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PARTISAN REVIEW
surprise with a completed contract with the publisher. I do not want
to cause them any unpleasantness, and so it all ends in the publica–
tion of things which are entirely personal notes or diversions. Personal
proofs of my human weakness are printed and even sold because
my friends, with
Max
Brod at their head, have conceived the idea of
making literature out of them, and because I have not the strength
to destroy this evidence of solitude."
Mter a short pause he said in a different voice:
"What I have just said is, of course, an exaggeration, and a
piece of malice against my friends. In fact, I am so corrupt and
shameless that I myself cooperate in publishing these things. As an
excuse for my own weakness, I make circumstances stronger than
they really are. That, of course, is a piece of deceit. But after all,
I am a lawyer. So I can never get away from evil."
Conversations about his books were always very brief.
"I have been reading
The Trial."
"Did you like it?"
"Like it? The book is horrifying!"
"You are perfectly right."
"I should like to know, how you came to write it. The dedication,
For F.,
is certainly not merely formal. Surely you wanted the book
to say something to someone. I should like to know the context."
Kafka smiled, embarrassed.
"I am being impertinent. Forgive me."
"You mustn't apologize. One reads,
In
order to ask questions.
The Trial
is the specter of a night."
"What do you mean?"
"It is a specter," he repeated, with a hard look into the distance.
"And yet you wrote it."
"That is merely the verification, and so the complete exorcism,
of the specter."
In the Deutsche Theater the actor Rudolf Schildkraut from the
Hoftheater in Vienna was giving a guest performance in Shalom
Asch's play,
The God of Vengeance.
We talked about it to Kafka.
"Rudolf Schildkraut is recognized as a great actor," said Franz
Kafka. "But is he a great Jewish actor? In my opinion this is doubt-
