Description required. This fictional object is compared to an author’s broken engagement in “The Swords Are Approaching,” an essay by the author of Love and Garbage, Ivan Klíma. After fiddling with this object, a character tries to wash his hands in dirty water, then sand, causing him to drop two women’s handkerchiefs. A servant who earlier had rejected a whipping grabs at the gear wheels that begin to pour out of this object. This device’s operator complains of a squeaky wheel and torn straps to a traveler viewing this device, who is urged to recommend its utility to a new Commandant. This device, which is made up of the Bed, the Inscriber, and the Harrow, kills an Officer obsessed with it instead of writing the words “BE JUST.” For 10 points, identify this punitive device from a Franz Kafka story set at a prison camp. ■END■
ANSWER: the apparatus from “In the Penal Colony” [or the apparatus in the penal colony; accept machine or mechanism or general terms for things, like object or device, in place of “apparatus”; accept descriptions of a torture device or killing device in place of “apparatus”; accept “In Der Strafkolonie” in place of “In the Penal Colony”]
<HG, European Literature>
= Average correct buzz position