thrown into judgment

Aurelia 2022-03-13 08:01:01

"A world that can be explained by evil principles is a kind world." There is no "kind and safe" world in "The Trial". Everyone is talking non-stop, but they are always short of breath, aphasia, meaningless, and even arguing over an unknown content. As a viewer I never understood what K was looking for, arguing for a "meaningless" innocence? Or to absolve a "non-existent" charge? If the trial is still legal, who should I ask for mercy? A group of unfamiliar spectators stacked on top of a three-story theater auditorium? Or the judges who can't search up and down, browsing the shady pictures printed in the code?

How does a "lawyer" endowed with an identity become the owner of power? In turn enslaves the client who empowers him. The construction of sovereign power itself does not depend on the law, but seeks a rationality deeper than the law, which in turn gives all the laws rationality and makes them function as laws. There is an eerie upside-down, top-down conspiracy in it, as if raising an endless cycle of ouroboros. And K was put into it without explanation, just as after waking up from a dream and hearing the news that the ruler had condemned him.

The absurd results of this reckoning cannot be explained by any evil reason, and K's chattering and restlessness cannot clear the entire line of history that has been hidden underground. Judgment, almost no one can escape. But only K has the epiphany that this is not a purely legal trial, it is not even about the law. Therefore, no one can convict himself except himself, and no one can defend himself except himself. Death, the highest punishment of the law, is what a coincidental isomorphism to the end of thinking. Confront a world full of weird and unfamiliar faces, faces ready to be judged or willing to be judged. K resisted, then exploded in laughter.

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Extended Reading

The Trial quotes

  • Hilda: He's starting to take an interest in me. So, maybe I could do you some good, eh? This morning he sent me a pair of stockings for the law student. Want to see them? I've got them on now.

    [pulls up her dress]

  • Hilda: It's Bert.

    Joseph K.: Bert?

    Hilda: I know. He's ugly. Did you get a look at those legs of his? All the same, I gotta go and be with him. I'll come back soon. Then I'll go with you wherever you like and you can do with me whatever you want. What's wrong? Don't you believe me?

    Joseph K.: Why should I? This could be a trap.

    Hilda: Are you afraid?

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