The oil spill and Kafka

Here's a piece by Rodger Kamenetz on what we might mean when we say that the situation surrounding the oil spill in the gulf is "Kafkaesque." Kamenetz is the author of two books, both of which I love. The Jew and the Lotus and The History of Last Night's Dream.He is working on a biography of kafka, which means he is walking around a lot thinking about things like what it means to be "Kafkaesque."

My favorite line in Kamenetz' essay comes as he is imagining what Kafka would be doing if he was working in New Orleans: "When he wasn’t musing on the seeming absence of God, he investigated industrial accidents for a workmen’s-compensation insurance company."