K

"there can be no doubt that behind all the actions of this court of justice, that is to say in my case, behind my arrest and today's interrogation, there is a great organization at work. An organization which not only employs corrupt warders, oafish Inspectors, and Examining Magistrates of whom the best that can be said is that they recognize their own limitations, but also has at its disposal a judicial hierarchy of high, indeed of the highest rank, with an indispensable and numerous retinue of servants, clerks, police, and other assistants, perhaps even hangmen, I do not shrink from that word. And the significance of this great organization, gentlemen? It consists in this, that innocent persons are accused of guilt, and senseless proceedings are put in motion against them..."

- Franz Kafka, The Trial

In my previous post on the blog ban I said that books may be irrelevant to the folks at DoT, implying that they were a bunch of illiterate morons.

I take that back.

Thinking about it, it suddenly occured to me why this scenario with the ban seems so familiar. The government takes action against you. You don't know what you're accused of, who is accusing you, what you can do to defend / clear yourself, whether you're even the person accused or there's been some horrible bureaucratic mistake. You run around desperately trying to get some information but you can't get a clear picture of what's happening. Your entire existence is on the line, but you have no clue what is expected of you or what you can do about it. Your only contact is with a bunch of shady agents who seem to know as little about it as you.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's the plot to the Trial.

Now I wonder. Is it possible, just possible, that someone in the DoT has read their Kafka?