It's always bothered me that when people adapt Kafka's Metamorphosis they depict Gregor Samsa as a roach. Cockroaches do not undergo metamorphosis. They are born as nymphs which are just smaller wingless versions of the adult form.
Kafka writes that Gregor can only enjoy rotten food. Which also makes him not at all roach-like. Roaches strongly prefer fresh vegetables to rotten ones.
I always imagined him as a beetle. Which implies that the man Gregor was a larvae for all his pre-bug life.
@futurebird Someone once told me "It's not Kafkaesque to wake up an insect. If you wake up an insect and your first thought is that this might make you late for work...that is Kafkaesque." That completely changed my perspective on a lot of things.
@roadriverrail@futurebird Just saw a tiktok where someone said they woke up in the middle of the night to a cryptid / their personal sleep demon standing at the foot of their bed - and their only thought was "you don't scare me, I have to go to work in 5 hours, flit off"
I always thought that he had wings too! Just didn't know how to use them. Could have F off out the window at any time he wanted, but no one, not even him could understand what he had become.
I thought that was the whole point of the story... We're all grubs, and Gregor reached the next stage... but none of the grubs in his family could understand him.
@futurebird I remember having this in a high school English class. I asked the teacher if it was supposed to be metaphorical for something. Her only response was "what do you think it means?"
I never really did understand it, but at least now I feel better knowing probably most people didn't really, lol. It really would have been interesting if the classes included discussion of things like what it might have meant. Oh well.
@futurebird Reading this description kind of made me think of descriptions of trans self-discovery, as coming out of the egg. Although it's not clear whether Gregor is coming out as himself, unappreciated, or as something else, just confusing to all. Intriguing thing to think about!
It's more the common illustrations of the story that have it wrong than Kafka. I thought the story was about how disappointing it is when your kid turns out to be a useless writer. Autobiographical about metamorphosis into the wrong sort of creature. A useless and horrible creature if it lives in your house rather than under a log in the woods, or flying through the forest.