Thursday, December 6, 2007

All of the Good References Are Lost on My Co-Workers

My office is right next door to the IT director's office, and lately he's been behind closed doors--on conference calls--more often than not.  This morning, a co-worker dropped by and asked if I'd seen him at all yet today, or just heard him.  "Just heard," I said.  "For all I know, he could have turned into a gigantic bug and doesn't want anybody to see him."
 
She raised an eyebrow.
 
"Kafka," I said.
 
"Bless you."
 
"No, Kafka's a writer.  'The Metamorphosis'?"
 
"Oooh, is it about a butterfly?  They metamorphosize, don't they?'
 
"And . . . never mind."

4 comments:

Th. said...

.

Is this why you love your job?

eleka nahmen said...

That is absolutely brilliant.

Katie said...

th--don't you know it

eleka--thank you :)

P.S. My mother told me I was a pretentious literary snob when I told her this story. I told her I was more amused by her response when I said "Kafka" than by the actual ignorance of the reference . . .

Xan said...

Lol. I've never read the story, but even I would have understood the allusion.