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‘The fact is, and just between you and me, I really am not powerful. As a result I probably feel no less respect for the powerful than you do, but I am not as honest as you and won’t always admit it.’
acquaintances, but every new acquaintance left him wearier than ever.
None of this exchange sounded particularly friendly; it was more like a kind of self-interested, anxious, pettily meticulous attempt to get K. away from where he was standing in front of the man’s house.
It was not all of a piece; there were passages where he was addressed as a free agent whose autonomy was recognized, for instance in the opening greeting and the part about his requirements. But then again, there were passages in the letter where he was openly or by implication addressed as a common labourer, hardly worthy even to be noticed by the chief executive of Office X, who obviously felt he must make an effort ‘to keep an eye on him’, while his superior, to whom he was actually ‘answerable’, was only the village mayor,
he feared getting used to disappointment, he feared the imperceptible influence of every passing moment—but he must contend with that danger.
He was sorry, however, to see that such thoughts obviously showed how he feared the consequences of being regarded as an inferior, a common workman, and how he couldn’t dismiss his fears even here, where they showed so clearly.
with a surprising expression of conscious superiority in her eyes. When they fell on K. it seemed to him that they had already discovered things about him of which he knew nothing, although that gaze convinced him that they existed.
But there are great obstacles in the world, they become greater the greater your goals, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of in making sure you have the help of a man who may be small and uninfluential, but is none the less ready to fight.
‘I’d quite forgotten the land surveyor,’ said Frieda, planting her small foot on K.’s chest. ‘He must have left long ago.’ ‘But I never saw him,’ said the landlord, ‘and I was out in the front hall almost all the time.’ ‘Well, he isn’t here,’ said Frieda coolly, pressing her foot down harder on K. There was something cheerful and easygoing in her demeanour which K. hadn’t noticed at all before, and now, improbably, it gained the upper hand as she suddenly bent down to K., smiling and saying: ‘Maybe he’s hidden down here.’ She quickly kissed him and then popped up again, saying regretfully:
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If I succeed in standing up to him, then it’s not necessary for him to speak to me; I will be satisfied by seeing what impression my words make on him, and if they make none, or he doesn’t listen at all, then it’s to my advantage to have spoken freely in front of a powerful man.
Nowhere before had K. ever seen official duties and life so closely interwoven, so much so that sometimes it almost seemed as if life and official duties had changed places.
Once again, he felt how very easy it was to communicate with the authorities. They would bear absolutely any burden, you could hand them anything to deal with and remain unaffected and a free agent yourself.
In such a large authority as the count’s, it sometimes happens that one department will arrange this matter, another that, and neither hears about it from the other. A higher supervisory department checks everything, and very closely too, but of its nature such supervision comes too late, and so a little confusion can still arise.
‘The only reason why it entertains me,’ said K., ‘is the insight it gives me into the ridiculous confusion which, in some circumstances, can determine the course of a man’s life.’
It is a working principle of the authorities that they do not even consider the possibility of mistakes being made.
To be sure, they’re not intended to detect mistakes in the vulgar sense of the word, since there are no mistakes, and even if there is a mistake, as in your own case, who’s to say that it’s really a mistake in the long run?’
Brunswick gained some influence. He’s not a good speaker, but he shouts, and that’s enough for many people.
All the same, it was not right for Schwarzer, as an assistant teacher, to feel so vastly superior to K. No such superiority in fact existed; a school janitor is someone of great importance to the teaching staff of a school,
they are very dilatory about such things at the castle, and the worst of it is that you never know what the delay means. It could mean that the matter is going through official channels, but then again it could mean that the official process hasn’t even begun, that—for instance—they want to test Barnabas more first. And finally , it could also mean that the case has already been through official channels, and Barnabas will never get that suit. Nothing can be discovered in more detail, or only after a long time.
We have a saying here—maybe you know it—“Official decisions are as elusive as young girls.”
the officials very commonly deputize for each other, so it’s difficult to be sure which of them is responsible for what—anyway,
It’s from Sortini that I recoil, from him and the idea that someone can so misuse his power.
Well, his abuse of power failed here, because his intentions were stated clearly, were entirely transparent, and he found a stronger opponent in Amalia, but in a thousand other cases where the circumstances were only slightly less favourable it could have succeeded and never been noticed at all, even by the victim of his abuse.’
However, who does not despise us? Those who decide to despise us join the vast majority of society.
What you have told me about so far was only the unreasoning anxiety of the people, enjoyment of their neighbour’s misfortunes, unreliable friendships—things that we meet with every day,
This calm state of affairs was the worst of it, not ostracism by the villagers, not by a long way, they hadn’t done it out of any kind of conviction, perhaps they had nothing serious against us, their disdain had not reached its present extent, they had acted only out of fear, and now they were waiting to see what would happen next.
Can a single official forgive anyone? At the most, it must be a matter for the authorities as a whole, but even the authorities as a whole probably can’t forgive, they can only judge.
The officials are very well educated, but only in a one-sided way; in his own department, an official will see a whole train of ideas behind a single word, but you can spend hours on end explaining matters from another department to him, and while he may nod politely he doesn’t understand a bit of it.
note this: opportunities sometimes arise that have hardly anything to do with the situation as a whole, opportunities when a word, a glance, a sign of trust can achieve more than tedious, life-long efforts. Yes, that’s the way of it.
How suicidal happiness can be!
Orders were given above his head, the unfavourable and the favourable alike, and ultimately even the favourable probably had a nub of something unfavourable in them, but anyway they all went above his head, and his status was far too low for him to intervene or actually silence them and get his own voice heard.
‘Is that allowed? Yesterday it was a great scandal when I was caught in your corridor.’ ‘That’s because you were caught, but if you are with us you won’t be caught.
Kafka’s letter to Milena of 8 – 9 August 1920 , in which he says that his sexual urge ‘had something of the eternal Jew — senselessly being drawn along, senselessly wandering through a senselessly obscene world’, yet that in sex ‘there’s something of the air breathed in Paradise before the Fall’
