SOURCE: "Kafka and Weininger," in Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger, edited by Nancy A. Harrowitz and Barbara Hyams, translated by Barbara Hyams, Temple University Press, 1995, pp. 199-206.

In the following essay, which was originally published in 1987, Stieg analyzes Franz Kafka's interpretation in The Castle of Weininger's theories.

Nowadays decency would seem to forbid mentioning the names Kafka and Weininger in one breath, but historical truth forces one to commit such a sacrilege. In certain respects, the differences between the two are vast: Franz Kafka "had the ability to transform himself into the most insignificant man,"¹ and for that reason was "the greatest expert on power,"² whereas Otto Weininger's texts provide a philosophical directive whose swaggering surpasses Zarathustra in content if not in tone. Kafka was haunted by suicidal thoughts his whole life and wanted to take his life's work with him to the grave, even though it...