{"id":49353,"date":"2013-03-27T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-03-27T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=49353"},"modified":"2013-03-27T11:10:43","modified_gmt":"2013-03-27T15:10:43","slug":"kafka-literally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/27\/kafka-literally\/","title":{"rendered":"Kafka, Literally"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Franz_Kafka_from_National_Library_Israel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, after it was reported that several prominent dictionaries had expanded their definitions of literally <\/em>to include \u201cfiguratively\u201d as an informal usage, grammar-sensitive commentators launched into another wave of condemnation of the word\u2019s expansive use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dictionaries have begrudgingly bowed to the will of the grammar-averse public,\u201d wrote The Week<\/em>. \u201cAs anyone who paid attention in grade school knows, \u2018literally\u2019 means \u2018in a literal or strict sense, as opposed to a non-literal or exaggerated sense,\u2019 and is the opposite of \u2018figuratively,\u2019 which means \u2018in a metaphorical sense.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Criticisms of the word\u2019s unorthodox use are, strictly speaking, accurate. They reflect well-founded fears that society is coming to care less about clear and beautiful linguistic expression. So I often worry that I might be alone in my enjoyment of the nonsensical images created when the word is misapplied. For me, the usage can introduce gratifying little flashes of surrealism into everyday conversation.<\/p>\n

Just think of Joe Biden\u2019s remark last September: \u201cWe now find ourselves at the hinge of history, and the direction we turn is not figuratively, it\u2019s literally in your hands.\u201d Here Biden is ambitiously making two metaphors concrete: both that history can have an actual hinge and that this can be in someone\u2019s hands. This remark conjures, for me, an image of the vice president heroically grappling, both hands (perhaps amid a howling thunderstorm), with a mighty vaulted door glowing iridescent with the sum of human destiny. It gives me a tickling look at the vice president\u2019s imagination and his sense of the palpability of something as abstract as world history. <\/p>\n

Intentionally or not, Biden\u2019s usage messes with some very basic linguistic circuitry. In effect he is going beyond mere metaphor, pulverizing it and making it real<\/i>. This severs the links of analogy that our minds rely on for language to remain safely within the bounds of reality. Such dismantlement creates illogical and often impossible images in the mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

Franz Kafka nimbly blurred lines between analogy and actuality. In his stories, what would be hyperbolic metaphor already exists in real life. In \u201cIn The Penal Colony,\u201d the military law by which prisoners live is truly inscrutable; for punishing breaches of this gibberish code, the illegible text is carved with needles on prisoner\u2019s bodies until death. In The Trial<\/em>, the court\u2019s tyrannical and mysterious meddling has permeated all corners of the city: its proceedings and punishments can physically occur in residential tenements and attics, even the closets along the halls of Joseph K.\u2019s office building\u2014anywhere and everywhere.<\/p>\n

Rather than misusing literally<\/em> to construct these scenes, Kafka builds entire settings that upstage descriptive metaphor. Yet in The Metamorphosis<\/em>\u2014in which Gregor Samsa, who carries out the vermin-like existence of a traveling salesman serving the debts of his parents, turns into an cockroach\u2014Kafka purposely misuses the word. After Gregor\u2019s well-meaning sister removes the furniture from along the walls of his bedroom to allow Gregor to more freely crawl along the walls and ceiling; \u201cthe sight of the bare walls literally made her heart bleed,\u201d Kafka writes. (In lieu of any knowledge of German, I\u2019m taking Joachim Neugroschel\u2019s translation of the story at face value.) The sort of literalized metaphor that dictates the impossible story is shrunk down to a simple turn of phrase.<\/p>\n

In The Trial<\/em>, Kafka misuses literally<\/em> again. Chiding his lawyer for not helping him enough in the face of the Court\u2019s all-encompassing hold, Joseph K. says, \u201cthis was hardly adequate assistance for a man who feels this thing encroaching upon him and literally touching him to the quick.\u201d The Court had not yet actually groped Joseph K. in a sensitive, bodily place, as the archaic phrase would indicate, but rather has made his life miserable through continuous harassment and defamation.<\/p>\n

Like in The Metamorphosis<\/em>, in both The Trial\u2019<\/em>s overall aesthetic and specific language, Kafka confounds analogy and reality. These two tactics appear parts of the same ultimate strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Far from sounding careless, Kafka\u2019s usage appears a calculated component of his surrealist project. Even for those not attempting a great modernist novel, the effect is possible in everyday conversation. \u201cShe literally exploded with anger\u201d is a commonly mocked example of the word\u2019s misuse. Although it\u2019s admittedly clich\u00e9, it still generates a gratifying cartoonish flash for me: the person in question actually blows to pieces, which is funny and also descriptive.<\/p>\n

What make this and other misuses of the word satisfying is the images they create. To say \u201cthis is literally the worst food I\u2019ve ever had\u201d or \u201che is literally insane\u201d does not generate an interesting scene but rather uses literally<\/em> as a mere intensifier. The word\u2019s misuse seems to lose its power when dealing with abstraction.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if we embrace the dictionary\u2019s adoption of the word\u2019s informal use, it should be in a qualified sense. The rule of thumb could be simple: that if the word\u2019s misuse doesn\u2019t create an interesting picture, it\u2019s probably best to use another adverb or adjective.<\/p>\n

Whether we like it or not, dictionaries have taken a big step toward cementing the informal literally<\/em> into our language. If it is really here to stay, at the very least, people could be encouraged to correctly misuse the word. With enough awareness it could someday become accepted that, rather than sowing grammatical decay, certain misuses of the word can bring to our language elements of joy.<\/p>\n

Spencer Woodman is a New York\u2013based writer who mainly covers labor issues. You can follow him on Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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