“The Judgment” by Franz Kafka (post 6): To Kafka, the main meaning of stories may have been his consciousness altering, emotional experience

In interviews, authors are often reluctant to interpret their work, and they sometimes do not even seem like the kind of person who would write what they wrote.

Some authors have explained this by making a distinction between their two selves, the self who does the living (including interviews) and the self who does the writing; in other words, their host personality and their alternate personalities.

Host personalities may be reluctant to interpret the work, because they didn’t write it. But if you insist, they can often provide good, plausible interpretations.

The above is an oversimplification, because the host personality may have some intermittent memories associated with the writing process, and the alternate personalities may be monitoring interviews from behind the scenes, even providing the host with answers, and taking over in a pinch.

But compared to most authors, Kafka seems to have been less concerned with plausibility and more concerned with his own emotional experience:

“Kafka wrote ‘The Judgment’ in a single sitting on September 22, 1912. In later writings, he described the creative outburst of ‘The Judgment’ as ‘the total opening of body and soul,’ as well as saying that ‘the story evolved as a true birth, covered with filth and slime.’ Kafka viewed the work as ‘one of his most successful and perfect literary creations’ which he was able to write in a ‘semi-unconscious state of mind.’ Kafka was incredibly enthusiastic after the work, and…[confessed] to his friend and biographer Max Brod that when he wrote that final line, he was thinking of ‘a violent ejaculation’ ” (1).

1. Wikipedia. “The Judgment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Judgment