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About this quote

What does it mean?
Kafka believed he could only achieve his impossible writing style by stripping language of specific colors, tones, or qualities to define the boundaries of impossibility.
In plain terms
He made his writing possible by removing specific styles and tones.
What can you take from it?
Remove specific qualities from language to define impossible boundaries.

Where it applies

  • creative writing
  • literary analysis
  • language design

Putting it to work

  • write neutrally
  • avoid specific tone
  • define limits

Questions to consider

  • Can language be truly neutral?
  • How do you define impossibility?

Another view

Removing all qualities might make writing too vague to be useful.

More from Franz Kafka

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  2. He is interested in the feelings of the squash ball, and of the champagne bottle that launches the ship. In a football match his sympathy is not with either of…

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  3. You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holdin…

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