doorkeepers, assistants, Jackowski/vigilant dreamer, Kraus

two figures/doorkeepers: 1) Kraus' wagenturlaufmacher; this figure exists in Kraus' imagination and is like Nately's whore in Catch 22; in Vienna wherever Kraus goes the doorekeeper jumps out of nowhere to open a carriage door; Kraus even dreams about him-the carriage door handle is for him 'the pledge of his hope and his everything'; and of course the same figure will be in attendance to open the door of Kraus' hearse. The doorkeeper is not a symbol of alienation ie an object of sympathy. Think of him more as a Jackowski image ie a 'vigilant dreamer'. Or 2) like Kafka's doorkeeper in Before the Law; we don't worry about his job prospects; he is another vigilant dreamer.

kafka, fritz lang and melancholy

Melancholy is not a mental state, ie it is not tortured stupidity; it is a condition made up of two parts. In Kafka's work the condition is one of extreme distortion: the distortion of time and space; Orson Welles shows this in his film of The Trial: K can barely fit in the room; Samsa, once metamorphosed, is too big for his room.For a more complete treatment in the cinema of these distortions see Sokurov's Faustus: the characters in the film are constantly struggling to find the space to move past each other-or see any of Svankmajer,s work especially The Flat.  Expressionism represents extreme states of being just as this. In film it is an extremity of gesture eg the M on the clenched claw-like hand at the beginning of Lang's film. Kafka's Trial has many gestures like this; a man presses himself against a woman, gazing up at the ceiling and shrieking; a woman fetches a handbag dragging herself across the whole length of the room. Imagine all this in the graphic setting of M. Imagine further a language of gestures in Kafka: on the one hand there are graphic, extreme situations; on the other there are responses to these situations: responses that befit a gentleman jockey or Red Indian; whereas the woman 'drags herself'' these figures are light and airy almost taking flight like the bucket rider. That is not to say these lighter touches are solutions. They are melancholy gestures. The condition may be inescapable but it calls for an imaginative, airier response.

like a red indian

There are other aspects to Kafka than distortion of place and time; certainly his characters typically try to squeeze into tiny spaces, appear too small or take an infinity of time on small events. It is said (Benjamin) that these moments are gestures like the gestures in early expressionist films; it is easy to imagine this; silent film actors have to exaggerate.
Contrasting gestures are for example Wishing to Be a Red Indian ie being instantly alert, leaning against the wind, throwing away the reins etc. Better to be a Red Indian than the student who reads obsessively, book pressed to his face, the same book, forever? Possibly. Benjamin thinks these lighter gestures have their home in The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma: there are actors and angels; also the theatre is on a race course offering opportunities for Red Indians to lean against the wind and throw away the reins. Are these gestures of hope offering an escape from melancholy? Melancholy is the predicament of immutable circumstance not a mental state. Kafka's people/animals are never depressed. But they are resourceful; there is no hope for the ape or the dog but they press on always coming up with new ideas. The nearest to hope is resourcefulness eg the ape learns to talk and drink. The highest form of this facet however is found in Pancho and Bucephalus; both send their demons off on the maddest exploits while they stay behind in an armchair, reading and turning the pages of ancient tomes in the quiet lamplight.

More on Red Peter

Reporting to the academy, Red Peter goes through his new repertory of acquired skills such as walking, speaking and drinking. He does this all this for a 'way out';

interesting also are the problematics of these skills and capacities. Distortion of space and time reoccur in Kafkas's work as do the responses of the characters (human and animal) to these distortions. Against this background being able to routinely speak and walk cannot be assumed. Suddenly losing abilities and being arbitrarily assigned new and alien ones is Samsa's lot. Time can stretch out without limit so a journey cannot be completed even in a life time. So there is an account: in one column a set of time/space problems; in the next column a range of possible responses. Kafka's figures burrow, wait in corridors or squeeze into corners. It is not clear who is lost or saved. Benjamin reckons the Nature Theatre Actors to be saved. How so? Surely they, like many other Kafkan characters are trying to respond to the dilemma. After all they are not informed what is expected of them; they simply have to be in the theatre as themselves ie to carry on speaking/walking as if these abilities, tacitly, are problematic (might be lost).

Kafka's monkey

Kafka's Report to an Academy has been turned into a fine play at the Young Vic. Is the ape melancholic? Benjamin derided left wing melancholy as 'tortured stupidity'. Red Peter is not torturedly stupid.  The investigating dog of another Kafka animal story is a more like this; tortured by lack of knowledge-unable to think beyond food. Melancholy is best not seen as a mental state but as a response to unalterable circumstances. Red Peter has some choices and makes one (the stage not the zoo). But this doesn't lead to liberty. Having been wrenched from his jungle home and maltreated he contrives a stage role for himself. This would appear to be a form of liberty but yet is not hence the melancholy. He scoffs at human liberty as 'self controlled movement'. How can The Anatomy of Melancholy help in this case?  On loss of liberty Burton notes 'we are  slaves and servants the best of all'. No help for Red Peter here. For Head Melancholy Burton recommends the right diet referring to Laurentius, Rhasis and Fernelius.

melancholy tailors

....returning to the topic of the physiognomy of students ( Blog- May 12 2008) : think of this as a further contribution to a literature of assistants (Walser,Kafka etc); this is a literature in which jobs (rarely professions) are described in a certain way; personal characteristics are replaced by a single, obsessive act; students press papers to their face, assistants stand around like 'waiters'. These job holders or seekers are melancholic. There is no point checking in the empirical world whether these physiognomies hold true. Charles Lamb wrote a piece on Tailors; they are melancholic, he says. This doesn't call for a survey of tailors. For Lamb the investigation into tailor-melancholy follows Robert Burton; perhaps clothes are the first outward sign of the fall of the human race; or is it because tailors are excessively fond of cabbage. Burton has a sort of method: first identify general features of tailors (melancholy) then move onto to other authorities on the subject, symptoms and causes. For example, fondness of cabbages is a symptom of melancholy.  Blog-July 12 2007 refers to an approach to understanding certain questions from a parabolic aspect; Burton's method offers such an approach.