around him, nowadays?
Contemplating about this real hard and cant seem to break through. Thank you very much for help, it drives me crazy! Cheers.
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