If Heraclitus is one of our most ancient writers, Kafka seems especially modern. They share in a struggle between disclosure and obscurity that is perhaps as old as writing itself. In this lucid and engaging volume, David Schur takes us from philosophy to literature and back in a sustained examination of a fundamental philosophical metaphor: the way or path of method. Through close readings of texts by Heraclitus, Plato, Heidegger, Blanchot, and Kafka, he follows the development of a rhetorical commonplace into a distinctly Heraclitean paradox of method, concluding that Kafka's account of the way beyond mortal existence renews Heraclitus's emphasis on oblivion in the search for truth.

In this lucid and engaging volume, Schur takes us from philosophy to literature and back in a sustained examination of a fundamental philosophical metaphor: the way or path of method. Through close readings of texts by Heraclitus, Plato, Heidegger, Blanchot, and Kafka, Schur follows the development of a rhetorical commonplace into a distinctly Heractitean paradox of method, concluding that Kafka's account of the way beyond mortal existence renews Heractitus's emphasis on oblivion in search for truth. Paradoxes of self and substance are subthemes drawn to these arguments. One could easily extrapolate that the way Schur uncovers is the Western tradition of proto-Buddhist thinking. Recommended.
-- Word Trade