The ignominious machinations of officialdom

Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Castle-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141183446/kenneth-21

“Strange enlightenments are vouchsafed for those who seek the higher places”

The face-slappingly obvious reference here is Kafka. Try repeatedly hitting yourself with a copy of “The Castle” until the link (and probably more than your recommended daily amount of ink) has sunk in. The similarity is superficial though. While the elements of authority’s intransigence, the meek individual faced with an establishment composed of numerous trivial obsessions and an indecipherable inner logic are all in place, there is one crucial thread that inverts the ultimate effect. Kafka never explained. The unquestioning servility of bureaucracy’s drones to the machine was mirrored in Kafka’s own silent obedience to this authority. The absurdities in the narrative were heightened by the author’s blithe acceptance. The Third Policeman doesn't follow this deference. Instead, a plot twist straight out of Night’s book is used to ensure that some comforting post-rationalisation can take place; it’s all right we’re told, there’s a reason for all this. In seeking to eke out some plausibility to events, Flann undermines the surrealism; he views the plot twist as necessary to give himself license to pursue the randomness. He needn’t have worried:

pg 35 “A bright thought came to me when I heard of these policemen. If they knew so much they would have no difficulty in telling me where I would find the black box.”

pg 58 “It was Sergeant Pluck himself…I decided now that he was a simple man and I would have no difficulty in dealing with him exactly as I desired and finding from him what had happened to the black box.”

A 23 page joke. That’s like a stand-up pausing for half an hour before the punch line, and far, far funnier.

Lightning Bolt - Riffwraith (from Hypermagic Mountain.)