From The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka:
(re. the savings of Gregor's family)
Now this money was by no means enough to let the family live off the interest; the principal was perhaps enough to support the family for one year, or at the most two, but that was all there was. So it was just a sum that really should not be touched and that had to be put away for a rainy day; but the money to live on would have to be earned.
Of course, the family in the book still has a servant or two, and Gregor the adult son lives with his parents and sister and supports them all through his work. When he turns into a cockroach, they take in boarders to help make ends meet. How would the story go nowadays?
Gregor wakes up one morning as a cockroach, his little sister is so shocked when she sees him that she drops her PlayStation Portable, but eventually recovers enough to bring him Whole Foods organic vegetable leftovers to eat each day. Parents are distressed and ashamed that he can't return to his job at Goldman Sachs, but do nothing but sit around in their "great room" ordering things from catalogs on their few remaining un-maxed-out credit cards. Gregor dies, and special giant-cockroach coffin costs $23,000. Sister becomes meth addict. The end.
1 comment:
T.G.I.F.
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