"Franz_Kafka_-_Diaries_1912" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kafka Franz)

After the first excitement he thinks the matter over. How did the essay get into the paper? Without his consent? Without the name of the author? Without his being
paid a fee? This is really a breach of faith, a fraud. This Mrs. Durшge is really a devil. And women have no souls, says Mohammed (often repeated). It's really easy
to see how the plagiarism came about. Here was a beautiful essay, it's not easy to come across one like it. So Mrs. D. therefore went to the Tagblatt, sat down with
one of the editors, both of them overjoyed, and now they begin to rewrite it. Of course, it had to be rewritten, for in the first place the plagiarism should not be obvious at
first sight and in the second place the thirty-two-page essay was too long for the paper.


In reply to my question whether he would not show me passages which correspond, because that would interest me especially and because only then could I advise him
what to do, he begins to read his essay, turns to another passage, leafs through it without finding anything, and finally says that everything was copied. Here, for
instance, the paper says: The soul of the child is an unwritten page, and Уunwritten pageФ occurs in his essay too. Or the expression УsurnamedФ is copied too, because
how else could they hit upon Уsurnamed.Ф But he can't compare individual passages. Of course, everything was copied, but in a disguised way, in a different sequence,
abridged, and with small, foreign interpolations.


I read aloud a few of the more striking passages from the paper. Is that in the essay? No. This? No. This? No. Yes, but these are just the interpolated passages. In
its spirit, the whole thing, the whole thing, is copied. But proving it, I am afraid, will be difficult. He'll prove it, all right, with the help of a clever lawyer, that's what
lawyers are for, after all. (He looks forward to this proof as an entirely new task, completely separate from this affair, and is proud of his confidence that he will be able
to accomplish it.)


That it is his essay, moreover, can be seen from the very fact that it was printed within two days. Usually it takes six weeks at the very least before a piece that is
accepted is printed. But here speed was necessary, of course, so that he would not be able to interfere. That's why two days were enough.


Besides, the newspaper essay is called УThe Child as Creator.Ф That clearly refers to him, and besides, it is sarcasm. By УchildФ they really mean him, because he used
to be regarded as a Уchild,Ф as УdumbФ (he really was so only during his military service, he served a year and a half), and they now mean to say with this title that he, a
child, had accomplished something as good as this essay, that he had therefore proved himself as a creator, but at the same time remained dumb and a child in that he let
himself be cheated like this. The child who is referred to in the original essay is a cousin from the country who is at present living with his mother.


But the plagiarism is proved especially convincingly by a circumstance which he hit upon only after a considerable amount of deliberation: УThe Child as CreatorФ is on
the first page of the magazine section, but on the third there is a little story by a certain УFeldsteinФ woman. The name is obviously a pseudonym. Now one needn't read
all of this story, a glance at the first few lines is enough to show one immediately that this is an unashamed imitation of LagerlЎf. The whole story makes it even
clearer. What does this mean? This means that this Feldstein or whatever her name is, is the Durшge woman's tool, that she read the Gutsgeschichte, brought by him
to the Durшge woman, at her house, that in writing this story she made use of what she had read, and that therefore both women are exploiting him, one on the first page
of the magazine section, the other on the third page. Naturally anyone can read and imitate LagerlЎf on his own initiative, but in this cast, after all, his influence is too
apparent. (He keeps waving the page back and forth.)


Monday noon, right after the bank closed, he naturally went to see Mrs. Durшge. She opens her door only a crack, she is very nervous: УBut, Mr. Reichmann, why have
you come at noon? My husband is asleep. I can't let you in nowФЧУMrs. Durшge you must let me in by all means. It's about an important matter.Ф She sees I am in
earnest and lets me come in. Her husband, of course, was definitely not at home. In the next room I see my manuscript on the table and this immediately starts me
winking. УMrs. Durшge, what have you done with my manuscript. Without my consent you gave it to the Tagblatt. How much did they pay you?Ф She trembles, she
knows nothing, has no idea how it could have got into the paper. УJТaccuse, Mrs. Durшge,Ф I said, half jokingly, but still in such a way that she sees what I really mean,
and I keep repeating this УJТaccuse, Mrs. DurшgeФ all the time I am there so that she can take note of it, and when I go I even say it several times at the door. Indeed,
I understand her nervousness well. If I make it public or sue her, her position would really be impossible, she would have to leave the Women's Progress, etc.


From her house I go straight to the office of the Tagblatt and have the editor, LЎw, fetched. He comes out quite pale, naturally, is hardly able to walk. Nevertheless I
do not want to begin with my business at once and I want to test him first too. So I ask him: УMr. LЎw, are you a Zionist?Ф (For I know he used to be a Zionist.) УNo,Ф