Why go to art museums? One good reason is to see the familiar in a new light. That is a wonderful thing and Franz Kafka gets at the experience of it in writing this:
A sudden burst of sunshine seemed to illumine the Statue of Liberty, so that he saw it in a new light, although he had sighted it long before. The arm with the sword rose up as if newly stretched aloft, and round the figure blew the free winds of heaven.
(Excerpted from Peter Beicken’s essay, “Moving Pictures—Visual Pleasures: Kafka’s Cinematic Writing," page 89 in Mediamorphoris: Kafka and the Moving Image, Shai Biderman editor. Wallflower Press, 2016.)
For a brief biography of Franz Kafka, click here. For images of or relating to Franz Kafka, click here.
For a brief biography of Peter Beicken, click here. For images of or relating to Peter Beicken, click here.
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