The reason the term kafkaesque is often overused and misunderstood is that it had been introduced to many of us sophomores (i.e. wise fools) by means of difficult allegory in those bizarre stories -- you mean Gregor Samsa wasn't a real cockroach?

That eponymous term came from the dark recesses of Franz Kafka's soul after a life defined by struggle, whether against time (early 20th century), place (dark Prague), religion (Jewish), citizenship status (immigrant), occupation (insurance clerk), and family (especially father).

That's too bad as we tend to experience its underlying themes – the fear, isolation, and bewilderment of a nightmarish dehumanized world -- only in our post-puberty real world. In a sense, the term has become the "representative adjective of our times" NYT 12/29/91 The Essence of "Kafkaesque".

Any of you Kafka scholars out there (didn’t think so) might like to dive into his life and writings, which came to light after his best friend chose to ignore the dying man’s final request to burn his works Kafka Agonistas. The rest of us may share any of our possible experiences of anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness, often in the context of an administrative setting, where we have felt somehow powerless in the face of the nonsensical.

There may not really be a central villain to blame when arbitrary rules applied by faceless institutions lead to irrational results. Maybe think in terms of a help desk phone encounter. You may have seen it in the humor underlying Dilbert’s cartoon workplace with its you-have-a-problem-with-bureaucracy-fill-out-this-form kind of humor. Or, perhaps, you were introduced to it in those Catch-22 paradoxes.

While perhaps it can be a subject of humor, it can also be corrosive, even paralyzing, to a functioning environment. Maybe ask Sina about his ongoing dealing with the thicket of permit boards for the installation of a (Health Department mandated) kitchen triple sink. That process, thus far, has spanned a time just short of that needed to permit the renovation of the entire Highland building forty five years ago. For a more dramatic historical perspective, the process is getting close to the time it took to construct the entire Empire State Building in1930. A sink. Someone please ring the bell at peak absurdity.

But the real issue reaches beyond kafkaesque to Kafkaesque i.e. a societal mindset that instills within an individual a sense of personal alienation from the outside world. That is the theme of Kafka’s quintessential work The Trial in which Josef K. is unable to make sense of his trial, why he was arrested, the charges against him, what was going to happen next, where to turn, all leading to his very last words, “Like a dog.”

There’s a dreamlike dissonance in his works centered around the dehumanization and disassociation that could be applied as a metaphor to a legal system, government, or corporation. What might ring your own bell as you contemplate your place in society? It would seem to describe the feeling of estrangement in the face of tyranny without a tyrant that is behind the country’s monetary system MM 6/8/20 WTF: What The Fed.

On a lighter note, here is a perspective from The Onion: Prague's Franz Kafka International Airport.