Kafka's Aphorisms in BtZ

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

On 17.03.2016 20:28, Smoke Teff wrote:

> Probably won't have a chance to really start engaging for another day 
> or two, but a preliminary note:
>
> p. 5 of my copy of /GR/: "There is no way out. Lie and wait, lie still 
> and be quiet. Screaming holds across the sky. When it comes, will it 
> come in darkness, or will it bring its own light? Will the light come 
> before or after?"
>
> I see some connection between this and one of Kafka's Zurau Aphorisms 
> (a fav; #109):
>
> There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and 
> listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't even wait, be completely 
> quiet and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmasked; it 
> can't do otherwise; in raptures it will writhe before you.


Kafka's aphorism, which I didn't know before, sounds almost Eastern to me.

„Es ist nicht notwendig, daß Du aus dem Haus gehst. Bleib bei Deinem 
Tisch und horche. Horche nicht einmal, warte nur. Warte nicht einmal, 
sei völlig still und allein. Anbieten wird sich Dir die Welt zur 
Entlarvung, sie kann nicht anders, verzückt wird sie sich vor Dir winden.“

But, of course, our Western tradition knows the dictum of Blaise Pascal:

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
Read more at: 
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/blaisepasc133380.html
All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
Read more at: 
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/blaisepasc133380.html
"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room 
alone."

To me, there is a grain of truth in this.


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