I read it first as a prologue in Chaitin's book (Meta-Math: The Quest for Omega), but Kafka's short parable had me hooked!
YouTube has enabled me to watch Orson Welles's narration of the story which Chaitin recommended as well. So here it is for sheer pleasure, shock, nightmare, soul-searching...
Although, in the literary context, people have tried to locate the parable in the novel "The Trial" in which it appears, I find it to be the crux of Kafka's personal belief system. Chaitin gives a note saying that in Hebrew, "Law" means "Torah", which also means "Truth". And I believe that is the key to understanding and applying this beautiful parable to our lives. We want the truth at all costs, but we are unable to realize that the gatekeepers are embedded in our psyche. The man spends all his time learning about the gatekeeper, never realizing that the correct question was something else. Effort has to be on realizing the law, and not being content with how to get past the gatekeeper.
Of course, on a more existential note, this is also sombre reminder of Kafka's Existential lineage. Every person's existence is unique and has a separate gate to the truth, but then all of them have the common perception of truth - uncertainty. Derrida describes the self-contradictory dynamic of the law thus:
I am also intrigued by a recursive infinite loop in terms of the logic behind the gates of law. On the outset, Kafka tells the story of a man who believes that 'the law must be accessible to all'. But when the gate closes, the reader asks the question what is behind the gate, which is actually something for the reader to claim for himself, as 'the law must be accessible to all'!
YouTube has enabled me to watch Orson Welles's narration of the story which Chaitin recommended as well. So here it is for sheer pleasure, shock, nightmare, soul-searching...
Although, in the literary context, people have tried to locate the parable in the novel "The Trial" in which it appears, I find it to be the crux of Kafka's personal belief system. Chaitin gives a note saying that in Hebrew, "Law" means "Torah", which also means "Truth". And I believe that is the key to understanding and applying this beautiful parable to our lives. We want the truth at all costs, but we are unable to realize that the gatekeepers are embedded in our psyche. The man spends all his time learning about the gatekeeper, never realizing that the correct question was something else. Effort has to be on realizing the law, and not being content with how to get past the gatekeeper.
Of course, on a more existential note, this is also sombre reminder of Kafka's Existential lineage. Every person's existence is unique and has a separate gate to the truth, but then all of them have the common perception of truth - uncertainty. Derrida describes the self-contradictory dynamic of the law thus:
The law is prohibited. But this contradictory self-prohibition allows man the freedom of self-determination, even though this freedom cancels itself through the self-prohibition of entering the law. Before the law, the man is a subject of the law in appearing before it. This is obvious, but since he is before it because he cannot enter it, he is also outside the law (an outlaw). He is neither under the law nor in the law. He is both a subject of the law and an outlaw.
I am also intrigued by a recursive infinite loop in terms of the logic behind the gates of law. On the outset, Kafka tells the story of a man who believes that 'the law must be accessible to all'. But when the gate closes, the reader asks the question what is behind the gate, which is actually something for the reader to claim for himself, as 'the law must be accessible to all'!
No comments:
Post a Comment