The Worms, the Library, and the Kafkaesque

   There were worms on the ground.  Long worms, pink worms, blotchy worms, naive worms that left the ground only to be obliterated by passersby.  Worms crawling out from beneath shrubs, worms climbing down steps.  More worms in one place than Eugenia had ever seen before.

* * *

   The library, which stood just to the north side of the other campus buildings, had a set of double doors, at its otherwise humble entrance. The left door was a boisterous, belligerent, shrill personality, ever eager to announce an entrance or departure. The right-hand door, with all the acquiescence of being the left-door's opposite, was a quite mind, with hinges oiled modestly and an ever-sympathetic ear. One could slip easily in or out through this door, without so much as a glance towards the other one, while receiving only a gentle nod of recognition from the right door, closing mutely as it did.

    Eugenia much preferred the right door.

    She slipped into the library now and walked quickly, though soundlessly, along the library walls, so soon as they were within access. Her mind ran along in front of her and had already found her customary study-table. It was the table most other people avoided, as the window beside it had inherited a view of a neglected recess on the roof; where a good deal of last year's leaves and rain and mud and grime in general had assembled themselves, around an odd plumbing pipe or two and with no reasonable order. But it was the only window in this corner of the library, and this corner of the library was the only one neither filled with murmur nor stifled by inherent, incessant, study-room silence. And Eugenia did like the window. She could look out at the sky and forget the nearer, drearier components of the view.

Randomisities...that's basically all I write these days, apart from poems.  I still have to rewrite my historical fantasy novel; but at the moment, I don't have time, or the right frame of mind, to rewrite it properly.  So I scribble randomosities.  Well, they do say to "write what you know".  I guess I know about worms, and libraries, and so on... 

Oh, and I've read some more Kafka, and experienced the side effects thereof.  The other day I was at school, reading Kafka; and there was choir practice downstairs.  They were singing a very cheerful song.  I was on the landing/balcony thing, sitting in a saucer chair, the only type of chair in the room.  Eventually the choir group comes up the stairs.  They stroll past me, singing as they go.  They walk down the hall.  The echoing of their voices increases.  The choir comes back a little ways and stop, still singing in the hall. 

If one is not reading Kafka, this is all perfectly normal and unremarkable.  If viewed through a more Kafkaesque lens, then all of that translates to:  Why are they singing?  Why are they walking and singing?  Why is this normal?  Why does the echoing sound ominous?  Why is the building so otherwise quiet?  Why am I sitting in a saucer chair?  Why am I not clapping?  Why am I not singing?  ;)

The Kafka book I was reading is called The Castle, unfinished.  I say "was reading", because I made it through the first few chapters and I'm doubt I'm going to finish it.  ;)

The protagonist (referred to as "K.") is unbelievably annoying.  Unlike Gregor (from The Metamorphosis), K. can think of no one but himself.  He just runs around helplessly in an almost constant pity-party. He lets his life be upset by other people in a most pathetic lack of gumption.

To be more specific, K. is supposed to be a surveyor hired by "the Count" who lives at "the Castle".  But due to a web of bureaucracy, K. is stuck in the local village without any real instructions of how to go about his work.  So what does he do?  Instead of obstinately hiking to the Castle, or leaving town altogether, or anything sensible--K. scurries around trying to make friends and run away from the peasants.  And then he gets upset when he finds out his "friend" is not someone of equal or greater class, but a peasant.

Now, I like the basic plot idea, don't get me wrong.  But this kind of character really gets on my nerves.  :P