“Kafka knew precisely what he did *not* want: he did not even consider becoming an attorney or using his linguistic gifts to earn a living. Having his afternoons free was more important to him than the prospects of bourgeois prosperity [...] He often appeared passive and overly despondent, yet he stuck to his avoidance schemes even when they posed critical challenges to his psyche. It was as though he were carrying a compass that pointed out to him nothing but the *wrong* direction”