Recently I heard an On the Media discussion of the Statue of Liberty, and how it’s embraced as a symbol by people of widely different political ideologies. It brought to mind something I hadn’t thought about in years, which is the Mother of Exiles’ appearance at the beginning of Franz Kafka’s first novel Amerika. After an opening which challenges Dickens for cramming exposition into a tortuous first sentence, Kafka presents a startling image, one that might be easily missed. Here is the first paragraph, in translation by Willa and Edwin Muir:
As Karl Rossman, a poor boy of sixteen who had been packed off to America by his parents because a servant girl had seduced him and got herself a child by him, stood on a liner slowly entering the harbour of New York, a sudden burst of sunshine seemed to illuminate the Statue of Liberty, so that he saw it in a new light, although he had sighted it long before. The arm with the sword rose up as if newly stretched aloft, and round the figure blew the free winds of heaven.
Yes, indeed. So, was this daring symbolism of a bellicose nation, or simply the author betraying that he had never seen even a photograph of his subject? As with most things Kafka, your guess is as good as your literature professor’s.
✥✥✥
The other notable thing about this novel is it’s final chapter, entitled “The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma.” That title itself is a word combination so counterintuitive that it might well serve as a computer password.
In the first paragraph of the chapter, the main character reads a placard, one that I would love to have seen posted in the Sooner State where I grew up:
“The Oklahoma Theatre will engage members for its company today at Clayton race-course from six o’clock in the morning until midnight. The great Theatre of Oklahoma calls you! Today only and never again! If you miss your chance now you miss it for ever! If you think of your future you are one of us! Everyone is welcome! If you want to be an artist, join our company! Our Theatre can find employment for everyone, a place for everyone! If you decide on an engagement we congratulate you here and now! But hurry, so that you get in before midnight! At twelve o’clock the doors will be shut and never opened again! Down with all those who do not believe in us! Up, and to Clayton!”
The world, let alone Oklahoma, rarely sees breathless text such as this.
