Mimslob’s Reviews > The Trial > Status Update

The part with Leni is obviously a misogynistic portrayal of women, which, sadly, can be expected from the novel written by a man in the 1910s. I kinda dig the mysterious, almost surreal feeling of this chapter, like the way the lawyer gets introduced, and the older man who came out of nowhere. It kinda reminds me of Murakami books, including the misogyny part, too, even though the latter is still alive.

I didn’t expect K. to be this agitated about the guards getting punished. He seems to really want to help the guards, and even knows that the senior officers were ultimately responsible for his situation. Even though the concern about his job makes him abandon the guards eventually, I think it’s fair to say that K. isn’t completely evil and has some moral conflict within himself.

I didn’t expect K. to somewhat control the direction of the first hearing, even though I’m pretty sure it will change eventually when they continue the proceedings. But what really interests me is K.'s long speech. He distorted the actual situation, but there are quite a few parts where he criticized the proceedings system, which he’s not wrong about at all.

Obviously, K. is not a good man; he’s narcissistic, lacks empathy, and is pretty much self-centered. But despite all that, he still didn’t do anything wrong legally, yet (at least by the real world’s law). So the question is whether or not K. deserves to be put on trial and convicted of all the guilt that never actually happened.

The book has a more comedic tone than I expected, which wasn’t a problem whatsoever. For me, the first chapter didn’t have anything to talk about much. It just established the world of alternative realism with a touch of odd, mysterious justice system that seems to be hiding in the shadows, separate from the main one.