Page 80 - GALIET KAFKABEL JOB, KANT AND MILTON: Omnipotence, Impotence and Rebellion IV+

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Josef K’s trial crisscrosses the infinite attics and Deleuze’s arboreal bifurcations (me-other; good-evil). At the crisscross of being, the priest-prison chaplain’s words are crosswords to cross off K as Karl, his uncle, once foretold (T88, 94),460 and as K anticipated (T12, 47, 100, 211).461 In the condemning twilight, the cathedral is the Court; the Court, the Sanhedrin; a non-sermon, a premonition of a guilt verdict; the priest, the prison chaplain (T213). As long as K ignores the warden (T5) and the priest, he is free (T213).
“Culpa”asecho;theholyas“Guilt”3⁄4 E X e c u t I o n.
choosing to go the second mile, which leads Jesus to his entombment, the very image Josef K has already seen in the dim light at the cathedral (T207). This interpretation is plausible because Josef K’s examines Jesus’ entombment immediately after he gazes at the Roman armoured knight leaning on his sword thrust on the earth (T207). Why might Kafka place these two particular representations in his narrative at the time of the verdict? Both images strongly suggest that they symbolize K’s own narrative, his own journey as a hero and a martyr fighting against corruption and defending justice. In the passing, they also foreshadow K’s horrendous execution. It is plausible, too, that Kafka as he wrote, may have thought of the Sermon of the Mount, particularly the incident where Jesus blesses the persecuted for righteousness’ sake (the Eighth beatitude) claiming they are the salt and light of the world (Matt 5:13-16). Josef K is persecuted and enters through the narrow gate and the hard road (Matt 7-13), and comes to be aware of false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, are ravenous wolves (the instances with Huld, some acquaintances, and the representations of Judges by Titorelli). In addition, Judas Iscariot betrays Christ as X slanders K, and Satan slanders Job. K’s integrity is tested by a corrupt Court, just as Jesus’ integrity is tested by Satan and the Sanhedrin, just as Job’s integrity is tested by Satan and sponsored by Yahweh. Neither Jesus, nor K, nor Job succumbs to the temptation to give in by those who propose false salvation or the riches of the world. Though these parallels cannot be denied or quickly dismissed, they do need rigorous study. There are many other similarities including K’s professed ‘profession’ as a carpenter (at the Court of Inquiry) and the closeness of Josef K and Christ’s age when killed as there are many differences (son of God, son of Man, healer, miracles, etc.) which are excluded given the limited scope of these writings.
459 This depicts the Deserts of Atacama in northern Chile where many political prisoners were arbitrarily arrested and executed without a right to a legitimate trial and defense, just as Josef K. They were hurled into mass graves during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. It is my own photograph. The Tamarugal Tree also allegorizes the aporia of Zeno as if it were freezing time between Titorelli’s two heath trees. The Infinite + 1 symbol expresses the additional day added to most illegitimate verdicts in order to reinstate them, expressing the infinite divisibility and futility in the ordeals. Many prisoners and dissidents were never actually acquitted like Josef K. Actual acquittals were granted to surviving prisoners twenty-five years more or less after their arrests. The Cross-Words recall Uncle Karl’s warning to Josef K. Against this Court, if you lose the case, you are crossed-off (T94).
460 K’s uncle is perplexed by K’s indifference, and by his inability to keenly grasp the gravity of the process and its proceedings. Aggravated, he warns K about the impending doom assailing the reputation of the family and his own life, if he does not seek prompt legal counsel.
461 K anticipates with uncanny insight his execution. Dodd affirms, “His execution is all but anticipated when he postulates, without any supporting evidence, that the Court probably employs ‘Henker’: ‘ich scheue vor dem Wort nicht zurück’ (T144). To Titorelli, he repeats this view of the Court: ‘Ein einziger Henker könnte das ganze Gericht ersetzen’ (T132). A similar uncanny anticipation of future events is to be found when K, in describing his arrest to Fräulein Bürstner, overdramatizes the Inspector’s opening gambit (‘Josef K?’ [14]) as a resounding summons: ‘Josef K!’ (T29). Later, in the cathedral, this is precisely how the Priest will summon him (T178). Or again, when K wishes to explain away the muffled noises from the lumber room at the bank, he invents a crying dog outside in the yeard: ‘Es schreit nu rein Hund auf dem Hof’ (T77), an image which anticipates the scene of his death at the quarry.” Dodd, William. Der Prozess. Scotland: University of Glasgow French and German Publications, 1991. 28. The page numbers cited on this footnote correspond to Kafka, Franz. Der Prozeß. Roman, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. New York: Schocken Books, 1979.
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