This Is Their Jam: Playlists for 10 Iconic Fictional Characters
Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”: Listen here.
Bach – “Contrapunctus I” from The Art of the Fugue
You don’t mean to tell me that you hoped Gregor was going to turn back into a human, did you? I mean, that wouldn’t be very much like Kafka. No, sir, not like him at all.
Scott Walker – “Funeral Tango”
Walker’s rendition of the Jacques Brel classic is sung from the point of view of a recently deceased person who watches his family feign concern and grief. Sort of like Gregor when his sister brings him that moldy bread in milk.
Mogwai – “Hunted by a Freak”
Kafka stages the sad tale of Gregor Samsa to show that he’d always been a beetle (or vermin, or giant insect, whichever translation you prefer). So, it would only be appropriate to flip the family roles and make Gregor’s dad a freak for throwing apples at his own son.
Can – “I’m So Green”
Because this wouldn’t be a playlist for one of the most famous characters in German language literature without a song from one of the most famous German bands. And green: that’s the color of a bug, right?
Aphex Twin – “Come On You Slags!”
This Aphex Twin track perfectly thematizes the feeling of reading “The Metamorphosis” for the first time.
-RC