Kafka Music

Kafka Agonistes

David Mason | Hudson Review | 31st July 2023

The world is indebted to Max Brod, best friend of Franz Kafka, who did not burn his dying friend's work as instructed. Brod saved the manuscripts again when he fled the Nazis to Tel Aviv in 1939. Thanks to him, we have three extra novels and twelve diaries, which reveal an uncanny, surrealist mind always in motion as Kafka tried to depict the truth of his "dreamlike inner life" (3,600 words)

The Happiest Place Makes The Darkest Music

Tim Brinkhof | Big Think | 31st July 2023

Why do Scandinavian countries, which top global rankings for life expectancy and happiness, also produce so much more heavy metal music? Perhaps Nordic cultures use the genre to process emotions that are not welcome in everyday life. Or maybe it is a purely economic matter: starting a heavy metal band requires equipment, space and time that is inaccessible to the less well-off (1,090 words)