Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> At the risk of going on too much about, let me just be clear that I don't > mean to minimize the direness of the situation. I am thinking of the last > chapter of Kafka's America (der Verschollene - the Missing Person in German) > in which Karl Rossman finally finds his place in society (or at least we > assume he does because the novel was never finished) by enrolling with the > Nature Theatre of Oklahoma. Everyone has their place in the Theatre, as a > grocer, liftboy, European secondary school student, or whatever. Pictures of > the Theatre shown around at the celebration feast held after recruitment > show the White House - in other words, the real world. Similarly, the > (public) roles in palestine are well defined and palestinians, soldiers, > peace volunteers, TIPH and so on all play the roles assigned to them. And > the presence of the press on every street corner certainly makes everyone > feel they are on stage - there is a pervasive feeling of performance. There > are other Kafkian absurdities to the situation, of course, (what I feel to > be the more peripheral aspects of even Kafka's work like the bureaucracy, > etc.) but this is an aspect which struck me particularly strongly. Strange > that people can find their social identities - i.e. can resolve the > condition of exile characteristic of nontraditional societies - so strongly > in a situation of continuous conflict. But maybe not so strange after all. - -- Rob Hi Rob... sounds much like I figured....it's like gridlock, in part cus... who wants to give up their job, and have to find something else to do... yes a little smug, but people do get locked into their roles... Steve - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html