After six months, the curtain of silence has parted and the debate on the police intervention against the mass murderer at the Faculty of Arts in Prague has begun. This cacophony of often contradictory opinions began in June, the month in which we commemorate the centenary of the death of the cartographer of absurdity, the great Prague citizen Franz Kafka. His image is an icon. Everything about it is extreme: the thinness, the sharpness of the features, the shape of the ears attributed to demons and the huge dark eyes under the plebeian low forehead. A shy man, attracted by the authority of the office. Shy people tend to avoid them. What better way to celebrate his memory than with an adequate story?
The central character is a student named K. He came, reported horrific acts and disappeared again. The curtain of silence wrapped around him. The journalism faculty voted for a policy of silence, the major media followed suit. He left behind a letter, something of a legacy. None of us can see it, probably like the original Book of Mormon.
The story hinted at so far would be a mere triviality of pure evil clashing with pure good, and would contribute nothing to Kafka's anniversary. The authorities took care of that. On the scene come two figures preordained to a tragicomic role, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan and Prague police chief Petr Matějček. The Office presents. Their role is to explain the inexplicable and defend the indefensible. The Kafka-esque story is multifaceted, composed of details. Here's one of them: did the police ask for CCTV footage at the gatehouse? If they didn't ask, why did the authorities say they did? If they had asked, what would have followed, since it later turned out that Student K. was unrecognizable on the footage?
The story does not end there. New and new players enter the story. Some recommend silence to prevent the Herostratus effect, others urge a society-wide catharsis. An inevitable part of the Kafkaesque story is the emergence of the commission, a tool to gain light through darkness.
In it, large dark eyes glitter set in a thin face.
Full story: Lidove noviny, Last word 1.7.2024
Ondřej Neff
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