This is not a sign of power, yet a reflex derived from his alienation. We could even go further and affirm that the artist is an escapist, because he absolutely ignores the real necessity to get a decent job and he also ignores the clock in his cage, the ticking indicator that the time he went to work has come. He escapes in his own world of fantasy, where he can create his own rules and philosophy of life.
One very realistic element in the story, combined in an unusual manner with the rest of the almost absurd type of characteristics, is the existence of a manager. While the artist's fasting emerges from suffering and grief, his impresario denatures this fact in an entertaining, circus-like show. This seems like a parody of real art, which is transposed, in the capitalist world, in a money-making scheme.
Another realistic detail of the story is the complicated relationship between the suffering artist and his ignorant audience. No one could understand his art. His art is fasting, which we should see as a metaphor for suffering. When he claims fasting is easy - hence, suffering is easy -, no one believes him; people even accused him for cheating and furtively eating. At a deep level, he is the misunderstood genius.
Nevertheless, the artist continues to perform his weird art, because he needs to feel superior to his audience. He needs to prove to himself that his art is living and breathing, that it is superior to everybody's ignorance, that it is intense and powerful. The artist decides that the inaccessibility of his art is a very wise way to protect it from the unenlightened eyes of the others. Ordinary people are much more interested in cheap entertainment, in watching someone else's private life than really understanding the nucleus of a certain visible fact - like...
He is putting this starving artist on a plane above the regular person. These people cannot truly understand art, or the artist, because they do not have ability nor have they given up all for something they are passionate about. That makes artists better than anyone else that views their works. Are artists the only individuals who see reality of life as it really is? Are they the only ones
Hunger Artist" Franz Kafka Deprivation and Delusion in "The Hunger Artist" "The Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, is the story of a man who is defined only by his profession, which is that of a traveling performance artist. His method of performance is to stage public fasts, depriving himself of food in an attempt to entertain the unappreciative public. Kafka explores several themes in the work, including self-deprivation as a means
As he becomes frustrated by onlookers' questions, he shakes the bars of the cage like some wild animal. The artist's cage is literal and figurative in this case. He is confined to his life of suffering and his is a prisoner of it. His psychological cage is just like his physical one. He willingly accepts both. He was never appreciated and this led to even more dissatisfaction. The artist
Transformative Art The artists that I have chosen to spotlight come from three continents and different ethnicities. They are actors, musicians, lyricists, rappers, poets, and comedians. They are also revolutionaries who are using art to transform the world that they live within into a better place. Saul Williams Saul Williams is an artist with many interests and abilities; he is hard to place in a single category. Saul Williams is a poet-both written
Dada and Degenerate Art in Germany At the end of WW1, Germany found itself in a period of transition. Held responsible for the war and forced to pay reparations, the Weimar Republic was in a disastrous state. The Kaiser Willelm II had abdicated, hyperinflation decimated the value of the mark, and Berlin was fast becoming vice capital of the world with "New Frau" poster-girl Anita Berber taking pride in her position
He does his share of complaining but he does little else to remedy the situation. The truth of the matter is that Gregor did not enjoy much of his life away from work. He never expresses a desire to have more in his life nor does he express any regret, until he is a bug. In "A Hunger Artist," our hunger artist chooses to live a considerable amount of
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