''What
do I have in common with the Jews? I don't
even have anything in common with myself.'
Nothing could better express the essence of
Franz Kafka, a man described by his friends
as living behind a 'glass wall'.
Kafka wrote in the tradition of the great
Yiddish storytellers, whose stock- in-trade
was bizarre fantasy, tainted with hilarity
and self-abasement. What he brought to this
tradition was an almost unbearably expanded
consciousness. Alienated from his roots, his
family, his surroundings, and primarily from
his own body, Kafka created a unique literary
language in which to hide away, transforming
himself into a cockroach, an ape, a dog, a
mole or a circus artiste who starves himself
to death in front of admiring crowds.
David
Mairowitz's brilliant text and the illustrations
of the world's greatest underground comic
artist, Robert Crumb, help us to see beyond
the cliché 'Kafkaesque' and to peer through
the glass wall at the unique creature on display
there.
***
David
Zane Mairowitz's plays for radio are produced
in over twenty countries, and his radiophonic
opera, The Voluptuous Tango, won the Prix
Italia Special Prize and the Sony Prize in
1997.
Robert
Crumb is the creator of Fritz the Cat, Mr
Natural and other legendary cartoon figures.
He is one of the pioneers of American underground
comics and his work has been celebrated at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
