"The Hunger Artist." Franz Kafka.

One-minute review: Rise and fall of a fad. In the beginning, people were fascinated by the “hunger artist.” They counted the days of his fasting, dropped in to see that he was not eating on the sly. Because of his fast he was emaciated and melancholy in mood. Then he became part of the circus and slowly, his fasting became no longer news. He wasted away into death, a forgotten fad. In his cage, he was replaced by a panther, who represented joy in life.

Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Eds. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.