0. Introduction: Why Kafka, and Why Boredom?
Based on the framework established in Phenomenology of Boredom,
this article analyzes Franz Kafka’s trilogy of novels: The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika), The Trial, and The Castle.
Previous posts:
[See: The Phenomenology of Boredom: Why Modern Life Feels Dead (Part 1 — Lost Agency)]
[See: The Phenomenology of Boredom: Why Most Content Feels Dead (and How to Fix It)]
Why Kafka?
He was never a man who dug deep into the world—not in career, race, nationality, or personal life.
He always hovered on the periphery, agonizing over how to forge a relationship with the world.
Thus, many critics view Kafka’s trilogy as dealing with “Solitude” or “Alienation.”
But to me, the life and narrative style of his protagonists (Kafka’s alter egos) felt less lonely and more Boring.
So, I name this the “Boredom Trilogy” and will analyze the three works sequentially from the perspective of boredom.
Structure: For convenience, I assume you subscribers haven’t read Kafka’s trilogy.
- Plot Summary (Action-centered).
- Why These Works Are Boring.
- Practical Implications: How to create a life or content that isn’t boring. I will focus on Business Insights rather than literary exploration.
1. Recap: Phenomenology of Boredom (Part 1)
Boredom occurs when:
- You cannot connect to the Life-World.
- There is no Rhythm of Action Verbs, so the narrative isn’t felt.
- There is no possibility of Physical Control.
The point is the absence of the feeling: “I am living the world.”
- Existing Philosophy: Views boredom as an existential crisis alienated from the world.
- Literature: Explores the meaning of meaninglessness from an intellectual perspective.
- Our Approach: I’m not a scholar, so I don’t care about complex discussions.
My goal is to decompose the process of perceiving boredom into World – Narrative – Body to understand how to create non-boring lives and content.
2. Novel Analysis: The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika)
Famous Reviews:
- “The Man Who Disappeared is a story that goes on endlessly.” (Franz Kafka)
- “Karl Rossmann is a modern Sisyphus rolling the rock of belonging in vain.” (Albert Camus)
- “In this novel, we are placed in a world of emotions that are inappropriate, improper, unnatural, incomprehensible, or strangely missing.” (Milan Kundera)
Critics’ Commonality: They all focus on the “Emotion” of alienation while examining the relationship between the world and the self.
The Problem: Alienation is the result, not the process of the protagonist perceiving life as boring.
Our Approach: We will immerse ourselves in the protagonist and dig into where and how the genuine feeling of boredom arises.
(1) Basic Plot
Protagonist Karl Rossmann: A 17-year-old German youth.
- Seduced by a maid.
- Abandoned by his parents for impregnating her.
- Forcibly sent to America to find a new life.
Arrival in America:
- Takes the side of a stoker he met ‘by chance’ on the ship and appeals to the captain to correct unjust treatment.
- ‘By chance’ meets his uncle Jakob (a Senator), who achieved the American Dream.
- Fails to solve the stoker’s problem but settles in America following his uncle.
Uncle’s House:
- The uncle is strict about self-management and punctuality, like Franklin Roosevelt.
- Karl leaves the house to visit his uncle’s friend upon invitation.
- Misunderstood as rejecting his uncle’s principles, he is kicked out and thrown onto the streets.
Wandering the Streets:
- ‘By chance’ meets two swindlers, Delamarche and Robinson.
- Wanders with them and gets exploited.
- ‘By chance’ meets the Head Chef of the Occidental Hotel and becomes an elevator boy.
Hotel Life:
- Gradually adapts, but handles a problem caused by Robinson who visits ‘by chance.’
- Misunderstood by the Head Waiter and fired.
Back to the Streets:
- ‘By chance’ stopped by police for questioning.
- While fleeing the misunderstanding police, he is caught by Delamarche.
- Resists to escape but eventually gives up.
- Becomes a slave to Brunelda, a wealthy woman Delamarche is leeching off.
Unfinished Chapter:
- Sees a recruitment ad for the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and holds onto a final hope.
- It symbolizes ‘America,’ the immigrant nation welcoming everyone.
- The theater hires everyone regardless of skills, age, or gender and ships them off.
- The novel ends openly but essentially nowhere.
- Implying the tragedy of becoming, literally, a “Missing Person” (The Man Who Disappeared).
(2) Why Is This Work Boring?
[Relationship with World: Repetition of Expulsion by Chance and Misunderstanding]
As emphasized in the summary, Karl’s narrative unfolds mostly through “Chance” and “Misunderstanding.” This happens regardless of Karl’s active attempts to connect to the New World of America.
Karl’s Situation:
- No understanding of the American lifestyle.
- Young.
- No experience or capital.
- Thrown directly into the world.
What Readers Want to See: Trial and error and achievement to connect to the life-world.
What Kafka Shows: Intentionally denies this.
Karl’s Trait:
- Not the style to display wildness with a clear sense of purpose.
- Lacks the resources to display such wildness.
Example:
- Karl was the one seduced by the maid, yet he is exiled for disgracing the family.
- On the ship to America, he presents his passport to introduce himself, but the purser flicks it away (Meaningless).
- Yet Karl mistakenly believes the formal procedure ended satisfactorily.
Karl’s Reaction:
- Instead of despairing over the failure to connect, the perception of despair is faint.
- Just accepts it: “Oh, I see.”
- Readers feel frustrated here.
Pattern: In American society where Karl’s resources and values are useless, expulsion from the world due to chance and misunderstanding repeats.
[Loss of Body: A Life Losing Physical Rhythm]
Uncle’s House: In the successful Senator uncle’s house,
Karl:
- Studies English as told.
- Practices instruments.
- Practices horse riding.
Problem:
- Karl moves according to the uncle’s tight schedule.
- Cannot control his body.
- Time flows boringly.
Small Deviation:
- Accepting Mr. Pollunder’s invitation, Karl decides to visit.
- Since Karl didn’t achieve wealth and honor himself, the benefits provided by the uncle were boring.
- But the uncle cannot tolerate this small deviation and orders him to leave.
Karl’s Reaction:
- Does not get angry or sad at the uncle.
- Again, just accepts it: “Oh, I see.”
Wandering the Streets:
- Joins Delamarche and Robinson in search of jobs.
- Karl has no special will to become a mechanic like them.
- Thinks he wants to be a “German-style noble Engineer.”
- In reality, he plays the sucker paying for the group’s meals.
Hotel Life:
- Separates from the group thanks to the Head Chef’s favor.
- Gets a job as an elevator boy.
- Karl works diligently and adapts.
- But he does not join the narrative of the American Dream.
- Instead of dreaming of becoming a Head Waiter:
- Solves commercial correspondence exercises given by his friend Therese.
- Spends time running errands.
Kafka’s Description:
Here, the novel reads without boredom because the narrative proceeds through actions rather than verbose descriptions of Karl’s consciousness.
[Karl Expelled Again from the Life-World]
Firing:
- Former colleague Robinson visits Karl drunk.
- Karl gets swept up, leaves his post, and is fired.
Karl’s Reaction:
- Despite losing his livelihood completely.
- Cannot swallow his pride to actively appeal his innocence.
- Why?
- Realized the Head Waiter had no goodwill from the start.
- Didn’t want to trouble the Head Chef who was kind to him in a situation where his intentions might be twisted.
- So he accepts it again: “Oh, I see.”
Code Mismatch:
- The American Life-World code: “The law does not protect those who sleep on their rights.”
- Karl fails to read this.
- America justifies means if there is the result of success through survival, like his uncle.
- Karl cannot discard the code of “German Decency and Solemnity.”
Still Not Boring:
- Doesn’t feel the boredom he felt at his uncle’s house.
- Because he continues to walk and run, controlling his own body.
Reader’s Reaction:
- Feels frustration (on the verge of boredom) at Karl’s helplessness.
[Connection to World: Voluntarily Choosing the Life of a Servant]
Rejoining:
- While fleeing the police ‘by chance,’ he rejoins Delamarche’s group.
- Nothing goes according to Karl’s will.
Brunelda’s Apartment:
- Delamarche and Robinson live off Brunelda’s money.
- Delamarche: Her lover and servant.
- Robinson: Servant to the two.
Initial Reaction:
- Karl initially refuses their demand to become a servant.
Turning Point:
- Conversation with a college student next door:
- Studies at night.
- Works at a department store during the day.
- An American Dreamer surviving on coffee.
Realization:
- Karl realizes his situation: No livelihood, no money.
- Decides to do housework.
First Service:
- Carefully prepares a meal for Brunelda and Delamarche using leftovers.
- Says “I’ll do better next time” and receives a biscuit as a reward.
Conclusion:
- Karl feels comfort.
- Being a servant was the best choice Karl could make with his current skills and resources.
- Karl is no longer bored.
(3) Deep Analysis & Critique on Boredom
General Criticism:
Regarding The Man Who Disappeared, critics usually say:
- It deconstructs modern optimism and the victory of reason (personal growth, historical progress).
- It shows an individual thoroughly alienated from the world.
- It exposes how capitalist ethics (diligence, time management, efficiency) exploit personal life.
The Problem: These interpretations aren’t wrong, but they are too superficial to help my actual life.
I want to analyze The Man Who Disappeared through the lens of Boredom. This operates on two layers.
[Without Embodied Skills, Life Becomes Boring]
Karl’s life is boring.
- He is constantly thrown into different life-worlds by external events.
- He cannot choose subjectively.
- Whenever he tries to connect to a life-world, he is moved elsewhere.
- He fails to secure resources like connections, money, know-how, or skills.
Code Mismatch: Karl physically lives in America, but he cannot melt into the code ruling America—the American Dream (If you work hard and make money, you can buy anything). He only has a vague German notion of wanting a “dignified office job.” He lacks the internal goal to achieve and grow.
Root Cause: I don’t think Karl repeats this boring life simply because he failed to embody capitalist ethics. Fundamentally, Karl lacks “Embodied Skills” that allow survival outside the German life-world.
Things like:
- Carpentry
- Cooking
- Writing
- Language
- Metalworking
If he had these, he could have easily found his use in America and boarded the American Dream.
But:
- No Embodied Skills → Cannot interpret the world → Cannot assign meaning.
- Result: Life becomes boring.
Turning Point: That’s why he is overwhelmed when Brunelda praises his meal made from leftovers. He found meaning by being recognized for what he could do. Even in the unfinished chapter:
- Karl cares for Brunelda devotedly.
- She is too obese to move.
- He could abandon her and run, but he doesn’t.
Lesson: Karl teaches us that to connect to a new life-world like America, you need Software to translate that world’s code.
Types of Software: It could be money. But money has limits. Therefore, you must have Embodied Skills like Cooking, Writing, Carpentry, Language.
Why? Because Embodied Skills act as software in any life-world that shares a physical reality.
[If You Can’t Turn Chance & Misunderstanding into Necessity & Meaning,
Life Becomes Boring]
Kafka’s narrative style is boring. Actually, the plot is simple. Repeat Pattern:
Thrown into a new world → Slight adaptation → Chance & Misunderstanding → Expulsion → Thrown into a new world again.
The Problem: The fact that Karl doesn’t feel his life is boring frustrates the reader.
Kafka seems to be implicitly asking:
“Aren’t you also failing to feel that your current life is boring, just like Karl?”
Our Reality: Think about it. Whenever we get stressed by unexpected chance and misunderstanding:
- We escape to Netflix, YouTube, Alcohol.
- Just so we don’t feel the boredom.
But what if we didn’t just escape, but turned that stress into Necessity and Meaning? We need software that can transform life’s accidents and misfortunes into something meaningful. If we only run from pain, it remains meaningless — and life becomes unbearably dull.
As chance and misunderstanding accumulate:
- “Why is this happening to me?”
- “What does this mean?” You fall into thought, fail to perceive the phenomenon properly, and life feels meaningless. This makes us depressed.
Settler-centric societies built a stable triangle system to prevent falling into this loop.
- Individual: Work hard in youth, save/invest → Convert to pension in old age for stable cash flow.
- Corporation: Encourages converting everything (including subjective value) into currency to sell.
- Government: Maintains the system preserving the value of currency and assets.
In this system:
- Even if life hits a snag due to temporary chance or misunderstanding.
- Buying goods or services with money solves the trouble.
When life is upended by turbulence, the stable foundations of settler-centric societies begin to crack. The same is true when one is suddenly thrown into an entirely new world.
Karl is not a settler in America.
He lacks the education, connections, and money to be an office worker.
So he endlessly endures expulsion.
I also lived the Settler Route. Graduated from a good university, got a job, went to grad school in Korea.
Walked the path minimizing chance and misunderstanding. I thought building solid economic and social capital would make everything possible.
But after experiencing: Firing, COVID-19, Inflation, I realized that in a real crisis, the government protects itself first, not the people. I began to doubt everything society and the state taught me. “Is this really true?”
As time passed, I thought:
- This is all just a Settler Mindset and Ideology.
- I decided to face chance and misunderstanding My Way, not society’s way, and assign meaning to them by myself.
- I came to realize that in order to reclaim sovereignty over my own life, I had to let go of everything that kept imposing settler-centric expectations on me — family, friends, all of it.
- I realized this is the Nomadic Lifestyle
Recording this process in writing has value. That is why I blog.
Creators are the same. You must love the chance and misunderstanding that threaten to destroy your life as a settler.
And:
- Make content that unravels them through your unique perception.
- Show those in settler society who ask “Why am I unhappy when I did what society told me?” that Another Field of Meaning exists.
- This is hiphop spirit.
[Settler vs. Nomad]
| Category | Settler | Nomad |
| Response to Chance | Solve with Money | Solve with Embodied Skill |
| Response to Misunderstanding | Solve with Law/System | Sublimate into Meaning |
| Way of Life | Stable but Boring | Unstable but Alive |
| Value | Accumulate Currency | Embody Experience |
(4) Making Life/Content Not Boring
[Nomad Lifestyle: Connecting to Multiple Worlds with Embodied Skills]
Codes like culture, custom, law, and history are accumulated over ages and do not change easily. To successfully connect to any life-world—new school, company, country—like a nomad, you must possess Embodied Skills.
Karl failed to connect to the American Dream code because he lacked this.
Conversely, small business owners and creators:
- Can cook.
- Can speak basic English.
- Can make content.
- So wherever they go, there is little room for boredom.
By jumping over the 1% hurdle of everyday life
- Raise internal achievement.
- Chance becomes Necessity. Misunderstanding becomes Meaning.
- Connect with the external world.
On the other hand, settler life centered on a company:
- Is stable but boring.
- Skills honed in the company are often useless once you leave.
- Performs standard tasks within a bureaucratic structure.
- Leaves no room to Embody anything.
It Cannot connect in a different world → Feels Boredom.
Yet cannot leave the current world → Freedom is restricted.
Settler societies never teach you how to survive on your own terms or construct meaning from scratch. The cost of maintaining the system is simply too high — individuals are treated as interchangeable parts, expected to pay their taxes and stay in line. Those who have grown accustomed to being managed by the welfare state become fragile when crisis arrives.
[Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish:
Attitude to Turn Chance/Misunderstanding into Meaning]
Creators must handle the chance and misunderstanding encountered in life as content.
- So they are not bored.
- So the readers are not bored.
Maintain the attitude: “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”
Why? Only then can you:
- Not solve chance and misunderstanding with money.
- Interpret and sublimate them into different meanings.
Once you have money:
- Solving problems in other ways becomes nearly impossible.
- Because money is the fastest, easiest path.
The Artist’s Paradox:
This is the fundamental reason why artists produce great work when hungry and struggling, but lose creative energy after marriage and success. This is precisely why most hip-hop masterpieces are the first and second albums.
Readers might not want creators to be overly successful. Just enough not to die.
Why? Because they always want to see through the creator that Another Way of Life is Possible.
In daily life, people:
- Follow settler society’s teachings.
- Focus on converting everything into monetary value and accumulating it.
- But harbor the doubt: “Is this all there is to life?”
Therefore, The prime mission of a creator is to show a different way of life.
To do this, you must hold onto the Hungry, Foolish attitude.
3. Conclusion
In this article, we examined Franz Kafka’s The Man Who Disappeared.
Karl Rossmann: A German youth immigrated to America.
Kafka’s America:
- Strictly manages time.
- A place where not a minute or second should be wasted.
- Must succeed by pouring everything in, reducing sleep and chugging coffee like the law student or the uncle.
After Success:
- A place where success justifies all processes and reputation.
- A society that gives opportunity but doesn’t teach the method.
- A place where no one takes responsibility if you don’t claim your own rights.
Karl’s Failure:
- Lacking Embodied Skills and resources.
- Swept away by chance and misunderstanding, drifting with the wind.
- Unable to endure the boredom of life, cornered, he decides to become a servant.
- And feels comfort.
The Lesson:
If we cannot turn the chance and misunderstanding approaching us into Necessity and Meaning:
- Life becomes boring.
- Content becomes boring.
To do this:
- Hone Embodied Skills like Cooking, Carpentry, Language.
- A creator’s important mission is to create content showing that Another Possibility of Life Exists.
Solving chance and misunderstanding with money is not fun.
Interpreting them in your own way while Staying Hungry, Staying Foolish is the shortcut to creating content.
Boredom dies where the body remembers.
Pack skills, not savings.
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