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Kafka on Trial |
| Section: THE ARTS / THEATER |
| Author: Herb Greer |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1991 |
| Size: 1,791 Words, 10,279 Characters |
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Orson Welles was fascinated by the novel The Trial and made a mildly interesting film out of it, borrowing a Kafka anecdote, "Before the Law", as a kind of introduction. This tells of a wretch who wishes to enter a gateway to the Law, but is made by a Gatekeeper to wait. His wait is literally lifelong. As he is dying, he asks the Gatekeeper why no one else had tried to enter. The answer is that this gate was nurfur dich bestimmt, that is, it was made only for the man himself and no one else may enter. "And now," says the Gatekeeper, "I am going to close it."
This story is in fact a poor parallel to The Trial, since nothing about the Law is arbitrary or mysterious. The man is afraid of the Gatekeeper's authority and of others who, he is told, are beyond the gate; this fear holds him ba...
. . .
...ace because of the crowds: If he finally dashed through the outer gate--but that will never, never happen--he would still have the capital city before him, the center of the world, overflowing with the dregs of humanity. No one can force a way through that, least of all with a message from a dead man. But you might receive the message as you sit by your window and drowse, while evening falls.
(806 of 10,279 characters)
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