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Today's
Stories
December
13, 2004
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
December 13, 2004
"The Particular Spirit of Our Times"
Kafkaesque
Lessons for the Left
By
RICHARD OXMAN
"Germany has declared
war on Russia...Swimming in the afternoon."
-- from Kafka's diary
"Don't forget Kropotkin!"
-- from Kafka's diary
"When she brought them in, he understood her apprehensiveness
at once. He could see that they were men of tremendous authority.
He had never read Kafka, but if he had he would have recognized
them. They wore black suits, and did not smile when they greeted
him, or offer to shake hands."
-- Alan Paton, Ah, But Your
Land Is Beautiful
Special note: The reader does NOT have to be familiar with
the works of Kafka to "get" this piece. (1)
FK's creations make "additional" readings obligatory.
By design, I have submitted work which calls for the same. It
is highly instructive that progressive readers do not really
have the time for a well-considered single reading of very many
articles by anyone. Regardless of content. Their sound-biting
themselves to death on this count --setting themselves up to
only be able to jump in line behind superficial slogans, name
events and/or charismatic personalities-- is symptomatic of the
left's leftovers today. Other aspects of the dilemma are delineated
below ...
Most readers, I'm sure, believe that the little Jewish/German
Czech citizen, Franz Kafka, died in 1924 on the outskirts of
Vienna. The coughing was deceiving. On the 80th anniversary
of that delusion, I'm presenting an interview I conducted with
FK this year on the 100th anniversary of his beginning
the little-known Description of a Struggle. (2)
My purpose is to throw some light on heavy left problems, by
hefting up lessons learned in both his highly-lauded and less
popular works. Politicized people who feel that they're spinning
their wheels might want to change the worn-out tired tires they've
been riding in circles on. So...we take a trip down the Danube
below...with no answers for oars.
RO: Isn't it fair to say, from one perspective, that only one
character appears in all of your work: the (so Jewish/German)
Homo domesticus...obsessively eager to keep/protect his
place, however humble and in whatever order...the universe, a
ministry, a lunatic asylum, a jail? And that the vast majority
of leftists today cling to the same obsession, making efforts
at significant political change a relatively low priority, and,
consequently, a small likelihood?
FK: Yes.
RO: You never sought to get your work published in the same
vein as most writers today. What do you think of those (progressives)
whose book sales soar through the stratosphere, whose names are
on leftist household lips? Aren't they helping to advance mutual
concerns?
FK: As political estrangement becomes more and more the norm
of Western society, and as capitalism becomes the condition of
the world and the soul, no. Matters are far too serious now,
and unacknowledged as such.
RO: Unacknowledged? Surely, all the ranting and raving hasn't
passed you by unnoticed.
FK: I mean not admitted, conceded...on a daily, mundane basis
that deeply affects lives. Most politically-involved
people are not straining beyond their known boundaries, that
with which they feel comfortable, to embrace alternatives personally.
RO: Said another way?
FK: Little internalization of values fought for is taking place.
There IS much ado about peripheral matters...and more, but the
vast majority of what you call "progressives" are firmly
ensconced in the same position that Czechs were in the Austrian
Empire. At my office such people would come to beg regularly
for whatever they could get...by way of concessions. But they
were very modest men. Storming the institute and smashing it
to little bits --or any variation thereof-- was out of the question.
RO: Perhaps we can touch upon the question of violence later.
FK: It is not a question of violence. Rather, it is an attitudinal
aspect in attempting to change one's conditions.
RO: Would you say that citizens are too patient with the powers
that be?
FK: Impatience is the only major sin, embracing all others.
The apothegm "Sleep faster! We need the pillows" is
the essence of Jewish impatience, but, yes...in general...people
do not acknowledge the fires which are raging.
RO: And their true relationship to the arsonists?
FK: Exactly.
RO: Would you agree that your "heroes" fail to choose
and to commit themselves in the face of too many possibilities,
none of which appears more legitimate or worthwhile than any
other one to them? And that today activists are absolutely plagued
by having too many little battles being fought on progressive
grounds? That the inability to set priorities for moving in
solidarity nationwide keeps gains in the smaller corners of the
left...miniscule, with little future? That those contemplating
involvement in citizen activism undermine themselves with the
attitude that all the progressive options can be given equal
weight...in considering where to start?
FK: Yes.
RO: Yes to all those questions?
FK: Yes. (3)
RO: In Metamorphosis, Gregor is transformed into an "ungeheueres
Ungeziefer," a creature who has no place in the family
and...no place in God's order. Yet your protagonist does not
express the desire to turn back into his original form.
FK: And his father disclaims all connection with...it.
RO: It resonates with the feeling I have from time to time regarding
activism. Doing one's work means being the ultimate outsider
at times.
FK: All the time, perhaps. Neither literature nor anarchism
is a popularity contest.
RO: Anarchism?
FK: I'm not a political writer in the way that Bertolt Brecht
or Heinrich Mann were, but alienation in my stories is discernibly
material and social, the nature and conditions of employment,
for one, clearly connected with it. (4) Max Brod, who --as you
know-- saved so much of my work and saw to its publication...had
a very definite religious agenda, which has disproportionately
(perhaps) colored readers' views of my writing. I never liked
his hostility to political "misinterpretations" of
The Trial by Siegfried Kracauer; he really precluded socially
critical interpretations across the board for a long time. (5)
RO: In Investigations of a Dog, the dog finds out that the earth
does not merely supply all food by making it grow, but that it
also calls down the food "from above." Concern is
not with spiritual or physical food, but with a synthesis
of both. Do you see that viewpoint lacking in the left today?
FK: Without advocating belief in a "traditional God,"
(6) one can say that the fatal rupture between faith and reason
(and religion and science) --that has run through our so-called
civilization since Descartes-- has been a problem, to say the
least. To a large extent, a perverted science, with a fixation
on the measurable and statistical, is to be blamed for the frightening
success of so many pseudo-philosophies and surrogate religions
in our time. By not taking into account man's need for food
from "above," this notion of science (and technology)
has aided the confusion of minds. But one can take Investigations
of a Dog on another plane, of course.
RO: You mean not as an allegory of the relation of man to (quote,
unquote) "God?"
FK: Yes. I don't particularly like the use of the term "allegory"
in relation to my work, but yes. The dogs can perfectly well
see their masters, as they cannot do with "God,"
and are dependent on them in a very practical way, but...there
is a reluctance of the dogs to admit that they are in servitude
to Man -- so that they have all entered into a conspiracy to
conceal this fact from themselves.
RO: Denial.
FK: And even their boldest thinker cannot allow himself to find
out the secret because it would rob him of his own self-respect.
RO: And position?
FK: That's debateable.
RO: Would you say, then, that "progressives," for
the most part, have "a fixation on the measurable?"
FK: Yes. The social sciences are a runaway train...on tracks
that we have canonized.
RO: Are you familiar with Derrick Jensen's Welcome to the Machine?
FK: Yes, of course.
RO: Of course?
FK: I think his view of science and technology in that work
is something...sadly...not discussed. My The Great Wall of China
and Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov both invoke the Tower of
Babel partly for the purpose of criticizing those who embrace
a statistical slant on everything.
RO: But your religious beliefs...
FK: ...do not have to be considered here. One can say that
the political people I know that you're concerned with...must
adopt a new way of viewing Science and Technology, regardless.
Too much faith has been invested in those quarters.
RO: Before I forget...I've been meaning to ask you this: There
have been a lot of filmed versions of Metamorphosis; do you have
a preference?
FK: I haven't watched mainstream TV since the mainstream coverage
of the Sabra/Shatilla massacre, but there was an excellent '87
production of the work by Director Jim Goddard...with Tim Roth
as Gregor.
RO: Speaking of the non-human motiff, your "The Burrow"
intrigues me on two counts related to all this. One, the notion
of withdrawing...and, two, the business of using one's head as
a battering ram.
FK: "All this?"
RO: Denial, writing in lieu of direct action, confrontation
that might lead to violence, among other things.
FK: I see.
RO: The animal feels threatened not only by outside enemies,
but by enemies in the earth's entrails. Why do you place the
creature...
FK: I think I know where you're going with this. Look, the "enemy"
is in their element below. That's most fundamental to understanding
the hopeless situation created with creature's construction.
His head is put on the chopping block, so to speak.
RO: And unnecessarily.
FK: Just so. It's one of my few first-person works, and I know
very well the many ways in which we move to dispose of ourselves.
RO: I think that in these times of the state becoming more blatant
respecting how they take people "out of the loop" of
resistence, you have made a solid contribution to a consideration
of alternative action here.
FK: (Coughing excessively) Dissent cannot be as "quiet"
as the typical writer would have it, protected...and yet premature
boldness plays right into the hands of those who can now be blatant
with their reactionary measures.
RO: I know you have to see to that TB. So, in closing...let
me ask what you consider our main threat today.
FK: I've already mentioned the Impatient/Too Patient Syndrome
in that light. But I should add that the world today is under
constant threat, defined by risk and the damage that can be
caused by a single accident. That's an ongoing condition
today magnified way beyond anything that ever crossed my desk
at the Workers Accident Insurance Company.
RO: So much for candlelight vigils vis-a-vis the Nuclear Industry,
I guess. I thank you...along with many mercis for Gregor's transformation,
Joseph K's arrest and In the Penal Colony's uncontrollable machine.
FK: Just so. (Coughing) My pleasure.
RO: Take care of that, please.
(1) It would be helpful if the reader had a sense of why W.H.
Auden called the writer "the particular spirit of our times,"
but one really does not have to know Franz Kafka (to appreciate
my points) anymore than Elizabethan groundlings had to be literate
at Shakespeare's Globe parties.
(2) Conducted jointly in the presence of John Nash, made famous
in the recent biopic, "A Beautiful Mind." The struggle
is a "search for, and temporary attainment of the healing
center amidst such psychic disintegration," according to
Leslie Trueman of Rutgers University.
(3) Still, Kafka was able to write "There is no need for
you to leave the house. Stay at your table and 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." And he wasn't talking
about anything that had anything to do with the Internet.
(4) See Jeremy Adler's Franz Kafka (Woodstock & New York:
Overlook Press, 2001), p. 48 for a delineation of how Kafka "acquired
a precise inside knowledge of the ways in which the twentieth-century's
defning trends --modernization, industrialization and mechanization--
worked themselves out in practice." Major issues concerning
conflict between workers and capital were on his desk daily,
so to speak. And his Prague office wrote policies for almost
47% of all the businesses in Austria (the Empire excluding Hungary).
(5) For an English translation of Kracauer's review, see W.J.
Dodd (ed.), Kafka: The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle
(London: Longman, 1995), pp. 88-91.
(6) As per Harold Bloom, it is safe to say that Kafka provides
no intimations, let alone representatives of, divinity in any
of his stories or novels.
Richard Oxman, a Russian Jew from Newark, New Jersey (just
like Jerry Lewis), can be reached at dueleft@yahoo.com.
For now, he resides in Los Gatos, California, but he is searching
for another burrow.
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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