I found this week's reading to be somewhat depressing, if not entirely so and it really is scary to think about how much control we really have over our own selves. Especially being a student at an art school where everyone seems to be pursuing there own "uniqueness"- it's hard to confront the issue of "how unique are we?" really? It's like we look down on people who conform to "normal" things- people who go along with the popular culture, but how much different is it for another person to be different, just for the sake of being different? It is just like what the book said about labels, and how even someone stating that they "hate labels" doesn't really mean that they're abandoning labels at all, they just like the way a different label sounds- "Prep" vs. "unique"
So, looking at Kafka's Before the Law, what does it have to say about self vs. subject? I believe that the countryman, though he conceives himself to be a strong person- not ever giving up and standing his ground, has completely become subject to the Law without ever realizing it. He became subject to the Law, not even by the Law itself but by the gatekeeper as soon as he decided to wait for permission instead of trying to move past the first gatekeeper when he stepped aside. The gatekeeper even questioned why the countryman didn't try to move past him, but followed that question with an intimidating description of the following gatekeepers to come. He controlled the countryman with fear.
Through his waiting and waiting, the countryman has lost his valuables- trying to bribe the doorkeeper, and even his pride (I would say) coming to the point of begging the fleas in the doorkeeper's collar for their help to change the doorkeeper's mind.
I would not say that the unique and untouched self is a dangerous delusion, because I do believe that there are things that make us unique and own person (even though I might not be able to pinpoint those things), but I do think that Kafka is in a way saying that striving to be unique and "untouched" will only lead to a lost life.
-angelapestano-
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1 comment:
AP: Great work here.
First off, it's a completely depressing prospect that we are not as unique as we'd like to seem, but I also would hope you take some solace in that our self-categorization is voluntary. And, it does not mean we are without some agency.
Additionally, excellent point noting that the countryman becomes subject before as he attempts to be subject. :EE
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