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Forbes
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Want To Be A Great Leader? Here's What You Should Read
What you choose to read this summer matters more than you may realize. getty A private equity professional recently told me that Franz Kafka's century old short story Poseidon should be required reading for anyone who hopes to lead. In Kafka's telling, the god of the sea isn't commanding waves or stirring storms, he's drowning in paperwork and unable to do the work he was born to do. The executive saw himself in this ancient deity more profoundly than any management case study. His reaction points to something deeper that most leaders miss: overwhelm isn't a sign of importance. Sometimes it's a sign of misalignment between what leadership demands and what leadership is . Unlike management theory, fiction shows us our blind spots, rationalizations, the gap between our intentions and our impact. Sadly, we've created a false binary between "serious" reading and "pleasure" reading. Many leaders pride themselves on reading about strategy and innovation while intentionally shunning literature that highlights the human dynamics that make or break every strategic initiative. A biography of your favorite leader may inspire you or a new business book may feel instructive, but a fictional story with an ethical dilemma will help you see yourself and better understand your teams. The science may surprise you: people who read fiction consistently score higher on cognitive measures—including general intelligence—than those who stick to non-fiction. Fiction uniquely trains your brain to understand the thoughts, feelings and motivations of others. In other words, it builds the muscle that every great leader needs most: empathy. If you manage people, reading fiction might be the most overlooked tool in your arsenal. Here are three ways it can sharpen your judgement, deepen your insight, and help you lead with greater clarity and connection. Your summer reading choices don't just signal your values, they literally reshape your brain: strengthening the neural pathways that make you better at navigating the unspoken dynamics in your next board meeting. When we read about characters—their thoughts, emotions and motivations— we activate the same neural pathways we rely on to understand people. The brain's default network—the system that supports our capacity to imagine and simulate hypothetical circumstances—treats fictional scenarios as practice runs for real life. Consider Kafka's perplexing novella, The Metamorphosis . Traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes one morning to find that he has been transformed into a hideous bug. Unable to work, he struggles to reframe his sense of belonging. Unable to speak, Gregor finds himself and his relationships in deep crisis. Through his story, Kafka forces us to consider how much we define our humanity by the work we do, the company we keep and the existential disorientation of a rapid and unexpected change of circumstance. Written in 1915, this haunting tale foreshadows the modern crisis of identity fueled by mass layoffs, burnout and the looming fear of being replaced by machines. The Metamorphosis instructs leaders in the delicate balance of purpose, identity and motivation, and how easily that balance can be derailed. The executive who reads literature becomes more adept at perspective-taking and navigating interpersonal complexity. As one manufacturing CEO remarked about his own conversion to literature: 'When you can step into the shoes of a character which is like stepping into the shoes of someone else on your team, you recognize that how they're experiencing the world is very different from how you are experiencing the world.' Fiction provides a low-risk laboratory to explore the gray areas of power, delegation, and moral ambiguity. Its characters present clashing motives and complex choices, creating a dynamic space to explore right and wrong and the murky territory in between. Consider Charles Johnson's allegory ' Menagerie: A Child's Fable ,' an affecting story about a pet store whose owner goes missing, leaving the caged animals to fend for themselves. The watchdog, Berkeley, holds the keys to open the cages. Monkey, with questionable intentions but functioning hands, is the only one who can. Animals take charge and the situation devolves, ending in death and destruction. The story refuses to offer easy answers. When Berkeley fails to maintain order and Monkey exploits the chaos, we're forced to confront uncomfortable questions about authority, trust, and unintended consequences, the very dynamics that derail organizations. For the leadership team of an appliance manufacturer, the cages in the story became a metaphor for the silos they had built—and maintained—within their organization. The narrative challenged them to confront their own role in creating these barriers, even as they grappled with the difficulty of dismantling them. When our proverbial cages are as much about comfort as they are about separation, shifting that mindset requires time, honesty and sustained effort. This is where fiction outshines the case study. While case studies offer tidy solutions to someone else's problems, fiction invites you to wrestle with your own. It mirrors real leadership—messy, uncertain and shaped by perspective. With no real-world stakes, stories let you explore moral complexity, confront bias and explore ideas you might reject in the pressure of work. Narrative As Training For Strategic Thinking Fiction trains leaders to think across multiple, often conflicting timelines—narrated by voices of uncertain reliability. The challenge isn't just to follow the story, but also to decide who to believe. Few novels capture this complexity as powerfully as Hernan Diaz' Pulitzer Prize-winning Trust . Told through four interlocking narratives—a bestselling novel, a self-serving memoir, a ghostwriter's account, and the voice of the main character's long-suffering wife—the story continually reframes what we think we know. Each layer unravels the last, reminding us that truth is often a matter of perspective. This same narrative confusion often plays out at work. Imagine a fairly routine decision to implement a new performance management system. HR sees it as modernization and fairness. Middle managers view it as morale-killing bureaucracy. Senior leadership frames it as much-needed accountability. Employees experience it as mistrust and micromanagement. All perspectives contain truth, so the leader who only hears one risks being blindsided when implementation fails. Books like Trust are the perfect training for the kind of perspective-taking that separates good leaders from great ones. Leaders who can read between the lines of organizational stories become better at diagnosing team dynamics and recognizing the hidden narratives driving resistance to change. Your summer reading matters more than you think. Choose a novel or short story collection that challenges your assumptions and stretches your perspective. While others stick to well-worn management playbooks, you'll be cultivating the empathy, insight, and narrative intelligence that define truly exceptional leaders. Like the private equity leader transformed by a single story, you may find that that fiction doesn't just change what you think—it changes how you see the world and lead through it.
Express Tribune
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Letters to Milena
Listen to article The present times of planes falling, summers boiling and missiles raining hold more relevance to Kafka's words than the last century in which he wrote them. The world today feels no less absurd, alienating or fragile. We scroll past devastation. We swipe through affection. We ghost and are ghosted. We fear being seen, yet ache to be known. In an age when love is often reduced to emojis and double-taps, Franz Kafka's Letters to Milena remind us of a time when affection was poured out in ink — raw, desperate and undiluted. These letters, written between 1920 and 1923 to Czech journalist and translator Milena Jesenská, are a series of writings drenched in pain, longing and the unbearable beauty of unfulfilled connection. Ironically, I found myself reading those letters as missiles began hitting West Asia. Nuclear threats loom, not as far-off fears but as tangible possibilities. World powers posture like overlords in some modern-day Coliseum, eager to turn suffering into spectacle. Like the ancient Athenians who gathered to watch men battle lions, today's empires orchestrate chaos while calling it order, watching as others bleed for the illusion of control. In such a world, Kafka's Letters to Milena are not relics. They are warnings, mirrors and prayers. They remind us that love - real love - is not a product of convenience, but of vulnerability. In an age of curated affection and filtered expression, Kafka's unfiltered voice still echoes: fragile, trembling, and all too real. Kafka's life was steeped in suffering — not just physical, but psychological, emotional and existential. His pain wasn't dramatic in a public sense, but rather quiet, internal and corrosive - the kind that slowly shapes a writer's voice into something unforgettable. Kafka suffered from tuberculosis, which he battled for the last decade of his life. The disease caused him immense physical pain and weight loss, and eventually made it impossible for him to eat solid food. But this bodily suffering was just one layer of a deeper torment. Kafka's health struggles seemed to mirror his emotional landscape: fragile, wasting unhealed. If Kafka were to write to Milena today, he would talk about drones killing children and bombs turning weddings into hellfire. Yet, he would tell Melina, perhaps in his signature style, that "Millions of years away, bigger than thousands of worlds, even these stars are smaller than the happiness; my heart feels upon seeing you." The hopeful in him would tell the young ones always to have a legacy, must plant trees, write books and have children that could outlive them. He would also tell them art can sometimes live longer than scientific weapons, nuclear installations and warhead-carrying missiles. Kafka's emotional fragility coexisted with his intellectual brilliance. The letters are littered with insight, self-deprecation and poetic reflection. "Writing letters is an intercourse with ghosts," he muses, lamenting the inability of language to truly bridge the distance between two souls. Yet paradoxically, he keeps writing — feverishly, helplessly — as if the act of writing itself is survival. But perhaps the greatest tragedy of Kafka's relationship with Milena is not its doomed romance, but the distance that never closed. His love was always mediated — by paper, ink, illness, time and fear. In one letter, he writes: "You are always so far away — that is the worst thing. The longing." It's a haunting line that speaks to the universal ache of loving someone just out of reach. One hundred years later, in an era obsessed with speed and superficial connection, Kafka's letters stand as a quiet rebellion — an argument for depth over ease, authenticity over efficiency, and longing over possession. They teach us that some of the most profound love stories are not the ones that end in happy homes, but the ones that never quite begin. Kafka died in 1924. Milena died two decades later in a Nazi concentration camp. Their letters remain. And so does the longing. Kafka's suffering wasn't the kind that screams — it whispers. And perhaps that's why it still reaches us, so intimately, a century later.
Time of India
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
10 quirky literary masterpieces every student should read before college
Before academic syllabi teach you how to analyse literature, these ten quirky masterpieces teach you how to experience it. From absurdist novellas to comic sci-fi and meta-narratives, this curated list helps college-bound students reflect, laugh, and rethink what it means to read deeply. These are not books for grades — they're companions for growth, self-discovery, and unexpected joy. Before college teaches you how to dissect literature in a classroom, these books teach you how to live with literature. They are strange, layered, often hilarious, and quietly brilliant. books that do not just ask you to read but to reflect, pause, and sometimes, laugh at the absurdities of the world. Here's a reading list for students about to begin their college journeys curated not for completion but for contemplation. The Metamorphosis Author: Franz Kafka Genre: Absurdist fiction / Existential novella Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a bug. No explanation, no dramatics. His family reacts not with horror but inconvenience. Kafka does not offer comfort or clarity, and that's exactly the point. This slim novella challenges readers to grapple with alienation and identity in ways that feel eerily relevant to young adulthood. For students on the brink of entering a world that will repeatedly ask them to define their place, this is a haunting, essential first lesson. Catch-22 Author: Joseph Heller Genre: Satirical war novel This novel unfolds in the middle of a war, but the real battles are not just in the air, they're in the logic traps and contradictions of military life. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like You Can Make Massive Side Income By Learning Order Flow Analysis TradeWise Learn More Undo Every rule has a loophole, and every escape has a cost. The phrase Catch-22 has become a cultural shorthand for no-win situations, and Heller's work is its origin story. For students preparing to navigate university bureaucracy, this book is a clever and often dizzying primer on how systems break down and people cope within them. Slaughterhouse-Five Author: Kurt Vonnegut Genre: Science fiction / Metafiction Billy Pilgrim is 'unstuck in time.' He moves between his experiences as a soldier in World War II and moments with aliens on a distant planet. This sounds like science fiction, and it is, but it is also an anti-war novel, a meditation on grief, and a study of narrative form. Vonnegut's quiet refrain — 'so it goes', after every death teaches students a hard, necessary truth: life's chaos is often beyond understanding, and still, we must continue. Waiting for Godot Author: Samuel Beckett Genre: Absurdist drama / Existential play Two men wait on a road, Godot never comes. Not much happens, yet everything happens. Beckett's play is an academic favourite because it resists interpretation. For college-bound students, it offers early exposure to the complexities of meaning-making. What do we do while waiting for things we cannot control? Why do we keep going? These are questions that arrive early in college life. Beckett simply asks them sooner. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Author: Douglas Adams Genre: Comic science fiction Earth is destroyed in the first few pages and a man in a bathrobe is saved by a friend who turns out to be an alien. They travel across galaxies with nothing but a towel and dry wit. Douglas Adams's cult classic is wildly entertaining, but it is also sneakily philosophical. Beneath the absurdity is a gentle reminder that most of life's big questions do not have answers, and sometimes, the smartest thing to do is laugh while asking them anyway. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Author: Italo Calvino Genre: Postmodern fiction / Metafiction This book begins with you, the reader, trying to read If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. Then the book changes. Again, and again. Calvino crafts a literary puzzle where each chapter becomes a new story and a new voice. For students about to spend years reading critically, this novel is a bold introduction to meta-fiction and narrative experimentation. It gently destabilises traditional ideas of plot, identity, and authorship and does so with quiet charm. The Importance of Being Earnest Author: Oscar Wilde Genre: Comedy of manners / Satirical play Before sarcasm had a name, Wilde mastered it. This Victorian comedy of manners takes on double lives, mistaken identities, and the absurdity of social conventions. Every line is sharp, deliberate, and quotable. At just over an hour to read, it is brief but brilliant. Students stepping into adulthood will appreciate how Wilde pokes fun at what society expects one to do. One Hundred Essays I Don't Have Time to Write Author: Sarah Ruhl Genre: Essay collection / Literary non-fiction Ruhl is a playwright but in this collection, she becomes a thinker on everyday life. Her essays are short, observational, and surprisingly profound. Topics range from parenthood to punctuation. For students with shrinking attention spans and expanding workloads, this book models how intellectual reflection can thrive in fragments. It is a reminder that writing and thinking need not be long to be meaningful. Me Talk Pretty One Day Author: David Sedaris Genre: Humorous autobiographical essays Sedaris's essays on trying to learn French in Paris, coping with a lisp, and navigating eccentric family dynamics are deeply funny but never cruel. His humour disarms without dismissing the awkwardness of becoming an adult. For students anxious about entering new environments, Sedaris offers proof that vulnerability and wit can coexist, and even flourish. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Author: Mark Haddon Genre: Mystery / Coming-of-age fiction Told from the perspective of a teenage boy on the autism spectrum, this novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age story. Christopher wants to solve the case of a dead dog, what unfolds is a tender and mathematical journey through grief, truth, and emotional discovery. It is a necessary read for young adults learning to value different ways of seeing, thinking, and being. Before you begin reading This list is not about reading the longest books or the most awarded ones. It is about encountering voices that defy easy categorisation, about spending time with ideas that do not resolve neatly. In college, you will be taught how to write papers about literature. Before that, let literature write something to you. Something odd, something essential and something that stays. Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Agnieszka Holland on Her Kafka Film ‘Franz' and Its Themes, Such as 'Dangers of Totalitarian Society'
Polish writer and director Agnieszka Holland discussed her new biographical film Franz, about author Franz Kafka, at the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Monday, saying the movie tries to uncover the 'essence' of the novelist and explores themes that are still topical, including Kafka's thoughts on the dangers of totalitarianism. The filmmaker unveiled the trailer for the movie, starring German actor Idan Weiss, before talking about the creative process of the film. The cast also includes the likes of Jenovéfa Boková, Peter Kurth, and Ivan Trojan. Holland wrote the script for the co-production between the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, and France, with Marek Epstein (Charlatan), with Mike Downey serving as executive producer. More from The Hollywood Reporter Jodie Whittaker, Jason Watkins Added to BBC Cast for 'Dear England' Vicky Krieps on Jim Jarmusch, Choosing "to Not Prepare" for Roles, Ditching Her Phone for a Year First Czech-Viet Feature 'Summer School, 2001' and Anime Series: Duzan Duong Is Everywhere at KVIFF Holland has in the past described how she feels about Kafka as akin to a brother since reading him for the first time at age 14. 'He stayed with me as writer, an artist, a prophet,' she explained on Monday. Holland also recalled living in Communist Poland and Czechoslovakia, sharing that 'what was Kafkaesque was the everyday reality of these countries, of these regimes.' She also suggested that Kafka's 'triple identity' spoke to her as a 'half-Polish, half-Jewish [person] living in a strange antisemitic Communist country.' Holland also emphasized that Kafka was 'practically forbidden in Czechoslovakia except for short periods' under the Communist regime. After the fall of communism in what is now the Czech Republic, 'in the 21st century, slowly, Kafka became the biggest public tourist attraction and the brand for the [various souvenir] gadgets, frankly,' the filmmaker argued. In that context, the goal of Franz is to come closer to an answer to the question of 'what is the essence of Kafka, and how much that essence has been buried underneath the popular culture.' The film, which premieres in Czech Republic in September, uses 'an associative structure, more than a linear' narrative structure, she also told reporters. Holland highlighted that the themes in the film, such as living with a patriarch, 'the prison of the family,' the 'impossibility to communicate' and Kafka's 'fear of close identity,' meaning his unwillingness to choose a single one of his varuous identities, are still current and topical, as is his 'fatalism and pessimism about humanity' and 'his vision of the dangers of the future of totalitarian society, which is reducing the individual to a non-important, negligible part.' The star of the movie also briefly discussed his portrayal. Asked about becoming Kafka, Weiss said: 'He was in my body for a long time, and he came out.' The actor even locked himself into his apartment in Hamburg for two months and only went out when it got dark to get a feeling of and for darkness, the actor shared. What is a core Kafka quality? 'Franz for me is sensitivity,' he shared. Meanwhile, Downey highlighted Kafka's 'rock star status.' Honoring the celebrated Czech writer with a retrospective last year, the centenary of his death, KVIFF highlighted how filmmakers the world over have long been inspired to either adapt his works outright or make movies that are 'Kafkaesque,' meaning that they are filled with the kind of angst, alienation and absurdity that made the novelist one of the most prominent and distinctive figures in 20th century literature. KVIFF runs through July 12. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge cites Kafka in giving Venezuelans held in El Salvador chance to challenge removal
When a judge starts a lengthy ruling by quoting from Franz Kafka's 'The Trial,' a novel associated with an absurd legal ordeal, that could be a bad sign for the government. And so it was, in the 69-page opinion Wednesday from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. It marked a step toward righting the Trump administration's wrong of sending scores of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious Salvadoran prison without due process. While citing what he called the administration's 'troubling conduct throughout this case,' Boasberg said U.S. officials must facilitate the ability of a class of at least 137 plaintiffs, held in El Salvador's Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), to seek habeas corpus relief, so that they can challenge their removal under the Alien Enemies Act. They didn't get due process when the government summarily sent them to that foreign prison in March, so they need to get it now. The chief federal judge in Washington, D.C., left open how exactly that will happen, giving the government a week to tell him how it plans to carry out his directive. President Donald Trump's invocation of the 1798 act, whose factual and legal bases for deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members have been called into great doubt, still hasn't been resolved by the Supreme Court. Boasberg didn't seek to resolve that underlying issue Wednesday, instead focusing on the fact that the men didn't even get a chance to challenge their removal. 'Perhaps the President lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. Perhaps, moreover, [government] Defendants are correct that Plaintiffs are gang members. But — and this is the critical point — there is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT Plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the Government's say-so,' he wrote. 'In our nation — unlike the one into which K. awakes — the Government's mere promise that there has been no mistake does not suffice,' the Obama appointee wrote, referring to Kafka's protagonist. The judge said the government 'plainly deprived these individuals of their right to seek habeas relief before their summary removal from the United States.' He added that while the litigation still needs to fully play out, 'significant evidence has come to light indicating that many of those currently entombed in CECOT have no connection to the gang and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.' Separate litigation is pending over Boasberg's inquiry into possible contempt for the government violating his previous order in March to halt deportation flights. Boasberg's latest ruling comes as the administration resists facilitating the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as ordered by another judge — whose order the Supreme Court endorsed — in separate ongoing litigation. The Salvadoran native was also illegally deported to that country, but not under the Alien Enemies Act. In yet another case of a wrongly deported person under this administration, the government on Wednesday managed to return a Guatemalan man referred to as O.C.G. in court papers; his case was litigated separately from both the Abrego Garcia case and the Alien Enemies Act cases. U.S. immigration agents sent him to Mexico, initially claiming he said he wasn't fearful of going to that country, but then admitting that they didn't have a witness who could back up that claim. So the administration knows it can remedy a wrongful removal. But given that the CECOT plaintiffs, like Abrego Garcia and unlike O.C.G., are being held by a foreign government, don't expect the government to go along with Boasberg's order before exhausting all appellate options — including up to the Supreme Court, though even the justices have reminded the administration of the need to comply with due process. We should know the government's stance at least within a week, when its notice is due to Boasberg by June 11 on how it intends to facilitate the ability of the CECOT plaintiffs to seek habeas relief, unless the administration seeks a more immediate appeal of Boasberg's order. Separately, the administration has a pending emergency application to the Supreme Court, seeking the ability to more speedily deport people to so-called third countries where they aren't from, in litigation stemming from the government's bid to send immigrants to war-torn South Sudan. An order from the justices in that case could come anytime. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administration's legal cases. This article was originally published on
