Talk:A Message from the Emperor

Part of The Great Wall of China

Is this story not just a part of the Great Wall of China, another of Kafka's short stories? Sancho 22:30, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Well,yes but maybe it was delivered somewhere as a stand-alone story and as such would deserve an independant mention.(Its the best part of "The Great Wall of China" as far as I can tell)New Babylon 2 17:10, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

I really like it too, maybe my favorite of all of Kafka's writings. It was delivered as a stand-alone story in a sort of introduction section of "The Complete Stories" of Kafka published by Schocken, but I'm not sure if that was the publisher's doing? Or if Kafka actually separated that section himself ever. Sancho 18:36, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

The plot summary sounds suspiciously like the actual thing. Should the title "Plot Summary" be changed to something more along the lines of "The Story"?Clockwrist (talk) 23:29, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

story and translation

First, if this is the whole story it should not be here but in Wikisource. Second, this reference makes no sense:

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, trans. Donna Freed. New York: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-56619-969-7. This story was translated by Ian Johnston

So did Freed translate it or did Johnston? Third, why in the world would anyone use the Barnes & Noble translation instead of the far more widely known and accepted Muir one? I'm very tempted to delete this whole mess and start over. AshcroftIleum (talk) 08:29, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

It's a long time since the above comment was written, but the inclusion of the translated paragraph in its entirety seems to be a clear violation of copyright. I'll remove it in a few days unless justification is provided. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:48, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Come to think of it, there would be virtually nothing left of this article if the quote is deleted, so I'll also redirect it to the main "Great Wall of China" article. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:50, 22 January 2010 (UTC)