Is it convenient to talk at the moment? <a href="http://eporner.in.net/" rel="nofollow">eporner.com</a>  This is a fearsome demonstration of Kafka&rsquo;s splinter of writerly ice in the soul, the blend of sensitivity and iron selfishness that Felice and his other intimates eventually recognised to their cost. It could manifest as masochistic self-laceration &mdash; &ldquo;You are my human tribunal,&rdquo; he told Felice, while his later lover Milena was asked to go through his notebooks for anything &ldquo;against him&rdquo; &mdash; or simply as a chilly distance from the world. &ldquo;Kafka once wept after reading a news report of a woman who murdered a child,&rdquo; Stach tells us, &ldquo;but noted at the same time, 'A well-plotted story&rsquo;.&rdquo;