Water Goat

(Young Kafka with a sheep and in his 20s)

Today is a Water Goat day. Franz Kafka, born in the year of the Water Goat (1883), was one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His work is often read as a cypher for the neuroses of the modern age ("Kafkaesque"). Kafka was known to his friends as a gentle and caring person, but had a tortured inner life that he expressed through his writing. Many of his stories have a suffocating atmosphere, and involve protagonists who hopelessly try to negotiate everyone's needs.

Water goats are probably the most likely to be sacrificed, or sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Many of Kafka's stories end with the image of a sacrifice: In "The Judgement", a father orders his son to drown himself and the son complies, declaring his undying love for his parents. In "The Metamorphosis" Gregor Samsa, who has turned into a giant cockroach, dies so that his family could go on with their lives. In "The Trial," Josef K. is ritually slaughtered by agents of an obscure Law, perhaps taking the guilt of an entire society on himself.

As a German Jew in the waning days of the Austro-Hungarian empire, before and after the First World War, Kafka was aware of his precarious place in society. His letters reveal an overwhelming sense of obligation to family and partners. He lived with his parents until the very last year of his life, working in a workers' accident insurance company and writing during the night. He constantly suffered from real and imagined illnesses, sought out spa treatments and "natural" cures, and was obsessed with cleanliness. Despite his low opinion of himself, Kafka is not only known for his writing but also for introducing reforms to  workers' injury compensation policies that have remained to this day.