Chapter 50 The Castle of the Soul - Officials and People

In the huge castle hidden in the clouds and mist, a large number of various officials live. These officials perform incomprehensible duties according to the incomprehensible instructions of the castle. They are incomprehensible from appearance to heart. Elusive.Even if a person exhausts his energy to pursue the intentions of these unpredictable officials, what he finally gets is still some superficiality.Summing up the villagers' descriptions of the officials' appearance, we seem to get the following impression: Most of the officials have huge heads (drooped to their chests due to the oppression of thoughts inside), slow movements, dull eyes, and straightforward and majestic speech .These impressions are not very reliable, because the appearance of officials cannot be seen clearly, they can only be based on perception, and everyone's perception is different, so there is no unified answer.If these officials are just high above and do not have contact with the villagers, they will not be tortured by inner conflicts and pains, and it will be much easier for them to perform their duties (if there is any other duties besides having relations with the villagers) up.Here lies the crux of the problem: officials must continue to go down to the grassroots level to have relationships with the villagers, because the existence of the castle in mid-air is based on the village.It can be said that if the officials left the village, the castle would gradually disappear.So in stages and in batches, officials went to the grassroots.What a painful, almost impossible thing for these noble gentlemen.But in order to maintain the existence of the castle, these things had to be done, so they had to do it.The relationship between Klamm and Frieda and the proprietress, the relationship between Sotini and Amarine, and the relationship between Bigger and K are all examples of this kind of official's lower level; their work has established a real relationship between the castle and the people. Relationship.Gentlemen, in the course of their work, are wretched, anxious, and hopeless enough to sleep over the difficulties they face; The only way to deal with the grassroots is also because adopting this way gives them an indescribable joy in their hearts—they have finally crossed the gap between the two worlds and reached unity with the common people.After understanding the basis for the existence of the castle, one also understands the contradictory duties of the officials. This duty not only requires them to be unselfish and reject all desires from below, but also requires them to restrain their aversion to go below in person, stir up the desires of the people below, and Turn this desire into a link between castle and village.As an official, with such a peculiar task on his shoulders, why didn't it make him preoccupied and drowsy.Hasty and rough?So every time they come to the village, they rush back after finishing their errands. Even if they have to stay in the village for the night, they can only spend it in sleep, because the secular world cannot endure for a long time. To throw a fit of rage, to swear more vulgarly than the villagers (as Sortini did to Amarina).The castle orders officials to have crude, or deceitful, relationships with villagers (especially women), and then transforms this jaw-dropping relationship into an idea of ​​transparency.To perform such a task, officials must combine the grossest and the most sublime; and the difficulty they face is so great that it is almost dizzy to think about it. Transformation!There is only one exception, and that is the meeting between Bigger and K. Because that meeting took place in a half-asleep, dream-like state, the vulgarity of the world was greatly filtered out, and its expression was very different. up.

First look at the relationship between Frieda and Master Kram.The gentleman is said to be a man in his fifties with a bad temper and a rough character.He spent most of his time in the village sleeping in the guest room of the VIP hotel; although the waitress Frieda was his mistress, he never once set eyes on her because it was intolerable. (How can the smell of a dirty country girl be tolerated by the master of the castle?) So is Frieda wishful thinking?But it's not.At the critical moment when Frieda betrayed him and rolled on the ground with K, Klamm called Frieda's name in a deep and stern voice in the room, clearly showing his control over her and Frieda It belongs to him from spirit to body.And even though he called Frieda's name, he didn't care about the real person with this name, and resolutely refused to understand it.Only Frieda, who is familiar with Klamm's way of thinking, knows how to treat this gentleman correctly; that way of thinking is unreasonable for a person like K.So is there any physical relationship between Frieda and Kramm?There is no explanation in the article. According to various discussions, our impression is that the relationship is between existence and non-existence.This is the beauty of their relationship, that is, no matter how much they pursue, they are no match for the wind of nothingness blowing from the castle; any relationship will collapse on its own in this strong wind, leaving only transparent concept.Of course, there is not only the idea of ​​​​transparency in the process of things, but also the brutality that is said to be appalling and unbearable.Master Kramm must have been exhausted by this shift of polarity, and that's why he fell asleep all day long.

Look at the relationship between Barnabas and Kram again.It was absolutely true that Barnabas delivered a letter for Master Crumb.Because of this incident, Barnabas was determined to find out whether it was Klamm who was talking to him.- As a castle messenger, this is of course wishful thinking.How could an official like Kramm be recognized by a lowly messenger?And he couldn't stand the disgust of dealing directly with the messenger.Only by preventing him from recognizing him would the disgust be lessened.In the relationship between Kramm and Barnabas, it is the principle not to let Barnabas recognize that he is Kramm.This kind of principle is not the kind of rigid principle that makes people feel dark; on the contrary, it is to arouse the desire of Barnabas' fantasy, which is also the task of the master of the castle to connect with the people at the grassroots level.Therefore, every appearance of Kram is suspicious to Barnabas. He seems to be between being and not being, being and not being; This thought made Barnabas regard recognizing Klamm as a matter of life and death.Imagine if Kram came to Barnabas one day and said, "I am Kram." Wouldn't Barnabas' painful pursuit disappear?Once the ideal is grasped in the hands, it is no longer an ideal.What torture had Barnabas endured to find out Klamm!He used human imagination almost to the limit; he was exhausted all day long, sniffing Klamm's breath like a dog, reasoning round after round like a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder.Barnabas could not confirm that it was Klamm who met him, and this inability to confirm was the essence of their relationship.Crumb uses this illusion to protect himself, and also uses it to control and motivate Barnabas.From Kram, we can imagine the castle in mid-air, there must be many secret passages extending to the village; the officials sent to enter the secular world through those passages, active in every corner, providing fresh blood and nutrition for the pale building .

As for the relationship between Sotini and Amarini, it is a typical example of violent emotional impulse.As a seasoned and prudent official, Sotini lost his composure on a special occasion, looked at Amariniu a few times, and even jumped over the shaft of the fire extinguisher in order to see her clearly!This shows how fierce the lust throbbing in his body is.Of course, this is also related to the fact that Amalini is less disgusting to him than others.So when the whole family, led by his father, approached him, he immediately ordered them to go away; he had already glanced at Amalie, that was enough, and he couldn't stand it any longer.The next morning, Sottini wrote the vulgar letter to Amalini with a mixture of disgust and longing.Maybe it was because he couldn't match the impulse in his body, or maybe it was the job assigned by the castle, which made him cause trouble in a special way.This time he had met his match, and the bloody, tempestuous emotion had to explode, even in a sickening form.The equally vehement Amalienne matched his response by showing him that she, too, hated this form of courtship.But what is left of love without form?Nothing left.Amali Niu chose this kind of impossible love with nothing left, and undertook terrible mental pressure for this impossible love.The relationship between the two here is by no means a relationship of abandonment and abandonment, or pursuit and rejection, but a love relationship unique to the castle and difficult to understand.As the deepest woman, Amalienne accepts the method of the castle, that is, accepts Sortini with her unique ability to bear.If she didn't have this ability, how could Sodini recognize her among so many people, and only recognize her?Subsequent developments proved that Sortini really had a discerning eye, and also proved that the choice of the castle is always correct, because no one can escape this choice.This kind of love is unprecedented, not only changing the fate of a person, but also promoting the rebirth of a family.The relationship between officials and common people is established in this grotesque form.

In order to check his identity, K went to the village chief's house to find out the situation.The village chief's house is a direct subordinate organization of the castle authority, and all the affairs of the village must be recorded here, organized into documents, and then sent to the castle, and the castle's instructions to the village are also sent here first.How is the castle authority connected with the subordinate organization of the village chief's family?We get a glimpse of this with the example of hiring a land surveyor.Many years ago, the village chief got an official letter from the castle, saying that he wanted to hire a land surveyor, and visited the village chief to prepare for his arrival.The Mayor and his colleagues replied that they did not need a land surveyor; but their reply was sent to another department of the castle, and sent only an empty envelope.After the officials of this other department received the empty envelope, they immediately attached great importance to it and launched a series of investigations. The conclusion of the investigation was that the castle had never sent such an official letter.This unexplainable mistake shocked the directly responsible official Sottini, so he sent batch after batch of inspectors to the village to collect the opinions of the villagers on whether it was necessary to hire a land surveyor.Only when this kind of inspection continues continuously can Sotini feel a little more at ease.And because of the inspector's arrival, there was an uproar in the village, all the villagers were divided into two opposing factions, one faction was in favor and the other was against, the struggle between them was endless... This is the working style of castle officials, contacting the masses The way.A long-planned conspiracy is often disguised at first in the form of a trivial incident, and then the motives become more and more obvious, and the strings are tightened more and more, until everyone joins in and puts his private life Live like a castle.In the development of the situation, what the officials never forget is to take away the basis for their subordinates to think about at every step, and make them at a loss, so as to stimulate their subjective initiative, so that they do not rely on the documents above, but It is based on what is created out of nothing, to fight, to exert ability and imagination.Just such a small matter brought out such a dizzyingly complicated relationship with the castle. In other respects, one can imagine how difficult the village chief will be; it is simply a blinding mess. , but it is not a mess, but a dense three-dimensional network, where visible and invisible causal relationships intersect.With such a heavy burden on his shoulders, the village head was overwhelmed long ago, and could only lie in bed moaning all day long.The village chief’s analysis was comprehensive and clear. He had already told K: his appointment was a conspiracy of the castle, and it must not be taken lightly; within the jurisdiction of the castle, nothing is trivial. To escape, you can only face it; you can't go to the top to find a basis, everything can only depend on yourself.Aren't the village chief's words of experience taught him by the old fox Sodini silently?It's a pity that K didn't fully understand.

There is also a more illusory relationship.Because the little people don't get the favor of officials, they can only rely on themselves, come up with all kinds of strange tricks, and spend all their energy on obtaining certain possibilities.The waitress Pebby is one such example.She lives in the dark basement, and can only deal with the hotel guys all year round, and never sees the castle master.Should a servant like her resign herself to fate and just dawdle around?No, the castle does not allow its subjects to have such an attitude towards life.So we see that where the hands of officials cannot reach, their influence is still irresistible.This was Pebby's chance. (Equal opportunity at the castle.) The self-improvement girl, while temporarily not directly related to Klamm, quickly threw herself into self-made, relationship-by-idea endeavors.And the castle seems to support this calculating child with an atmosphere that makes her feel that the situation is extremely urgent, that her fate is in her own hands, and that as long as she does her best, the prospect of meeting a great man is at hand. .This kind of control is invisible, Klamm can achieve his goal without showing up at all, as long as there is a special smell, a certain sign, all the conditions are met, and there is no need for even provocation.People's fantasies can directly merge with the codes sent from the clouds and mist, and become the melody in the music.It's no shame that Pebby's hopes came to naught, she's had four glorious days.During those four days, from morning to night, she breathed in the air that permeated Klamm; her calculations, her anxiety, her determination, all showed the kind of divine friendship between her and Master Klamm; Who can say that all this is not what the castle gave her?The channels of communication between the castle and the village vary greatly, and Pebby's channel is certainly one of them.Because there are few opportunities and time is tight, the emotions emerge in a particularly hot way; on the surface, it sounds like talking nonsense with a high fever, but how many shrewd calculations are contained in it!Pebi is still so young, she will never stay in the servant's dark room from now on, "heroes have no use for their abilities"; maybe soon, new opportunities will come again, but every time you have to hurry up.Her relationship with Klamm was both the most illusory and the most real.

The mother of the little boy Hans has a close relationship with the castle, and he himself may have met the castle officials with his mother at a young age, and this experience has left a deep imprint on his character.From his conversation, we can even guess that he may be a little spy sent by the castle to connect with K.If he hadn't received special training, it would be impossible for him to apply the method of dealing with the castle so skillfully to the people around him.The little man hesitated at first, saying he wanted to help K with work, but K replied that he didn't need his help, and then asked K if he could help him in other areas, and even talked about his mother, saying that maybe he could ask her for help.His insinuation played into K's hands, since the mother was close to the castle and could be used. Concealing his intentions, K pretended to go to help his mother see a doctor.Unexpectedly, Hans immediately overturned the previous suggestion, saying that it was impossible to meet his mother, the mother's body and mind could not bear the burden of meeting, and his father would firmly oppose it.K, who was aroused by Hans's initial suggestion, spent a lot of time explaining the benefits of meeting to the child. Hans seemed to be wavering again (he must be pretending), but he still couldn't make up his mind, and found more objections. reason, until K was patient—once these reasons were resolved, the boy resisted and hesitated to reach an agreement with K.Listening to Hans was exhausting, the little fellow was always under the weight of his thoughts, full of tricks, and hard to see through.What did his inconsistent words mean?The purpose is nothing more than to lure K to overcome many difficulties, connect with his noble and sick mother, and start a new experience.Of course he was instructed by his mother, this kind of instruction is not necessarily a verbal instruction, maybe it is just a hint of the atmosphere, Guang's mother is happiest when she takes the initiative to do what she wants without waiting for her to speak"); and that Behind the mother, there must be an official of the castle. This official did not show up, and caused trouble through the little spy. How correctly Hans understood the intention of that official. He not only saw K's potential, but also secretly envied him K, determined to be a person like K when he grows up. Just because his mother is the person he admires the most, and her mother belongs to the official who didn't show up, and now the official is contacting K through himself, how can this not let him never Are you envious? All the officials who appeared and did not appear on the scene are contacting the people below through various weird channels, arousing their fantasy and vitality, and taking the initiative to perform plays that embody the spirit of the castle. The little secret agent Hans and K In their relationship, it is precisely such a good drama that has not yet unfolded is hidden, and everything is beginning to emerge in their conversation.

How did the relationship between officials and common people become so unreasonable, tortuous, and weird?How did the two become irreconcilable over the long years?Did the dim village and the castle in mid-air ever live in harmony?The esoteric story has actually told us: the original intention of the castle was precisely because of its opposition to reality (village), because it could no longer bear it, and wanted to escape from reality and live in a clean place.After it did this, it immediately discovered its own fatal flaw, that is, it absolutely cannot leave the world below.The crisis of extinction haunts it from time to time.For the sake of existence, for the running energy of the organization, secret channels have been built one after another.Officials either go down to the grassroots level in person, or sit still in the castle. Through those channels, they directly or indirectly manipulate the living beings of the concubine congregation below, so as to start the operation of a huge organization and maintain the vitality of the castle.We finally understand the special pain of officials: it is the pain of the thinker who cannot think, the pain of the sleepy spirit struggling to find a breakthrough.Their great heads hung on their bosoms from disuse, and in their sleep they performed feats which thought could not have done; but all this brought them no consolation, for all results were separated from thought. Proofs are unreliable.A sense of emptiness makes them absent-minded, staring, and reticent all day long; if they are forced to speak, they speak vulgar words because they don't want to hide it.When in contact with the villagers, they can only make quick decisions and forget about them, and even then they will fall ill with nausea.Conversely, what did the people seek from the officials?The suffering peasants whose skulls have been flattened by reality, the messengers who are like ghosts, the women who are pale because of emotional emptiness, and the village chief who is overwhelmed by the burden of intricate relationships, all of them What do you look for in officials?What they are looking for is the basis of life, the inspiration of creation, and the motivation to cause trouble.Once they've found that, they break free and go all in on character creation.Of course, when they did all this, they felt extremely inferior in their hearts, and they always kept in mind the huge difference in status between themselves and officials.

This connection between officials and people, castles and villages is the connection between our human spirit and reality; the rejection and dependence between them are equal, and this relationship will always exist in existence and non-existence, reality and reality. between unreal.Only the true poet who sees through everything dares to go to such extremes, reject all reconciliations, and bring out the opposing sides in the inner emotional contradictions to the extreme. December 30, 1997, Yingcai Country