The Kafka Chronicles
189 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Paperback
Release Date:01 Jan 1993
ISBN:9780932511546
Explores the relationship between style and substance, self and sexuality, and identity and difference
The Kafka Chronicles is an adventure into the psyche of an ultracontemporary twentysomething artist who is lost in an underworld of drugs and mental terrorism, where he encounters a cast of angry yet sensual characters: Alkaloid Boy and Blue Sky, an inconspicuous and loving couple who find themselves subjected to constant government harassment; General Psyche and his sidekick Major Uptight, the military officers responsible for controlling the media upon briefing room during the Gulf War; King Bohemia, a guerilla-artist who hosts wild orgies; and, of course, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day and finds himself living in the eco-anarchy of postmodern America.
The Kafka Chronicles is an adventure into the psyche of an ultracontemporary twentysomething artist who is lost in an underworld of drugs and mental terrorism, where he encounters a cast of angry yet sensual characters: Alkaloid Boy and Blue Sky, an inconspicuous and loving couple who find themselves subjected to constant government harassment; General Psyche and his sidekick Major Uptight, the military officers responsible for controlling the media upon briefing room during the Gulf War; King Bohemia, a guerilla-artist who hosts wild orgies; and, of course, Gregor Samsa, who wakes up one day and finds himself living in the eco-anarchy of postmodern America.
The Kafka Chronicles ignites a hyper-language that explores the relationship between style and substance, self and sexuality, and identity and difference. Amerika's energetic prose uses all available tracks, mixes vocabularies, and samples genres. Taking its cue from the recent explosion of angst-driven rage found in the alternative rock music scene, this novel reveals the unsettled voice of America's next generation.
In The Kafka Chronicles, postmodernist chef Mark Amerika serves up an exotic and tast bouillabaisse whose delightfully bizarre ingredients include succulent chunks of Leyner, Baudrillard, Kafka, Bataille, Jameson and cyberpunk all simmered in a rich sauce of nowspeak, advertising lingo and Sonic Youth lyrics not to be passed up!’
—Larry McCaffery, author of Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyperpunk and Postmodern SF and Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American SF Writers
Mark Amerika, who has been named a “Time Magazine 100 Innovator” as part of their continuing series of features on the most influential artists, scientists, entertainers, and philosophers into the 21st century, has had two large-scale retrospectives of his digital art work. The first-ever net art retrospective was held in the summer of 2001 at the ACA Media Arts Plaza in Tokyo, Japan, and was called “Avant-Pop: The Stories of Mark Amerika [an Internet art retrospective].” Amerika’s first European net art retrospective enjoyed two exhibition runs at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London and was entitled “How To Be An Internet Artist.” Both shows covered the years 1993–2001.
