The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

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Author QuotedFranz Kafka
Title Quotedtrial / by Franz Kafka
Date (Year/Month/Day)1967/06/26
ImprintNew York : Modern Library. [1956, c1937]
QuotationImportance of really studying Kafka's Trial is dawning on me. First of all for work - comparison with Camus' Stranger and for the ideas on language, war etc. Also for my own evaluation of my own position. My own neurotic attitude toward society and my own guilt. A deep [indecipherable] in existential psychoanalysis! And on the idea of "original sin," solitude, identity etc. How K. goes to work and constructs the identity they seemingly "want" him to have (do they "want" anything?). In other words, by resisting one can effectively affirm whatever it is one is accused of and, in a manner, submit to the accusation. (Fr. Kavanaugh's book). The utter uselessness of that kind of righteousness. Du Bay also. It is clear that no one affirms the clerical state in all its absurdity more firmly than Du Bay with his idiot idea of a priests' union.
Quotation SourceLearning to love: exploring solitude and freedom. The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 6, 1966-1967.; Edited by Christine M. Bochen. / [San Francisco] : HarperCollins. 1997, p. 255
Letter to 
Notes 
Link to Merton's Copy 43215 

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