Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Baron Edgar DeWitt wants to see You

Following sequence has cut off from film "Johnny English" Here:.
- Baron Edgar DeWitt wants to see you, monsieur Sauvage.
- Voila, baron DeWitt, thank you so much for coming, always is great pleasure to see you.
- On the contrary, the pleasure is mine, monsieur. God, what a pleasure! Hyll, hyllalla hyllalla, it´s amazing!
- Please, come and sit.
- Sure.
- May I offer you a brandy?
- No... Well, I think, in sunday I got beaten up! Good!
- And, of course, all of us in "DeWitt´s Royal Gazette" are very grateful to your continuing financial support, yes!
- Baron, I cannot tell you, how much I look forward each month to receiving my little magazine.
- Oh! It looks very flattery, you get it everyhere, yes, hyyy hyyy yes.
- But I must say very fascinating in your magazine is your claim to the throne. Is it the fact that if same sort of things happen to the Queen´s family the crown of England would pass to you?
- Aaaa, well, its slightly more complicated, because there are 28 the Queen´s immediate relatives in the line of the succession, hardly to think all these are disappearing over night hyllalla hyllalla, this is frankly rather shlimm. And of course, I am not the only one with royal blood in my vein, am I? In fact a little hyllalla keybord told me that you spent a small fortune proving of your descendant from bonnie prince Charlie, ye?
- You are very well informed.
- You see, I have free copy of your family three, o dhree, family tree. And I must say, Pascal, it´s a cheeky little claim, but I think there are no one to take it seriously. Splendid. And at last, something might happen to your cousin Gerard, in which case your claim will be second only to mine.
- It just did.
- What?
- Happen... to Gerard. He died in a ballooning accident.
- When... we-we-we he has shhh. When... to Gerard - this?
- Five minutes ago.
- All right. Blablebla.
- You know, sometimes I just amuse myself when I try imagine, what I would need to actually have myself be crowned.
- Ha-ha-ha, that is a ridiculous thought!
- Bien sûr, but just for a amusement value. What would I need?
- Well, lefty, lefty, let me see. Well the Queen have to abdicate, of course. And behalf of yourself´s hand, the prime minister would have to prove your claim, and consulting with the archibishop of Canterbury, then...
- Go on.
- About it, really? And for example, of course, as your rival claim to the throne tirr-tirr you have to eliminate me...
- Mr. baron, thank you again for most imformative visit.
- Pleasure, Pascal, thank you! Very nice. Oo lätu lätu lätu. Au revoir!
- Autch!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

A Question for the characters of Kafka´s "The Castle"



I am opening my PhD thesis with the interesting questions about the characters of the famous novel.
The narrator, K, the Land-Surveyor arrives in the village, governed by the Castle. A tanner Lasemann ("Letting Man"), whose son-in-law is the only person in the village that desired that a land surveyor be hired. He is the only person that would allow him into the Castle without his assistants. So kind persons are transversal to the direct ongoing of the plot. Thus, Lasemann vanishes.
Gerstaeker, a coachman, that outright totters on the village´s street. Despite of this shaking he can drive K wherever he wants. The typical situation for the utopias: you can leave in every directions, but your departure is in your responsibility. All directions are generally open. The names of the characters seem to be rather ironical: "Gerstaeker" means in German a very little Hymenoptera insect that lives in the barlow.
For the politologist, the main question follows: is this society sustainable?
1) Frieda confesses that Klamm ("clammy" in German) does not need her, but she, his sweetheart, needs him. The problem of the male impotency appears at very high level of the society;
2) Also, the Land-Surveyor himself struggles with the homoerotic motives (episode with the Barnabas´s shirt and sisters);
3) The nightwatch in the cancellery does not work, the ringing-devices of the phones are switched off - or, if somebody calls in at nights, there will be rather few officials awake. They switch in the devices and answer always inadeqately, because they want to joke ("the problem of the insane society");
4) The assistants WOULD replace K in the dangerous and problematic situations (i.e episode in the Castle´s yard, with the cognac). They WOULD, actually they do not;
5) In the Castle you can speak about your salary only after one-month hard working;
About the Max Weber´s bureaucracy theory, this kind of bureaucratic system fits to the huge systems, because the signals between the highest and lowest levels are dim and utopian.