Chapter 54 Castle of the Soul - The Castle Mindset

Once a person is employed by the Dharma, he immediately reveals his true form.Everyone in the castle is to some extent an employee of the law, except for K, who is dealing with the law for the first time.Because K had unrealistic fantasies in his heart, and because he couldn't get used to the stern and selfless law, when the villagers told him the truth, he was always confused.How can officials be shameless womanizers?Why are the villagers who are so loyal to the castle, without exception, all scumbags?Even Amalia, who is very angry, has to acquiesce in that disgustingly vulgar way of courtship?If all this is admitted, is it not to admit that the castle is the darkest and most hopeless place?Yes, what the castle requires of K is to admit this, and of course the castle does not only require him to admit this.Whenever K met a person, he looked for something in them to benefit him according to his own thought pattern, and he would try to draw them into his camp, and the result was always to make him utterly desperate.This is because K's thinking mode comes from the secular world, and the characteristic of this mode is to separate the two contradictory aspects, that is, a mechanical way.The genius of the villagers in the castle is that their thinking is dialectical, a thinking with infinite tension, and the two poles of human nature are completely unified in each of them.What K thinks is weird, they take for granted; K can only get close to them if he keeps practicing, but even if he keeps getting closer, K will never reach the level of the villagers, just because he comes from the world, and the castle and the world are the same. Opposite.Since encountering the thinking mode of the castle, K's life has become an endless process of understanding. He has been inspired by the people around him to constantly discover the childish defects in himself, and these childish defects continue to reflect the inaccessibility of the castle.During this process, he gradually became humble and flexible. He was no longer as impetuous as K in the film, but became more and more calm and easygoing.This is an incomparably long journey of understanding, and every time K's understanding improves a step, there will be new, unexpected and difficult problems lying ahead, tempting him to make that fatal leap.

K.'s first night at the castle revealed the narrowness and inconsistency of his way of thinking. "Do you have to ask permission to stay here overnight?" asked K. ... "Is there anyone who doesn't need permission?" The voice and demeanor contained a strong mockery of K. "Then I'll have to ask permission now." "Who to ask for?" "To your honor the Count," replied K. "I'm afraid there is nothing else to do." "Now, in the middle of the night to ask the Earl for permission?" the young man cried, taking a step back.

"Isn't that okay?" said K. calmly. "Then why did you wake me up?" At this time, the young man couldn't hold back his anger. "It's really a vagabond style!" From K's side, any problem can be "solved" once and for all.If it is said that he cannot spend the night in the castle because of his status, it must be approved by the relevant department. As long as he is approved, he can stay overnight.From the point of view of the villagers of the castle, no problem can be solved once and for all.It is true that K must obtain permission, but this permission will never be granted, and K can only continue to struggle.They didn't really implement the action to drive him away. They acquiesced to the fact that he stayed. This acquiescence is by no means an acknowledgment of his right to stay, but only an acknowledgment of his right to struggle.Therefore, what the castle requires of K is not only for him to admit that this is the darkest and most hopeless place, but also for him to keep fighting and create hope for himself even in such a place.How could K get used to such a terrible way of thinking emotionally?All the views K. had about his own character in his previous worldly life were out of place here; View yourself by the standards of your castle.Otherwise, why did the young man get so angry?He just wanted to stimulate K with verbal abuse.

(The proprietress): "But who are you? We are still humbly begging you to marry Frieda! You are not from the castle, you are not from the village, you are nothing.  … You Ask a gentleman like Klamm to speak to you! I hear that Frieda makes you look in through the little hole in the door, and it pains me that she is hooked on you. You But tell me, how did you feel when you saw Klam, can you stand it? You don't have to answer, I know you will say you can take it after seeing Klam, it's all right. You can't really see Klam at all. Master Mu...Because I don't have the ability myself."

Here the proprietress conveys the logic of the castle to K.First of all, she taught him how to arouse the inner contradiction, and tried his best to unify the contradiction that had developed to the extreme, and then hinted at what he relied on to develop the contradiction forward.What she meant was that Klamm would never be seen by a dude like K.Her words did not have the slightest derogatory meaning, they were just pointing out the objective reality to him, because she couldn't see Klamm herself.She is not arrogant, but admits reality.Her words did not imply that K would give up his efforts, she just wanted him to strengthen his understanding, it would be better to say that her words also had a hidden meaning, that is, acquiescing and provoking.Of course, every time he makes an effort, K ​​has to feel more closely the humbleness of himself and the nobility of the castle.After listening to the personal experience of the proprietress, I know that she has achieved this, not to mention the officials who enforce the castle's decree, including Kram.They are all examples of this.Just as K couldn't see Klamm, so Klamm couldn't see the real castle light either. K can understand the logic of the proprietress, but there is one fundamental difference between him and these people, that is, these people have already known each other, but K can only be in the process of getting to know them.Everything is new, and everything is an unsolvable mystery. When the answer appears in the first round of consciousness, it becomes an even more unsolvable mystery in the second round of consciousness. The only thing K can rely on when inciting conflicts is to look within himself.

Look at how Amali Niu does it—— Sodini wrote to Amari: "There are only two roads ahead of you: come right away, or—Q,, If Amaryllo wants to "live", she has to turn herself into a prostitute and wallow in the filthy mire, otherwise she has to not "live".What Amalini chooses is the state between being alive and not being alive, that is, being silent in pain, that is, knowing but not acting.All the subjects of the castle choose this intermediate state, so they look like zombies of different shapes; they also have their "actions", but those actions do not contain offense to the castle like K, so they are only dominated by ideas The next model is not really action.The attitudes of these people towards K are contradictory: they admire his blind momentum and despise his ignorance.But impulse can only be spontaneous and blind forever, and what is recognized can no longer generate impulse.And because for this foreigner, the knowledge in the castle is endless, and every knowledge is in doubt, K's knowledge becomes blindness in clarity.Clarity kept interfering with his impulses, and the impulses kept surpassing the existing clarity, leading him to new blindness, which was the cause of those zigzag footprints in the snow.Unlike Amariniang, the outsider K is full of vulgarity. Only in this way can he deny his own vulgarity, and his understanding can develop. The yearning for ideals will not be solidified like the people around him, but become an effort. the process of.The revelation here is: it is impossible for a man to live like a castle subject, but it is possible for a man to live like K.To live like K is to spend one's life looking for gems in the dunghill under your feet. The power to search is only human imagination, no one will help you, and gems will never be found; only the right of imagination is inalienable, It is the source of the castle, it is produced in the dirtiest life, and it emits the light of gemstones unconsciously.

(Olga) "You have your own view of the work of the messenger, which you have brought from outside, and you use this view as a standard to measure what you want from him. But the castle has a different set of standards for courier work, which doesn't match yours. " Barnabas was always in fatal doubt about his identity, which was beyond K's expectation.According to K's original view, Barnabas is a messenger of course, this view is what Olga said "brought from outside".Through Orce's explanation, K finally understood what the castle's standard was and what kind of messenger it needed.What the castle needs is a messenger who can identify himself by sending a letter. Such a messenger is of course an absurd profession in K's eyes.Frustrated with uniforms, Barnabas turns to another hopeless pursuit, that of proving the unverifiable, between yes and no, for Crumb.The result of the quest is greater confusion, more active speculation than confirmation.Although Olga commented: "What kind of messenger job is this? Isn't it exactly the same with him and without him? Whenever Barnabas said early in the morning that he was going to the castle, I felt really uncomfortable. Probably another trip in vain, probably another wasted day, probably another failed hope, what the hell is that?" But notice that these words are addressed to K, so there is a ostentatious overtone in them the taste of.She was telling K with twists and turns: This is the castle's standard for messenger work, and both she and Barnabas have a deep understanding of this. After listening to her complaints, K retorted in accordance with the old habit: Barnabas sent him two letters after all.Olga immediately said that those two letters were also completely meaningless, because they were not from Klamm, and they were old letters out of date, so there was no proof that he was a messenger.When Olga said this, she was showing off again, for she said these words immediately after:

"Barnabas, what exactly do you want? ... There are difficulties, there are things that don't go your way, and there are times when you are disappointed, but don't these just explain a truth, or do you know nothing? Give it to you for free, on the contrary, do you have to work hard to get every little thing? Doing so should give one more reason to be proud, not depressed! " It can be deduced from this that the castle set the same standard for Barnabas as it had for K.Olga revealed to K the secret of the courier Xi's work, and at the same time revealed the mystery of K himself.Perhaps K is not yet aware of his situation, his awareness has improved.After his awareness has improved, K is of course still unable to become a land surveyor like Barnabas. He still cannot get rid of his own blindness, so his actions are somewhat less clear-cut than Barnabas's. , a little more ignorant momentum.This blind drive was exactly what Olga expected from K.She said that the purpose of such a long article is to educate him in the way of the castle and stimulate the brute force of the foreigner in him. K's understanding is the comprehension of the castle's thinking mode. This kind of comprehension is a restriction on the inner impulse on the surface, but it is a kind of stimulation only when you go deeper.Impulse is fundamental, comprehension is a necessary condition; without comprehension, impulse will lose its reference and become meaningless blindness; without impulse, people will be subdued by iron logic and become a corpse.So, on the one hand, Olga demonstrates his suffering by showing off his suffering; on the other hand, Olga secretly admires K.'s vicious vigor.The so-called "views brought from outside" is the inertia that cannot be removed from people. People always like to be relaxed, clear, and full of false hopes, but the thinking of the castle makes people heavy, confused, and loses all hope. And basis, only in this way can rebellion have the meaning of freedom.

(The proprietress) "... Klamm would never talk to him, never take the initiative to let him come to him, this fact is enough in itself, why must it be said that he can't bear to see anyone in fact? At least this There is no way to prove it at all, because such examples will never exist." The gentleman kept nodding. "Of course, that's basically what I thought too, ... but when Klamm came out just now, he did look to the left and right several times."—"Perhaps he was looking for me," said K. "It's possible," said the gentleman, "I really haven't thought of this level!" This sentence caused the audience to laugh.

This kind of superior humor, produced by the way of thinking that K can't understand, tells everyone's living situation. K thought that since Klamm was waiting for someone, it must have been him; the villagers thought that just because Klamm was waiting for someone, it was definitely not K or any of them.But in the meantime, everyone must be fully prepared, because Klamm is waiting for someone!What the villagers dreamed of was this kind of excitement before the incident, this kind of tension (could it not be nervous?) Only K was confused and missed the good opportunity to feel it.But never mind, he had already experienced all this in the snowy yard before, in an unconscious state. K's experiences and those of the villagers follow the same pattern, the only difference being that one is conscious and the other is unconscious. K's unconsciousness or subconsciousness dooms him to perpetual "hindsight".And yet what a vivid experience it was!Ignorance gave him strength over all present; he was daring, unaware of danger, nimble as a snake, and greedier than anyone else.Relying on this strength, he not only performed a variety of tricks during the period of "waiting", but also experienced the adventure of inward exploration.In the eyes of the villagers, everything he did was both surprising and appreciated.However, K has to go back and realize his behavior, otherwise he will lose his sensitive sense of smell and flexibility.He is more and more sophisticated now, he scouts everywhere and takes the initiative to attack at any time, as if he himself has become the maker of the game.Perhaps this is a fact that he himself is not aware of?Who is to blame?There are also these strange villagers. Under their indifferent appearance, there are elusive thoughts hidden. The seemingly ambiguous tricks are actually full of temptations. Even a scheming guy like K can't understand their truth Intentions, they are too profound, their way of thinking can be used freely in reality, and can always hit the core. No matter how sophisticated K is, he can't keep pace with them in thinking.What are they going to do?They want K to mature gradually in the territory of the castle.

The root of the way of thinking of the villagers is to exclude logical reasoning and let life speak for itself.It can also be said to eliminate (setting is equal to eliminating) obstacles and stimulate people's lawless nature.For example, when Secretary Momus proposed to record K's situation, K immediately concluded that the possible result of recording the conversation would be to allow him to see Klamm.Momus pointed out to him that this logical relationship did not exist at all, and that records were records, but for the purpose of filing in the village archives, and there was no other meaning.Moms and the proprietress talked about their opinions, refuted K's wrong ideas and poured cold water on him, threatening him, and finally angered him completely, so their goal was achieved.After the enraged K leaves them, he must be going to cause trouble again. "Then I shouldn't have been excluded from the interrogation just now," K. said. "Yes," The boss said, "You shouldn't do this." Because K didn't speak, the boss added, either to comfort Min or to get away quickly, saying: "Cough, cough, but the loss is not serious enough to cause hailstorms in the sky. Bar." These words of the boss are of course leaking secrets, and the ignorant K will then use actions to answer the wishes of him and all the villagers.In this way, he is manipulated and voluntary (because it is impossible to be fully aware of that invisible manipulation). Look again at Klamm's unparalleled letter, which K reads and reads again and again: "Very respectful sir! As you know, you have been appointed to serve your lordship. Your immediate supervisor is the village chief, who will also inform you of all details of your employment and salary, and you will also be responsible for reporting to him Work, however, I have to take care of you in my busy schedule. Barnabas, who delivers this letter, will ask you from time to time to understand your wishes, and then let me know in time. You will find that I will do everything possible You provide convenience. To satisfy my subordinates is what I look forward to." No matter how hard he studied Klamm's letter, it was impossible for K to understand what he meant.The only thing he can do is to use his actions to realize Kramm's fabled remarks. K lived up to Klamm's expectations.First of all, K is respected in the letter because he broke into the castle with his tenacious perseverance.Then Crumb told him he had been hired as a land surveyor.But only he can experience this matter, and it has nothing to do with others, and he can't get it confirmed from other people's mouths. He can only keep trying to experience his "being hired", and sometimes even has the courage to risk his life.Then Klamm told him that his boss was the village chief.Of course, this village chief is not just a freelancer, as soon as K goes to him, he will reveal many secrets to him, and these secrets will greatly dampen K's enthusiasm for resistance.After the village chief bruised K, he ordered K to report to him regularly, but his secret purpose was to keep K from reporting to him and acting on his own.When K made achievements on his own, Kram would occasionally "take care" of him, but this kind of care would not make K realize, and he could only meet unexpectedly in confusion.During this period, the messenger Barnabas will continue to spy on the progress of K's pursuit, and will continue to give him twists and turns hints and help. His arrival will become K's holiday, because he works for Kramm, and Kramm really wants to... In his unique way to make K's pursuit come true, his goal is to maximize K's potential. K didn't fully understand the subtext in the letter until the end, and this was also Kram's design.If K had realized it in advance, the subsequent events would have changed completely, and the vigorous pursuit would have been impossible.For K, Kram is an eternal mystery. His paradoxical thinking mode has infinite tension, and no matter where K breaks through, it is also within his mode; K is "satisfied".As an official of the castle, Klamm will neither tell lies nor make random wishes. Every sentence in the letter is well thought out and typical castle language. All of my activities are summed up in these few concise sentences. From this letter, one can also appreciate how great Klamm's expectations for K's potential are. This kind of expectation is almost similar to infinite expectations, and it just matches the desire in K's body.Kram said that he would do everything possible to provide convenience for K. The subtext was that no matter what K wanted to do or did, he would provide him with "convenience" and then see what else he could do. K wanted to wait for him in the snow, so he created signs of hope to keep the waiting going; K wanted to keep in touch with him through Frieda in order to negotiate a price, and he let K easily fish Frieda and let him entangle with her for a long time; K wanted to get information through Barnabas, so he asked Barnabas to lead him in the snow, let him experience the purity of the castle realm, and then Let Barnabas reveal the secret of existence to him; K was not satisfied with Frieda, and wanted to spy on the attitude of the castle from another way, so he asked Olga to give him a long speech, drawing a blueprint of the castle mechanism, There is also the tear-jerking feeling of a spiritual victim; K still wants to break into the forbidden area and find out the reason, so he allows him to see everything he wants to see and do everything he wants to do in the forbidden area.In short, the purpose of Klamm, who doesn't show up, is to provide "convenience", so "convenience" that K has to do whatever he wants. K felt that "there is nothing in the world more absurd and more hopeless than this kind of freedom, this kind of waiting, and this state of short-lived swords and guns."So who is Kramm?We only know that he is an official of the castle, and his power is boundless.Such a person provides K with unlimited and compelling convenience, it is no wonder that K does not perform miracles! Castle's mode of thinking finally gave K a sense of familiarity, and K showed a certain demeanor in dealing with Castle, a demeanor of obedience mixed with countryman's cunning and flexibility.Maybe at last he will understand that he can't think in Castle mode (not even Klamm!), but he can act in Castle mode, and that the secret weapon has always been and always will be. always on himself.He is good at calculating, and he will always find the most beneficial method for himself to continuously obtain the effect of satisfaction, although this satisfaction is the thing he is most dissatisfied with and will drive him crazy.This is also what the castle asked of him.His actions will become more and more unexpected, he will turn the most absurd into the most realistic, and above what he cannot see, the light of God always shines on his dark and deep soul.At that time, what kind of expression will the castle have? April 15, 1998, Yingcai Garden