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Quote by Peter E. Gordon

“[A] religious text has depth. The reader of Kafka's texts, however, can feel no such confidence in even the partial recuperation of deeper meaning. As Adorno notes, it is characteristic of Kafka's texts that "words, [and] metaphors in particular, detach themselves and achieve a certain autonomy." The experience of reading Kafka in this sense is the very opposite to theological interpretation: it defeats the religious hope that one might pierce the surface of these autonomous words to reach a level of ultimate meaning. Not without cause does Adorno call Kafka "the parabolist of impenetrability".”

Quote by Peter E. Gordon

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Peter E. Gordon

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“Life is a train ride, and at the many stations along the route, people important to us debark, never to get aboard again, until by the end of our journey, we sit in a passenger car where most of the seats are empty. This truth saddens the doctor no less than it does other men and women who are given to reflection — although his sorrow is undeniably of a quality different from theirs.”