[bleakenthusiasm]

Not sure if this is a German thing or specific to my bubble, but I feel like at least my friends and I have a different interpretation of "kafkaesque" than the author of this article.

Usually kafkaesque situations have something to do with bureaucracy, politics or law. They contain some element of someone sticking to rules or procedures no matter how uncomfortable and useless they might be in the specific situation. You also don't know the procedure, you just try to follow along but keep getting it wrong while everyone else seems to assume that everyone would know how this works.

Peak Kafka is reached if these rules or procedures end up in a deadlock with other procedures or if you have two or more people sticking to the official process but they all have different versions of the process that don't work together. And you are just standing right in the middle, wondering how on earth you ended up here, you just wanted to get a license renewed.

[Doxin]

That was my take on kafkaesque too and it seems the take The Onion has on it too for the most part[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEyFH-a-XoQ

[keiferski]

Most of his short stories are not about bureaucracy at all, but are rather best described as mystical parables. Somewhat like Borges if Borges were less analytical and more I Ching-esque. The bureaucratic reputation comes more from The Castle and The Trial, I think.

[monkeyfun]

A personal favorite example of such a mystical parable type work of his that comes to mind for anyone curious is "A Hunger Artist".

[keiferski]

Yep that’s a good one. My personal favorite is The Great Wall of China, especially the parable within it, A Message from the Emperor.

https://www.plus.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kafka_AMes...

[willtemperley]

Whilst I agree with this, I'd take it further: engaging with a system (it could be a bureaucracy, office culture, a manipulative family) exactly as is expected will destroy a person as it did K.

[rurban]

It might have destroyed K, bug not Kafka himself. Kafka himself was an incredible successful lawyer, who won every single insurance case for his important employer. He was also a good sportsman, ate very healthy and had huge fun provoking his hated father. It's all a very elaborate dark comedy.

He was always on the winning side of the bureaucratic nightmares, that's why he had so much fun writing about it.

[watwut]

I think that what you describe is just one of many possible situations where that word can be used. Kafka had super weird stories, but not much about bureaucracy