A Hunger Artist Life, Consciousness and Existence Quotes Page 1
(Paragraph) We used Stanley Corngold's translation.
| Quote #1 […] there were also permanent watchmen, chosen by the public – oddly enough, usually butchers – whose job it was, always three at a time, to watch the starvation artist day and night […] (2) |
The watchmen seem almost priest-like in the way they attend to the artist. But then again, they're butchers – ironic, since the man they're watching is starving himself. And why butchers? What is it about the hunger artist's performance that requires watchmen skilled in slaughter and slicing up meat?
| Quote #2 Experience had proven that for about forty days, through gradually intensified publicity, you could go on stimulating a city's interest, but beyond that time there was no audience […] (3) |
The "forty days" carries a possible echo of the temptation of Jesus in the New Testament, which also took forty days. But the forty days in Kafka's story refers to a marketing principle, at least for the profit-hungry manager – surely an ironic jab at any attempt at turning Kafka's story into a religious parable.
| Quote #3 […] he felt no limits to his ability to starve. (3) |
The artist seems to get a huge boost to his self-esteem just thinking about how great he is at starving.
