Subject: Re: Kafka's "The Trial"
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Thu Mar 23 2000 - 16:26:02 EST
On Thu, Mar 23, 2000 at 01:10:06AM -0600, Paul Miller wrote:
> Since Salinger was (is), a Kafka fiend this query may not be too out of
> place. The parable below is from the Trial. Would any of you hazard a guess
> as to the meaning here? I think it is key to understanding the Trial.
Well, to me it's pretty straightforward. It's about absurdities,
especially given that it's nominally about the law (which one thinks of
as a fixed, or generally fixed, entity) and the arbitrary execution of
the law.
The classic Kafka little man (done to perfection in comic mode by James
Thurber) faces the whimsy of people who hold the power in his universe.
You get in when the doorkeeper feels like it. You wait until the
doorkeeper lets you through. You might not get to the destination you
want. Or you might get there.
(Not unlike nightclub life in the days of disco.)
> try to go in despite my veto. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only
> the
> least of the doorkeepers.
There's another Kafka trait: facing the whimsy of power.
> From hall to hall there is one doorkeeper after
> another, each more powerful than the last.
And in Kafka's universe, such absurdities are endless.
To toss a bone in the cage, what are we to make of "Seymour: An
Introduction" (p. 101 of the rainbow cover edition), where Buddy says
Seymour is one of the "four dead men ... or underadjusted bachelors"
who will appear in the pages of the story -- this, shortly before
he says, on p. 106, that Seymour killed himself while on vacation
with his wife?
More trouble with that malfunctioning typewriter? A bachelor of the
soul? Or an overly picky reader at work here?
--tim
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat Apr 01 2000 - 10:11:40 EST