Plague and Update

Finished Kafka's The Trial the other day.  Perhaps I am just too craft oriented right now to understand the deeper meaning of this book.  I get the idea behind it and I get the statement on vagueness and red tape, but at the end I was left with an unsettled feeling of 'what the fuck did I just read?'  In some respects I was glad the guy got it in the end but I didn't feel he deserved it.  In my annotated bibliography I wrote that it felt like a much less interesting version of Camus' The Stranger.  And speaking of Camus, I am now currently reading The Plague.  I read the first couple of chapters aloud to Hannah and had to raise an eyebrow and admit that it was already off to a much better start than the Kafka piece.  Now, to be fair, I think I need to read some more Kafka before I decide that I'm definitely not a fan - he's been described as amazing, bizarre, and twisted, and those all sound like things I would like so... we'll have to give Metamorphosis a shot.  I don't mind slow literature, but I just did not like The Trial.

Back to The Plague: I mentioned to my mother the other day that I was reading this book and she retorted merrily that she'd read the book in its original French.  That was back in her high school days when she was quite the little proficient in the language.  When I stared back at her all wide eyed with envy my father remarked, "Yes, Amanda, we did have lives before you came along."  It gave me a good chuckle.

Currently I am sitting at Hastings sipping a hazelnut latte.  I still have quite a bit of homework to finish, not to mention a great deal of world reconstruction for my creative work, but that'll have to wait until tonight and tomorrow.  Today at work I drank the equivalent of a pot and a half of coffee and am still a bit jazzed up and unable to truly focus.  On the plus side, one of my many distractions (the air of impending doom a la taxes) will be removed from my sight tonight.  I finally got the last of the W-2 information in the mail yesterday and can finish up at Tax Hawk later this evening.  Though I highly suspect I will be owing, it will feel good to be done with it all.