Invitation to a Beheading (original 1959; edition 1989)

Marvellous! Similar theme to Orwell's "1984" and Kafka's "The Trial"

The writing is pretty. Not the right word but I'm too lazy to use the thesaurus. Effective? It was simple but I found my imagination engaged. There was a passage (one of the many) where Cincinnatus was describing his cell, and as his mind wandered my wandered also, not from lack of interest or boredom. I read it over maybe five times before I could bring myself to move on.

This book made me scratch the right side of my head, the underdeveloped nearly concave side, in confusion. My readings usually (besides the floof) have direct practical application, functionality, numbers...none of which are required when it comes to Ahrt.* It reminds me of a glass vase display I saw a long time ago, where the curves of the vases were visible but they had been pulled apart while still molten so that the halves were joined by drooping strands; I'd thought of Venus flytraps with salivary strands but the Ahrtist’s blurb spoke of representing urban deterioration and the torturous agony of our separation from nature...huh? It also reminds me of this ceramic display of heads with phallic noses (ceramic Ahrtists love phalluses) that appeared to be crudely and haphazardly thrown together; but a closer inspection showed careful detailing and my initial reaction of "my four year old could make that!" (if I’d had a four year old) changed into "that's pretty cool" (the Ahrtist's blurb spoke of childhood memories of faces...Ahrtists....) Literature is like that glass and ceramic to me, where I often try to take too literal an interpretation and miss its worth.

Since I can't block out the over-literal tendency, I have two thoughts on what this story means. "Means." 1) One heck of a description of writer's block. Not an original thought since it fell out of C's difficulty with writing a letter. The cell and interchangeable jailers represent publishers who pressure for a cookie-cutter action bestseller, the unfaithful wife is the bestseller plot who gives herself to others while C dawdles (Dan Brown?), the crime is wanting to write Ahrt. Eh? 2) A sinister allegory on social conformity. Again, not original since the book kept referring to his difference from others, an "opaqueness."

I do think I'm missing the point. The significance of the mother's visit and Emmie? The oak novel and the draft in the cell becoming a leafy breeze with an acorn dropping out of nowhere? The references to things being off-center like the peonies being placed off-center on the table before the first interview, the light off-center in the ceiling, the scaffold off-center in the plaza?

All I know is that I don't understand Ahrt, I need the Ahrtist to explain, and sometimes the Ahrtist has no explanation.

Someone give me a math problem, this dunce cap is squeezing the left side of my head and I'd like to take it off.

*Copied from karen's shelf name. ( )

Cincinnatus C. é condenado à morte. O motivo é que, em uma terra em que as pessoas são obrigadas a serem translúcidas, ele é opaco. Cincinnatus é preso, então, sem saber quando será sua execução (esse fato e as conversas com o carcereiro são o principal motivo dessa novela ter sido chamada de Kafkaesca, em um tempo em que Nabokov não conhecia Kafka). Segundo uma entrevista com o autor, essa obra é aquela pela qual ele tinha mais estima.
Tradução para o inglês de Dmitri Nabokov, com supervisão do autor. ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as Nabokov's later books that I've read, but it's still a good read. It was pretty confusing and dreamlike, with lots of black humour. It did remind me quite a bit of Kafka in The Trial or The Castle, that same sense of the protagonist not quite knowing what's happening or why, and battling against an insane bureaucracy. ( )

In an unknown and abstract country, a man named Cincinnatus C. awaits death be beheading, convicted for the crime of gnostic turpitude. Spending his days confined to his cell, his jailers try everything in their power to convince Cincinnatus to be like everyone else. The director Rodrig Ivanovich wants him to play the part of the repentant prisoner. Rodion the jailer's feelings are hurt when Cincinnatus doesn't like the food he prepares. Even M'sieur Pierre, who pretends to be a fellow prisoner in the next cell while in fact serves as the executioner, determines to make friends with Cincinnatus and to have him follow the established rules of society. But poor Cincinnatus, he wants only two things: 1) a visit from his wife Marthe to explain his situation so that she can grieve and move on with her life, and 2) to know the date and time at which the execution is to take place because, after all, he is allowed that knowledge by law. While he waits, he begins to understand that the world around him is nothing more than pretense, a circus act to appease the masses, and that his rejection of what is expected and routine can b even more freeing than he thought possible.

At first, I was put off by the story's setting. It's very absurdist, with jailers asking prisoners to waltz with them about their cells or Cincinnatus' visiting in-laws bringing all their furniture with them to his cell. But I'm glad I stuck with it to the end. Cincinnatus views his own world in a different way than his fellow countrymen, and that makes him dangerous. Their bizarre actions, instead of convincing Cincinnatus of the error of his ways, re-inforce his determination to be himself regardless of the consequences. As the hour of his execution approaches, his belief begins to punch through the artifice of the world around him, and he can see things as they truly are.

To me, "Invitation to a Beheading" comes across as a statement of individuality: think your own thoughts and forge your own path in the world, even if that doesn't conform to society at large. After all, where would we be if those people didn't take a chance and stray outside the lines? The world would be a more boring place, indeed. ( )