Be just: The officer understood that his actions toward the condemned man were unjust. For example, having to bite down on the filthy felt gag. I'll have to reread it. I just remember the weird feeling I got when the officer was losing it and resting his head on the explorer's shoulder while sort of weeping. Very funny as DFW pointed out.
@TheChap36 I just read a few of his less knowns, including In the Penal Colony, and i'd like to say that his ambiguity can be quite a strong repellant to his work. Motives are absent within his work. For example: the officer choosing himself to suffer a religious death while disregarding the new commandant's accusations. If the truth of the matter is that his justice is without question, and that each is guilty without evidence, than the second commandant's opinions should have sealed his guilt.
@TheChap36 The officer should have killed himself before the explorer uttered a single word if he stood by his rule, the supreme first commandant's law of instantaneous guilt through accusation.
@TheChap36 Another point: we are meant to feel bad for the officer and look upon the condemned man and soldier with judgement due to their refusals to help fix the apparatus. We see that humanity is absent in the condemned man, soldier and (debatable) the officer. The officer is suicidal because of: his recognized undoing, an epiphany of guilt, or his deep spirituality towards the first commandant. Ambiguity proves to do what in the matter of the officer's death?
@franciscaceres 'It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.' --Bertrand Russell
Manages to be glib and pretentious at the same time.
kaewonf8 3 weeks ago
It's a gritting of teeth at an indomitable truth
harmivores 2 months ago
Be just: The officer understood that his actions toward the condemned man were unjust. For example, having to bite down on the filthy felt gag. I'll have to reread it. I just remember the weird feeling I got when the officer was losing it and resting his head on the explorer's shoulder while sort of weeping. Very funny as DFW pointed out.
TheChap36 2 months ago
Thank you, David Foster Wallace and a special thanks to Franz Kafka. All of us Lit. nerds must make sure these legends are never forgotten.
Oh yeah, In the Penal Colony for life. What a fascinating apparatus indeed.
TheChap36 2 months ago
@TheChap36 I just read a few of his less knowns, including In the Penal Colony, and i'd like to say that his ambiguity can be quite a strong repellant to his work. Motives are absent within his work. For example: the officer choosing himself to suffer a religious death while disregarding the new commandant's accusations. If the truth of the matter is that his justice is without question, and that each is guilty without evidence, than the second commandant's opinions should have sealed his guilt.
billyg89 2 months ago
@billyg89 then* the second commandant's opinions should have sealed his guilt
billyg89 2 months ago
@TheChap36 The officer should have killed himself before the explorer uttered a single word if he stood by his rule, the supreme first commandant's law of instantaneous guilt through accusation.
billyg89 2 months ago
@TheChap36 Another point: we are meant to feel bad for the officer and look upon the condemned man and soldier with judgement due to their refusals to help fix the apparatus. We see that humanity is absent in the condemned man, soldier and (debatable) the officer. The officer is suicidal because of: his recognized undoing, an epiphany of guilt, or his deep spirituality towards the first commandant. Ambiguity proves to do what in the matter of the officer's death?
billyg89 2 months ago
why is this slowed down? do you have an audio file of it at normal speed?
haileydog 11 months ago 3
"A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
franciscaceres 11 months ago 5
@franciscaceres 'It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.' --Bertrand Russell
Artzineonline 11 months ago