Conversations about Franz Kafka's The Trial often lead to discussions on the activity of Waiting. Often reading Kafka itself is like undergoing a waiting exercise for a 'probable' triumph of knowledge, only to realize it never was perhaps designed as such, and that there is knowledge in waiting itself. The 'waiting' theme/trick/idea, quite explicitly so, then can be seen in Beckett's work and also in Ha Jin's novel entitled "Waiting : A Novel" - reading them, it appears that waiting can become synonymous with almost leading life itself - the absurdity of mindless waiting becomes a joy - the reader's joy of reading it has to do with, at least to some extent, on the bet that perhaps the character/person doing the waiting enjoys him(her)self too. There are others too - that charming writer of nothingness Javier Marías who through sleights and diversions arrests time, Milan Kundera who through his unbearably light novels meditates on where the pleasures of slowness have gone. And my two beloved philosophers - Paul Virilio who has dedicated his life to studying speed and Shiv Visvanathan who in some of his inimitable newspaper columns has asked us to re-feel "boredom".
S.K. caught me looking at this painting as I was circling through these thoughts and yet one can agree that waiting is not a joy always - the impatience of it as one sees in this painting. A tram or a train is yet to arrive, it has been hours in the line for bread, one cannot wait for a lover's next kiss, one cannot wait to see God...and yet we do like to wait sometimes, we do like to eat slowly sometimes if not drive slowly...we do like to get bored sometimes and not give in to switching on the T.V., we like to watch melodrama sometimes and not Action films.
8 comments:
Waiting synonymous to life itself - nicely done :) . But that's some long sentences in there!
eating & driving slowly are not acts of waiting but savoring what you have. But yes I do agree that act of waiting can be joy at times.
It can be a nostalgic joy after you have got what you wanted and do not want it anymore and you lovingly remember the feeling when you did not had it and waited to get it :)
Though I am yet to read The Trial, I have seen the movie by Welles, I was thinking about the protagonists's guilt, it was somewhat his own making. The law we feel and see everyday is like a contract and normative rules people have created for themselves but The Trial disconnected law, legality and crime from all of this and focussed on K's acceptance of his guilt even when he doesn't know and if I remember it right his unquestioned submission to authority.
But your interpretation on waiting part is brilliant :)
:
...even when he doesn't know the crime he has been accused of ...
"...You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled
roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish
wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the
mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to
snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to
grow. Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or
waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle
Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a
pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just
waiting.
No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying..."
I think spaces and time have a kind of flexibility in the world of waiting. If your impatient, time seems to expand and you mostly feel claustrophobic. On the other hand, if waiting becomes a joy, then the sense of time and space lends a certain familiarity. Something personal... something utterly innate that only you as the person who experiences the "waiting" can know and understand.
Kafka, Beckett, Kundera, they all celebrate the slowness of time and the expansion of space when you enjoy waiting.
Mary: my sentences are always long - they take a long time to read -- they are meant to be read fast - maybe i look to Marias for inspiration
The Quark: all your points taken...i was referring to the story within the story in The Trial where a person is waiting outside an entrance
Shradha : is Waiting Place your concoction?
Calvin: absolutely space needs to be factored in, we are always talking about space-time and not just time or space...
The interweaves,the intertwines are charming! The sense of speed or rather loss of speed as a pleasure of slowness, the desire to wait; not to feel the agony of boredom but to fulfill the desires of fantasy is remarkable. Long sentences'..this time without any hyperbolic sauce... i must say some long sentences have certain verve which demands slowness and did i notice i am already too long ..didn't I? Look at this what happens when one reads your sentences
The interweaves,the intertwines are charming! The sense of speed or rather loss of speed as a pleasure of slowness, the desire to wait; not to feel the agony of boredom but to fulfill the desires of fantasy is remarkable. Long sentences'..this time without any hyperbolic sauce... i must say some long sentences have certain verve which demands slowness and did i notice i am already too long ..didn't I? Look at this what happens when one reads your sentences
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