THE BABY AND THE BATHWATER (PDF-1946)

I am reminded of a line in one of Franz Kafka’s journals, in which he writes: “Everything I write, it already has perfection.” This was many years ago and it took me a while to puzzle that one out, but as I understand it, what Kafka was saying is that rather than perfect his writing, instead he perfected his mind, with the result that anything he subsequently wrote reflected the perfection of his mind. He chose to improve his mind over just his writing technique. Of course, the two work hand in hand, meaning obviously writing was a form of meditation for Kafka.