The Demon of Writing: Powers and Failures of Paperwork

185 Pages·2020·13.569 MB·English

by  Ben Kafka

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