1922: ‘Advocates’ by Franz Kafka

Hertzsprung-Russell rating: B10^-4

Available in: The Collected Short Stories Of Franz Kafka

Synopsis: A man wanders the hallways of a bizarre and unnamed bureaucratic HQ searching for an ‘advocate’; someone to, I guess, advocate for him? The story ends with the guy walking up a stairway that continues to grow under him as he climbs. All in all, a Kafkaesque experience. Mind you, everything Kakfa did was a Kafka-esque experience. Unloading the dishwasher? Kafka-esque. Shopping for outlet mall sweat socks? Kafka-esque. Standing in line at the Department Of Civil Service so he could change his name from ‘Kafka’ to something less Kafkaesque? Soooooooooo Kafka-esque. No wonder dude was fuckin’ miserable and wrote stories like this.