Ben Hutchinson in TLS in 2022: ‘Nowhere does Kafka give greater expression to this transcendental homelessness than in his so-called Zürau Aphorisms, written in 1917-18 and named after the Bohemian village in which he composed them. Teetering on the edge of paradox, the aphorisms have a startling, vertiginous power, “a belief like a guillotine, as heavy, as light”.’

And: ‘“If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it”, he notes in another aphorism, “that would have been allowed”. “There is a destination”, he writes in a third entry, “but no path”.’ So it is. No path, just a destination. The remaining question: how to get to your destination without a path.

On Saturday I’ll be in Zürau, now called Siřem.

On Sunday night I’ll be in Prague. Looking for a dinner companion to talk about destinations without a path. All serious inquiries will be rewarded.

(a sf 2248)