AN IMPERIAL MESSAGE by Franz Kafka
(1883-1924)
The Emperor, so it runs, has
sent a message to you, the humble subject, the insignificant shadow cowering in
the remotest distance before the imperial sun; the Emperor from his deathbed
has sent a message to you alone. He has commanded the messenger to kneel down
by the bed, and has whispered the message to him; so much store did he lay on
it that he ordered the messenger to whisper it back into his ear again. Then by
a nod of the head he has confirmed that it is right. Yes, before the assembled
spectators of his death----all the obstructing walls have been broken down, and
on the spacious and lofty-mounting open staircases stand in a ring the great
princes of the Empire--before all these he has delivered
his message. The messenger immediately sets out on his journey; a powerful, an
indefatigable man; now pushing with his right arm, now with his left, he
cleaves a way for himself through the throng; if he encounters resistance he
points to his breast, where the symbol of the sun glitters; the way, too is
made easier for him than it would be for any other man. But the multitudes are
so vast; their numbers have no end. If he could reach the open fields how fast
he would fly, and soon doubtless you would hear the welcome hammering of his
fists on your door. But instead how vainly does he wear out his strength; still
he is only making his way through the chambers of the innermost palace; never
will he get to the end of them; and if he succeeded in that nothing would be
gained; he must fight his way next down the stair; and if he succeeded in that
nothing would be gained; the courts would still have to be crossed; and after
the courts the second outer palace; and once more stairs and courts; and once
more another palace; and so on for thousands of years; and if at last he should
burst through the outermost gate--but never, never can that happen--the
imperial capital would lie before him, the center of the world, crammed to
bursting with its own refuse. Nobody could fight his way through here, least of
all one with a message from a dead man.--But you sit at your window when
evening falls and dream it to yourself.
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The
Vice of Surrealism Let us not mince words: the
marvelous is always beautiful. anything marvelous is
beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful. -Andre Breton, 1924 And ever since I have had a
great desire to show forbearance to scientific musing, however unbecoming, in
the final analysis, from every point of view. Radio? Fine. Syphilis? If you
like. Photography? I don't see any reason why not. The cinema? Three cheers
for darkened years. War? Gave us a good laugh. The telephone? Hello. Youth?
Charming white hair. Try to make me say thank you: "Thank you."
Thank you. -Andre Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism The simplest Surrealist act
consists of dashing down into the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly,
as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd. -Andre
Breton, Second Manifesto of Surrealism
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For Colonel Aureliano
Buendía it meant the limits of atonement. He
suddenly found himself suffering from the same indignation that he had felt
in his youth over the body of the woman who had been beaten to death because
she had been bitten by a rabid dog. He looked at the groups of bystanders in
front of the house and with his old stentorian voice, restored by a deep
disgust with himself, he unloaded upon them the
burden of hate that he could no longer bear in his heart. "One of these
days," he shouted, "I'm going to arm my boys so we can get rid of
these shitty gringos!" During the course of that
week, at different places along the coast, his seventeen sons were hunted
down like rabbits by invisible criminals who aimed at the center of their
crosses of ash. |
--from One Hundred Years of Solitude
by
Gabriel García Márquez (1928- )
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
"Borges and I"
Text is from Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings
(New York: New Directions, 1964),
pp.246-47.
The other one, the one called
Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through
the streets of
Spinoza knew that all things
long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone and the
tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am
someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in
the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him
and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and
infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other
things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs
to oblivion, or to him.
I do not know which of us has
written this page.
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