Auden,Benjamin, Kafka & Sullivan

Why did Kafka ask for his work, on his death, to be destroyed? Auden puts this down to Kafka's theory of writing as a private act like praying. Walter Benjamin makes a similar point ie that Kafka is always addressing the same themes: (1) Surprise at the inexplicable. (2) Guilt about the inability to explain the inexplicable. (3) the need to investigate (1), hopelessly. So each piece of Kafka's prose is substitutable by another piece offering an inventory of infinitely varied responses to 1,2 and 3. Benjamin wonders if the items of such an inventory can be inserted into passages of argument at any time. These items could be replicable gestures or actions (scurrying, gazing, gaping, bending and staring, hurrying/staying close to the wall etc). Think of this inventory as being like Catherine Sullivan's video installation Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land made up of 50 multiply repeated pantomime-like actions. It is clear why Kafka asked for his work to be destroyed. What he left behind was a template that could be written on forever. He foresaw, Auden concludes, the nature of too many of his admirers- like watching Ice Floes for eternity.