Another Flag or Signpost: Dostoevsky
Call him Dostoevsky or Dusty-and-Dusky but Kafka seemed to enjoy planting the flag every now and then (doesn't say which woman painter, why that letter, but I'll see what I can dig up): Dostoyevsky's letter to a woman painter. * Can't retrieve the painter or letter by googling. IMHO the text is unclear in this respect, but at least one site seems to suggest that what follows the "flag" is a quote from (or is it merely a "grappling with the content of") the letter. The next paragraph begins: The life of society moves in a circle. Only those burdened with a common affliction understand each other.