One Great Short Story To Read Today: Franz Kafka’s “in The Penal Colony”

According to nan powers that beryllium (er, apparently according to Dan Wickett of nan Emerging Writers Network), May is Short Story Month. To celebrate, for nan third twelvemonth successful a row, nan Literary Hub unit will beryllium recommending a azygous short story, free* to publication online, each (work) time of nan month. Why not publication on pinch us? Today, we recommend:

Franz Kafka’s “In nan Penal Colony”

Let’s commencement this year’s bid disconnected pinch a classic, which besides happens to beryllium my favourite Kafka communicative (in adjacent title pinch “The Hunger Artist”). “In nan Penal Colony” is, for illustration truthful overmuch of Kafka’s work, some an all-purpose metaphor and a specific, chilling image of cruelty, bureaucratic monstrosity, and quality derangement. In it, a visitant to an unnamed onshore is “treated” to a objection of a definite machine—used to torture and execute anyone who has surgery a norm by continually etching said norm into their skin—by its obsessive operator. But we slow observe nan existent quality of nan machine, and nan operator, things statesman to shift…

The communicative begins:

“It’s a peculiar apparatus,” said nan Officer to nan Traveller, gazing pinch a definite admiration astatine nan device, pinch which he was, of course, thoroughly familiar. It appeared that nan Traveller had responded to nan invitation of nan Commandant only retired of politeness, erstwhile he had been asked to be nan execution of a worker condemned for disobeying and insulting his superior. Of course, liking successful nan execution was not very precocious moreover successful nan penal colony itself. At least, present successful nan small, deep, sandy valley, closed successful connected each sides by barren slopes, isolated from nan Officer and nan Traveller location were coming only nan Condemned, a vacant-looking man pinch a wide rima and dilapidated hairsbreadth and face, and nan Soldier, who held nan dense concatenation to which were connected nan mini chains which bound nan Condemned Man by his feet and wrist bones, arsenic good arsenic by his neck, and which were besides linked to each different by connecting chains. The Condemned Man, incidentally, had an look of specified dog-like resignation that it looked arsenic if 1 could group him free to roam astir nan slopes and would only person to whistle astatine nan commencement of nan execution for him to return.

translation by Ian Johnston

Read it here.

*If you deed a paywall, we urge trying pinch a different/private/incognito browser (but listen, you didn’t perceive it from us).