The Daily Philosophy of Philosophy-Major Roommates: Tea with Insects at a Garden

(Side Note: the discussion on Descartes will be continued in a subsequent post to this one; we are currently in the midst of a peculiar debate).

Bush Cockroach

Welcome back, everyone. Alright, this week we’re going to jump right into it (simply because this particular discussion occurred last night, and I’d rather not wander from its slightly icky details). Also, this gathering of “sages” occurred in quite an eccentric place; I believe it was “Japanese tea garden”. In any case, our discussion took place in a small plaza filled with trees, brush, and disturbingly malformed bird ornaments. And, to be fair, I should mention that we did not “burn the midnight oil” this time—no, we were not enveloped by an eerie fog, that evening, nor were we cloaked by the night’s wretchedness—instead, we were sitting in the aforementioned flamboyant plaza, drinking tea (sigh). Nonetheless, one of the guys brought up the tale of a man waking and finding an enormous cockroach in his bed; in fact, the cockroach was the man himslef. Of course, I’m referring to Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. One morning, Gregor (the main character), awakens and discovers that he has transformed into an insect. One would assume that a person learning she has transformed into a distorted, gruesome, creature over night would cause her to worry about her livelihood, specifically about her health, but in Gregor’s case, he was mainly concerned with being late for work. After discussing the novel for a bit, one of my friends (who is a Buddhist) said that even though Buddhists believe in not harming another living entity, he is now more so inclined not to hurt anything, especially insects; “you never know, it just might be a person who happened to be dealing with Gregor’s situation”. Earnestly, I’m still not all that sure if his comment was sincere; his face seemed quite serious. My friend decided to make a paper-sculpture of Gregor to honor his memory (Gregor does, indeed, die at the end of the novel). My other roommate and I have decided to not speak of Gregor or Kafka any longer…………..My Buddhist friend might otherwise set up a shrine for Gregor, or worse, start talking to them (jeesh).

Next time, I’ll discuss a bit of Descartes. Until then!