Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a German speaking Jewish novelist born in Prague to a middle class family. His childhood was lonely despite being the eldest of six children; his two brothers unfortunately died in their infancy and the remaining children were mainly raised by governesses. Both parents worked hard in the family business and were consequently absent for much of the working week, leaving the household in the care of servants.
Kafka was a shy and introverted character, and an avid reader. He considered writers such as Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, and Heinrich Von Kleist to be “true blood brothers”. Kafka’s father expected him to take over the family goods business, however, after completing a degree in Law he worked for insurance companies, and started an asbestos factory with an acquaintance. He claimed to despise working just to pay bills and would much rather have spent his time writing. Illness plagued him through his adult life, with complications arising from tuberculosis keeping him from joining the military.
Franz Kafka never married, although he was engaged to be wed three times, and was reportedly plagued by a mixture of a fear of sexual failure and incessant sexual desires. He was incredibly shy about his body and suffered terribly with low self-confidence, but despite this he continued to visit brothels and engage in affairs with many women.
His close friend and ally, Max Brod, saw a side of him that Kafka never truly understood himself. Brod knew his friend as trusted and honest confidant, intelligent, fascinating, and conscientious. Brod explained how Kafka took his writing very seriously, preferring silence while working, and considered writing as “a form of prayer”.
To say Kafka was an odd sort of person would be doing him a disservice, however accurate it would be. His personality was not typical of his time, nor ours, but we can certainly see many traits in him that we recognise in people we know. He was an intense and introverted man, but fond of his closest friends who took the time to know him, and his writing meant everything to him. Academics have noted how he may have been suffering from mental disorders unrecognised at the time such as anorexia nervosa, and schizophrenia, and perhaps even on the autistic spectrum.
Kafka- Andy Warhol
Our ‘Private Lives of Authors’ series has previously touched upon some quirky hobbies of writers- Sylvia Plath’s beekeeping, Ayn Rand’s stamp collecting, and Ernest Hemingway’s six-toed cats to name a few- but Kafka’s hobby was little more… Niche.
As I have touched upon before, Franz Kafka was both a little obsessed and a little disgusted by the act of sex. His fascination grew in such a way that he would regularly visit brothels, and have numerous affairs with women. He had a complicated relationship with the physical act which manifested in him accumulating a collection of pornography.
James Hawes, a Kafka biographer, claimed in his book Excavating Kafka (find links to buy below) that the writer had an extensive collection of varied erotica and hardcore images. Despite the outrage of German academics who maintain that Kafka’s collection was merely art and illustration, Hawes states that Kafka kept his collection in a safe hidden in a bookshelf therefore must have known it was not for regular reading pleasure.
The illustrations include some macabre images of beastiality, gore, and lesbianism. Spiked hedgehog-esque creatures performing fellatio, naked breasts being clawed at by golems… Whether or not Kafka actually masturbated to these illustrations is something we will not know for sure, nor should we perhaps..? It does, however, shine another, albeit kooky, light on the inner workings of the writer’s mind. We perhaps all have a darker side to our personalities, some things we would rather not have everyone know, but nevertheless those things make us who we are.
As long as it is not hurting anyone, or ourselves, there is no harm in enjoying weird and wonderful interests… Some more weird than others, I suppose.
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