DOORS revisited

Chris · 10 Sep 2003, 23:28 · from urth-v0309.mbox · original

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From: "Chris" <rasputin_ at hotmail.com>
Subject: (urth) DOORS revisited
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 23:28:58 +0000
Message-ID: <urth-v0309-4096 at digest.urth.net>
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I just finished reading a lot of discussion that went on here around the=20
beginning of the year - I finished reading it for the first time a few week=
s=20
ago - and I wanted to bring up a few thoughts and questions which I wasn't=20
sure about. They may have been covered at some other point, but I haven't=20
found them.

The question that really hangs over my head at the moment has to do with th=
e=20
scene near the end, during the boxing match. When North pulls his guns,=20
Klamm dives for cover and Lara shrinks back; Green remarks that he doesn't=20
know why they're doing that, since North's guns are clearly pointed at=20
*him*. Everyone else in the book makes the assumption that North was gunnin=
g=20
for Klamm - the obvious political target. Here on the list I also see the=20
possibility that North was attempting a shot at the goddess. But why does=20
Green believe North is trying to kill *him*? And is he correct in this=20
belief? The first way that I read it was that Klamm and Green were, in a=20
way, the same person and that this was being reflected by a muddling of the=20
narrative from two points of view. However, this is completely a shot from=20
the hip and I'm not at all comfortable with it.

A second, smaller question: is it generally agreed that Klamm is meant to b=
e=20
Kafka himself? I seem to recall seeing it here but cannot find the post tha=
t=20
mentions it. There is some indication of this, details of description,=20
Klamm's gardening, and his identification with K., etc.

All in all I find myself nodding in agreement with Stone Ox and Mantis as=20
far as how they were breaking things down. I do disagree on the general=20
tendency to see Fanny in a negative light. Ultimately I don't think even=20
Green thinks poorly of her, he admittedly likes her quite a bit. (The scene=20
where he first meets her in the coffee shop was striking to me, and in a wa=
y=20
foretold the ending.) He just doesn't like her *enough* - she's not the=20
goddess. A fairly perfect echo of the same kind of decisions he was making=20
that had him depressed and visiting the Mental Health Center in the first=20
place.

If there was a bait and switch going on, it was one being set up by Klamm.=20
Perhaps not a deliberate trick, but Green is able to recognize that the pat=
h=20
Klamm is laying out for him is the one that Klamm himself took at some poin=
t=20
in the past. Klamm ultimately, for the sake of being close to his love even=20
a little, somehow made the shift from god/lover of the goddess to being her=20
high priest. Green sees where this path leads, and rejects it to go for the=20
whole deal.

Speaking of priests, while doing a little research I found some interesting=20
tidbits about the priesthood of the goddess. The most commonly known bit is=20
that they mutilated themselves in the manner of Attis, rejecting earthly=20
lovers to devote themselves entirely to the goddess. Another item I found,=20
however, about the priests of Attis (the "Galli") who were quite similar wa=
s=20
that they carried an "image of the goddess" with them (or around their=20
necks) - reminiscent of both the dolls and the "mail" charm Green carries=20
around his neck (which if I recall correctly was vaguely human shaped).

I'm right now following up on a vague memory I have of a myth in which=20
Attis/Dionysus/etc. was both male and female (either in a figurative sense=20
or literally hermaphroditic, I am not sure). If there turns out to be=20
anything to it, then I'd make the tentative association that "Adam K." woul=
d=20
be "Adam Kadmon", but that's just opening too large a can of worms for me t=
o=20
deal with at the moment.

Any help y'all could give me in puzzling this out would be most appreciated.

Regards,
Civet

--
"Indeed it is hard to grasp why it hasn't already given birth... to its=20
hero, that demon who will stage without scruple that horrifying play that=20
reduces the whole age to laughter and to unconsciousness of the fact that i=
t=20
is laughing at itself." -- Soren Kierkegaard

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--=20

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