Kafka's Parables

An art student at the University of Winnipeg was once given a prize for his cartoon series. The first caption, drawn poorly, was of Jesus Christ with outstretched arms, giving light to his disciples. It read, “Jesus was a good man.” The next boxes were of Jesus performing all sorts of disgusting and immoral acts: sodomizing children, stealing from old ladies, killing dogs, farting in church, etc. The caption read, “But he was not all that good …” This bluntness was admired. One finds it in the parables in Kafka, but in this case the bluntness has been diluted by age and time.