مازالت تراودني نفس الفكرة كلما قرأت لكافكا وأري نفس النظرة فى عيون كل أبطاله , نظرة كراهية الذات وإحتقارها , ففى مستوطنة العقاب نجد الجندي الذي آمن بالحكم عليه بالموت بآلة التعذيب دون أي مقاومة حتي يقول فيه الكاتب بأنه يبدو عليه كما لو كان كلبا خاضعا , وننتقل إلي الضابط الذي لا يري نفسه أهلا للحياة إلا فى ظل القائد القديم ونري مدي ترسخ الكراهية للتجديد أو التغيير أو التطور داخل النفس البشرية فى مقاومة القائد الجديد وأساليبه وهنا يظهر لنا كل الصراع بداخل الضابط الخائف علي تلف الآلةمرة وخائف مرة أخري علي زوال سلطة القائد القديم والذي يراه من العظمة بحيث لا يمكن إضافة أي شىء علي عمله ولذلك لم يجد الآخرين سبيلا لإتلاف أعماله إلا بإهمالها , لا أدري بمن أشار كافكا للقائد القديم أو الجديد , لكني رأيت الرغبة الإنسانية فى أن تكون ذليلا مسيطر عليك من قبل أحمق آخر واضحة جلية فمثلا من خلال الكراهية لمن يعلوك ويسيطر عليك ( كراهية الجندي للظابط والضابط للقائد الجديد ) وهكذا , تستمر الحكاية إلي أن يحاول الضابط أن يجرب الآلة بنفسه , ربما كانت نظرته بأن الوجود لا يستحق وبأن العالم لا قيمة له دون أن يكون هنالك قوة مفكرة عظيمة كالقائد القديم يستمد منها عظمتها أو ربما لإثبات وجهة نظره للمستكشف رأيت فى الحكاية بأن الضابط قد ضحي بعمره وأتعب نفسه مقابل اللاشىءوظهر هذا متمثلا فى العديد من الأشياء :- من ملابسه التي تبدو ثقيله جدا وإحتماله لحرارة الشمس بداخل مستوطنة العقاب من أجل فقط تذكر الوطن وفي ذات اللحظة نراه يضع فى ياقته مناديل نسائية أخذها من الجندي إذن يا عزيزي فلماذا أنت هنا طالما أنت تتوق للنساء ؟ ولماذا تحتمل كل هذه الحرارة ؟- رأيت الضابط الذي رسمت له خيالاته الخوف من الهدم لكل ما يعرفه ويؤمن به من أشياء متمثلة فى طريقة العقاب وفى الآلة التي إخترعها القائد السابق وهكذا ظل طوال الوقت خائفا من تلك الفكرة إلي أن باح للمستكشف بخطته لماذا إذن مازالت تفني عمرك فى مستوطنة لم تعد تؤمن بقيادتها أو تجد فيها ما يجعلك أنت ؟حتي لحظة النهاية فى القصة رأيت هذاحتي حينما فاضت روحه ومات أما عن الجندي فهو رمز القوة الذي ينفذ كل شىء ويفعل كل شىء دون تردد , فحين يلمح فقط نظرة الضابط ينهال بسكينه علي ملابس المحكوم عليه ليقطعها ويتركه عاريا قبل أن يربطه فى الآلة وتارة أخري يداعب المحكوم عليه ويتسلي معه ويأكل معه ويضحك معه ويفرح معه وحتي النهاية حين يرغب فى الرحيل على المركب مع المستكشف معا أيضا فكرة المستكشف رأيت أنها قد تكون ذلك الخوف الوهمي من كل شىء فأنت تري أوهاما فى خيالك تبني بها قصورا من الخوف لأمور أخري قد تكون هي الأخري أوهاما أنت كإنسان تبني الوهم والخوف من كل ما حولك وهذا أكثر ما رأيته من خلال الضابط وتبني لهذا الوهم خططا ومعارك للتخلص منه وأحيانا تبني معارك ملحمية وشخصيات خيالية لتنقذك من هذا الوهم .--------حاولت أن أفهم القصة الثانية بنات آوي وعرب لم أستطع ولم ادرك السبب ؟فالكاتب تحدث عن الرجل الأوروبي الذي حادثته بنات اوي ليثور علي العرب والعرب اخبروه بأن بنات آوي حيوانات قذرة ودوما تحت السيطرة حتي حين جلبوا لها الجيفة لتأكل واستطاع العربي أن يروضها بالسوط حتي منعه الاوروبي لم أستطع فهم الاسقاطات جيدا ولذلك فلها تقييم آخر إن شاء الله إلي ذلك الحين فالتقييم للكتاب 4/5تحياتى
I first read this story (actually at least three times, readings two and three immediately succeeding in turn after the first) when I was nine, in fourth grade (Mrs. Plotkin's class) in 1954. I was mad for short stories at the time and had bought a twenty-five cent small paperback anthology (even smaller than a Penguin, they haven't made that size for forty or fifty years) of which In the Penal Colony was the final story in the back of the book.I read it, and couldn't understand a thing. I could understand most other stories, but was completely bewildered by this one. Some stories conveyed information, some painted pretty word pictures, and some were obviously calculated to make your flesh creep. Others just told interesting stories where you read on simply to find out what happened. But none were like In the Penal Colony. You could read it over and over and still not be able to figure out why you were reading it, let alone why the author wrote it. It was gruesome. It was disgusting. It had nothing to do, so I thought, with real life. It left me bewildered.Which, of course, was the point. Not just of In the Penal Colony but of all Kafka's literary work. Kafka can be said to have invented participatory literature, literature in which the reader him or herself is a character in the work. It was only a hop, skip and conceptual jump from 19th Century "trick" stories (e.g., My Kinsman, Major Molyneux; An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge; The Gift of the Magi, etc., etc., etc.) with their rather gimmicky tinsel-and-sawdust peripeties. A trick story was, in the end, complete in itself. Everything was finally wrapped up. Sex with orgasm. Kafka invented the three-dimensional story, the story containing no explanation and no comprehensible or credible plot, the story in which the reader was not a distant, superior on-looker, but a working participant. The main purpose of Kafka's stories being to create within the reader, same as with a zen koan, a pure, continued experience of bewilderment. Sex without orgasm.Kafka was obsessed with the state of bewilderment. His stories and novels don't just describe it, they provoke and maintain in the reader, even beyond the limits of each reading of a story or novel, a continual state of bewilderment. Kafka was the archdruid of bewilderment. He insisted on it so much that he can be said to have reached out from the pages of each of his works to grab readers and shake bewilderment into them as a permanent condition. Whatever other ideas or purposes he may at various times have included in his work, there is always an obsessive basso continuo of bewilderment. His was not the gentle treatment of a Chekhov, or the after-dinner men's club anecdotes of Maugham. Kafka does not ask permission and does not even forewarn. His stories are more than stories, they are facts in a reader's life. I'd have to guess that bewilderment was a very normal state of being for Kafka, although at once both normal and problematic. His continued re-evocation of this feeling throughout his work reminds me of repetitive dreams or nightmares in which our unconscious minds are (as in PTSD) continually trying to resolve distressing past experiences that pose constant existential challenges to our sense of self. And for Kafka descriptions were not enough. He was compelled to exert his literary talents to the utmost to forcefully evoke bewilderment in his anticipated readers. Other short stories are almost all minor experiences for the reader, with very few exceptions. Kafka's stories are lifetime companions. I don't know that I've seen these particular connections made before, so they may be of some interest. For several years prior to the writing of this story (October 1914), word had been filtering out about German atrocities (including genocide and extermination camps) in what was at the time German South West Africa - now the independent nation of Namibia (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_S...) And the grossly sadistic predations of Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo Free State had been publicized only a few years before (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Fr.... Not to mention the "Rape of Belgium" by the Germans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_...), which was ongoing at exactly the time Kafka wrote this story. He may have read about such things. Wikipedia makes a connection with an obscure (and apparently terrible) novel of Octave Mirbeau (here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_P...) but that seems to me to be a stretch.I've given this story one star rather than the four or five most others have awarded. I find it outrageously and unnecessarily gross. Kafka could and did with great success create bewilderment through many other fact patterns, metaphors and characters. This story is, for me at least, gratuitously over the top. Literary schrecklichkeit.
What do You think about In The Penal Colony (1974)?
You arrive in a strange country where people have had some strange traditions - and since you are not bred into that culture, you can not help finding them harsh, illogicaly insane and sadistic (although on reflections one may find same to be true for every society if the veil of culture was taken away).Now of course, things are changing, the. New General won't approve of old methods, but there are some conservatives including executioner who so genuinely and religiously (religion backing comes towards the end) believes that old ways are the only good ways (in this case for purpose of delivering justice) - that he is prepared to die with them but that doesn't make him hero or villain or hero, just a specimen of his culture.
—Sidharth Vardhan
Ne mogu da se otmem utisku da je ova mala bolesna pričica zapravo opis nekog stvaralačkog procesa, u ovom slučaju je povezano sa pisanjem , to jest da je mašina za mučenje zapravo proces pisanja. Da su ljudi koje dovode i koji nemaju pojma šta se dešava pisci, da oni pišu svjom krvlju,gladni izmučeni. Oficir (Kafka?) koji se zalaže za mašinu koju su svi napustili pokušava strancu da opiše njen znašaj , pokušava da mu objasni kako su ljudi nekada dolazili da vide pogubljenje i pogled osuđenog na kraju koji izgleda kao da je spoynao nešto nama nedokučivo. Ali stranac misli da je to surovo , da je potrebno sudjenje , da je to nehumano i odbija da mu pomogne. Oficir je spreman da umre za svoju ideju, ali mašina se pokvarila,i ubila ga pre vremena, kao Kafka koji je umro ne završivši ni jedno svoje delo do kraja. Tako i oficir umire pre vremena, ne našavši smisao u onome u šta je verovao ceo svoj život, u onome čemu je podredio sve, nije našao spas iako je pogurao mnoge druge da ga nađu."Bilo je onakvo kakvo je bilo za života (lice); nije se mogao otkriti nikakav znak obećanog izbavljenja; što su svi drugi našli u mašini , to oficir nije našao; usne su mu bile čvrsto stisnute, oči otvorene, sa izrazom života, pogled miran i uveren, kroz čelo je prolazio šiljak velike gvozdene bodlje".
—Anastasja Kostic
“E in che consiste la condanna? domandò l’esploratore. La condanna non suona severa. Al condannato sarà scritto con l’erpice sul corpo l’articolo di legge che ha violato. A questo condannato, per esempio, verrà scritto sul corpo: ‘Onora il tuo superiore’! L’esploratore gettò un fuggevole sguardo verso l’uomo; teneva, quando l’ufficiale aveva accennato a lui, la testa china e sembrava tendere tutte le facoltà dell’udito per capire qualcosa. Ma i movimenti delle sue labbra tumide e serrate rivelavano palesemente che non riusciva a comprendere nulla. L’esploratore avrebbe voluto domandare diverse cose, ma la presenza dell’uomo gli permise di domandare soltanto: Conosce la sua condanna? No, disse l’ufficiale, e voleva subito proseguire con le sue spiegazioni, ma l’esploratore l’interruppe: Non conosce la propria condanna? No, disse di nuovo l’ufficiale, e tacque per un istante, quasi esigesse dall’esploratore una più particolareggiata giustificazione della sua domanda, e poi disse: Sarebbe inutile fargliela sapere. La impara a conoscere sul proprio corpo. L’esploratore avrebbe taciuto, ma sentì lo sguardo del condannato volto su di lui; sembrava domandare se la procedura descritta potesse essere approvata. Perciò l’esploratore, che si era già tratto indietro, si chinò in avanti e domandò ancora: Ma di essere stato condannato, questo poi lo saprà? Nemmeno questo, disse l’ufficiale sorridendo all’esploratore, quasi si attendesse ora da lui qualche confidenza straordinaria. No, disse l’esploratore, e si passò la mano sulla fronte, dunque l’uomo non sa nemmeno adesso come sia stata accolta la sua difesa? Egli non ha avuto nessuna occasione di difendersi, disse l’ufficiale guardando in disparte, quasi parlasse fra sé e sé e non volesse umiliare l’esploratore raccontandogli queste cose per lui naturalissime.”“Nella colonia penale” è un breve racconto di Kafka in cui un viaggiatore assiste all'esecuzione di un condannato a morte.L'esecuzione è affidata ad un ufficiale che descrive accuratamente la macchina utilizzata, che in realtà è un apparato di tortura il cui fine è scrivere sulla pelle del condannato il reato per cui esso viene giustiziato. La procedura deve avvenire lentissimamente, in un arco di tempo di dodici ore in modo tale che il condannato possa prendere coscienza della sua colpa: "Passata la sesta ora, come tutti diventano silenziosi! Anche nei più ebeti si desta l'intelligenza: comincia dagli occhi, e da lì si diffonde; lo spettacolo è tale che uno si sentirebbe invogliato di mettersi anche lui sotto l'erpice! Non che succeda nulla di nuovo, ma l'uomo comincia però a decifrare la scritta; e fa una smorfia con la bocca, come se stesse in ascolto. La scritta - lei l'ha constatato - non si decifra facilmente con gli occhi; ma il nostro uomo comincia a decifrarla con le sue ferite. Certo, il lavoro è lungo; per venirne a capo ci voglion sei ore".L'ufficiale sa che la procedura è ormai contestata e prega il viaggiatore di non esprimere il proprio parere quando parlerà con il Comandante. Il viaggiatore dice però che comunicherà chiaramente il suo dissenso a quell’esecuzione disumana e l'ufficiale decide allora di sottoporre se stesso al martirio programmando la macchina affinché scriva sulla sua carne il verdetto: "Sii giusto!". La fine, tragica, vede la macchina impazzire e dilaniare il corpo dell’ufficiale, senza redenzione alcuna da parte sua.Terribile il racconto, scritto benissimo ma decisamente crudo. Tanti e importanti i temi del breve racconto: la giustizia, ossia il rapporto tra colpa e punizione, la legge (qual è la legge giusta?), l’universalità del sistema di valori.
—Roberto
