Kafkaaaaaa

So when reading the first four chapters, I was actually really disoriented, and I can't figure out if it's only because I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, or if it was that combined with the fact that not only could I not place K. in a situation I could identify with, (like a judicial scene) but I physically couldn't place him in any place he was at. I was completely perplexed with the layouts of all of the places and I had such a hard time visualizing it that it distracted me and I had to re-read like six or seven pages over the course of the chapters because I would zone out trying to figure out how the hell K was physically walking through this maze. It seemed like the place he lived in was just a room, which connected to the two rooms on either side, but for whatever reason I couldn't get the layout of The Apartment out of my head, so I guess that's my own fault. But when he went to the hearing, I was so completely confused I felt like I was watching Alice in Wonderland, where rooms and proportions are fluid instead of concrete. At first I pictures this huge apartment building, and when K. first went to his "trial" (I use trial very loosely because seriously, what the hell was that?) he had to go up and down the different apartments trying to find out where his trial was. And when he did there was apparently like a huge group of people in this one apartment split down the middle judging him? Then, the thing that really set me into a tizzy was when he went upstairs into the attic and it was a long maze of hallways with doors, with no lights, but not completely dark. It seemed more like a basement but it was actually in an attic. I guess I almost pictured it like this:
only with all dark wooden panels (I couldn't actually find a picture of what I was thinking of). This disorientation kind of reminded me of something I talked about a little in a past blog, the idea that without being able to pin down something, or directly relate it to something you already know, you feel confused and uneasy. I had a really hard time imagining the configurations of the first chapters, and so I felt weird and had a hard time concentrating on the simple plot because I had to scene to place the character in. Maybe it's just me, and I personally need to visualize what I'm reading, but then again maybe not. And at the end when K. gets physically dizzy and then steps out of the rabbit hole, as I like to call it, he instantly regains his energy and balance, and leaps off back into the real world. I feel like it was a kind of alice in wonderland meets willy wonka kind of thing, like beyond any persons reasonable imagination, but instead of fighting it, you just have to accept it, and maybe that's why I had such a hard time with it. I guess we'll see in the next chapters if I can manage that.