|
|
Article: From Moses to Musa.(influence of Bible in literature)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- October 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
In a brutal antithesis, worthy of some ancient Gnostic, Franz Kafka wrote, "The Bible, sanctum; the world, sputum." In this formulation, the world is something spewed out, a vile off-scouring--quite literally, a "shit-hole" (Scheisstum)--a matrix of infected matter, over against which stands, as its polar opposite, the Word, pristine and incontaminate. Of course, the tuberculosis from which Kafka suffered all his life, and which killed him in the end, gives the second half of his dictum a certain savage poignancy. The distance between sputum and sanctum, only accentuated by the assonance, must be immeasurable; and yet, if this is so, where are we to live? The cruelty of ...