The Demon of Writing: Powers and Failures of Paperwork PDF
Preview The Demon of Writing: Powers and Failures of Paperwork
The Demon of Writing The Demon of Writing Powers and Failures of Paperwork Ben Kafka Z O N E B O O K S • N E W Y O R K 2012 © 2012 Ben Kafka zone books 633 Vanderbilt Street Brooklyn, NY 11218 First paperback edition 2020 isbn 978-1-942130-35-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise (except for that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Distributed by The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kafka, Ben. The demon of writing: powers and failures of powerwork / Ben Kafka. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-935408-26-0 (alk. paper) 1. Public records — History. 2. Government paper- work — History. i. Title. jf1521.k34 2012 342'0662 — dc23 2012024897 Contents introduction The Psychic Life of Paperwork 9 i The Disciplined State 19 “ The National Assembly Doesn’t Give a Damn” “ Shareholders in the Great Social Enterprise” The Disciplined State “ A Stranger to Everything Happening” ii The Demon of Writing 51 “ The Demon of Writing” “ The Physical Impossibility of Doing Otherwise” “ Tiresome Details,” “Barbarous Concision” “ As Simple as It Was Bizarre” Matter, Form, and Power iii The State of Want 77 Writing and Indifference “ Women and White Paper” Is Tocqueville Kidding? A Bitter Joke iv The Bureaucratic Medium 109 The Case of Inspector von Zuccalmaglio Smashing Mistakes Are Made Withdrawal Slip From the Desk of Roland Barthes conclusion The Wish-Utensil 145 acknowledgments 151 notes 155 index 179 Not perverts but bureaucrats will set things off, and we won’t even know if their intentions were good or bad. — Jacques Lacan, Seminar VII: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis (1959–1960) introduction The Psychic Life of Paperwork The management of the modern office is based upon written docu- ments (the “files”), which are preserved in their original or draft form, and upon a staff of subaltern officials and scribes of all sorts. — Max Weber, Economy and Society (1922) Bentham’s Panopticon, Weber’s Iron Cage, Kafka’s Castle — since the beginning of the modern era, these buildings have darkened our skyline. Even as the crowds were tearing down the Bastille, that monument to tyranny, officials were busy erecting still more formidable institutions from which to tax and spend, protect and serve, discipline and punish. Shut your eyes for a moment and summon up images of the interiors: the waiting rooms, hallways, doorways, and offices where clerks sit writing, copying, calculat- ing, or staring off into space. Memos, forms, files, registers spill- ing out of desks, drawers, shelves, cabinets. This book is about paperwork and its contradictions. It begins with the observation that notwithstanding its reputation for tedium, paperwork is full of surprises. The ballot that is sup- posed to serve as the foundation of representative government is spoiled by a dimpled chad. The tax form that is supposed to ensure that we all share the costs of government turns out to be incomprehensible to all but a few. The warrant that is supposed to protect against arbitrary search and seizure is mistakenly writ- ten for the wrong address. The visa that is supposed to help us work or travel keeps us returning to the same place over and over 9
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