Nabokov on Kafka on Insects
Vladimir Nabokov, celebrated author of Lolita, and other novels, was
not merely a writer. Not that being a writer is any sort of a "mere"
thing, but go with me here. Nabokov was a professionally-trained
entomologist, a lifelong student of insect biology.
He curated Harvard's butterfly collection, contributing a great deal
to the practice of lepidoptery and even getting parts of his work
published in our day and age. Nabokov was a fan of Franz Kafka's The
Metamorphosis, the story of Gregor Samsa, who turned into a bug.
That's Nabokov's teaching copy of Kafka's book up there, scrawled with
notes. Nabokov lectured on Kafka, and using his knowledge of insects
he offered a theory as to what kind of bug Gregor may have become (not
a cockroach as usually assumed):
Now what exactly is the "vermin" into which poor Gregor, the seedy
commercial traveler, is so suddenly transformed? It obviously belongs
to the branch of "jointed leggers" (Arthropoda), to which insects, and
spiders, and centipedes, and crustaceans belong. If the "numerous
little legs" mentioned in the beginning mean more than six legs, then
Gregor would not be an insect from a zoological point of view. But I
suggest that a man awakening on his back and finding he has as many as
six legs vibrating in the air might feel that six was sufficient to be
called numerous. We shall therefore assume that Gregor has six legs,
that he is an insect.
Next question: what insect? Commentators say cockroach, which of
course does not make sense. A cockroach is an insect that is flat in
shape with large legs, and Gregor is anything but flat: he is convex
on both sides, belly and back, and his legs are small. He approaches a
cockroach in only one respect: his coloration is brown. That is all.
Apart from this he has a tremendous convex belly divided into segments
and a hard rounded back suggestive of wing cases. In beetles these
cases conceal flimsy little wings that can be expanded and then may
carry the beetle for miles and miles in a blundering flight … He is
merely a big beetle.
Nabokov also offered this nice note to the Joes and Janes in the audience:
Curiously enough, Gregor the beetle never found out that he had wings
under the hard covering of his back. (This is a very nice observation
on my part to be treasured all your lives. Some Gregors, some Joes and
Janes, do not know that they have wings.)
Nabokov isn't the only entomologist who has studied Kafka's work.
Donna Bazzone of St. Michael's College in Vermont wrote about the
impossible biology of an insect the size of Gregor Samsa, based on the
study of thousands of insect species:
None could be as big as the "new Gregor." If the body with its
exoskeleton were to scale up to human size, it would be so heavy that
even appropriately sized legs and musculature could not support it.
Such an insect could not move. Also, because insects do not have a
respiratory system with tubes connecting to internal lungs that have
large absorptive areas, a giant like Gregor the roach would not be
able to get enough oxygen to survive. Furthermore, our circulatory
systems are powered by a large muscular heart that sends blood to all
cells in the body through an elaborate network of blood vessels.
Insects lack such a sophisticated circulatory system, so if you scaled
the body to human size, insect blood (containing oxygen and nutrients)
wouldn't be able to reach all cells.
I always knew something bugged me about that story.
Thanks to Open Culture for the Nabokov book link that sent me down
this rabbit hole.
http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com/post/40726175437/nabokov-on-kafka-on-insects
