This is how I imagine Kafka reading “How Nonsense Sharpens the Intellect,” which appeared in the NYT on October 5. Here’s the link

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/health/06mind.html

Benedict Carey gives the main features of Kafka’s “Country Doctor” and describes the boy in the story as having a “terrible toothache.” According to him, the country doctor reaches his patient’s house only to learn that the boy has “no teeth at all.” If you’ve read the story, you know that the boy is described as “critically ill” and turns out to have a wound in his side–a hideously revolting wound that opens up while the doctor is examining the patient. I’d describe the story as closer to the surreal than the nonsensical. What I’m wondering now: what did those research subjects in the study described by Carey read? a doctored version of Kafka’s story?