Denver, CO -- July 31, 2007


Reading Valis, by Philip K. Dick. It's about a guy in 1974 who gets a bunch of information fired into his head which he thinks is from God and he goes crazy, but it’s actually his future self.

Why is he reading this book? He’d been wanting to read this author for a long time.

Hs favorite book? The Trial, by Kafka. He read it in the original German. It’s about a world in which things happen for no reason. He wakes to find out he’s been arrested and tries to figure out what he’s being charged with and is executed. How did this make him feel? Depressed.

He read it in the original German (after studying German for 7 years). He’s read translations of Kafka before and says they’re not the same. There are certain phrases and words. If he could understand Russian he’d read Dostoevsky.

His second favorite book is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig. It's sort of a philosophy book. The message behind the book is that there are many ways of thinking about the world and none of them are necessarily wrong.

Something cool about Denver?
Ethel’s House of Soul at 26th and Welton--a soul food restaurant.

1 comment:

Nicole V Lozano said...

I can relate to Kafka's work changing in transalation. I like to read the poetry of Pablo Neruda (in Spanish)and the translation to English is often not what I would expect. It's better in Spanish of course. But being that I don't speak/read in German, the English translation of Kafka's work might be the best I can do.

Cool concept you've got going her Sonya.I'm gona stay tuned.