Literature: J. M. Coetzee

I don’t often recommend books to read. People seldom take the time to read anymore – not the classics, anyway. Today a woman called to tell me she had enjoyed one of the authors I had suggested to her years ago. Ironically, she had read a book that I have yet to get to.

J. M. Coetzee is South African (or was), now living in Australia. He is a contemporary of Nadine Gordimer, also South African. The two could not be more different. Gordimer writes erratically and from the heart. It’s sometimes difficult to follow. I did like “The Pickup” for her vivid depiction of the desert. I started several of her other books but never could finish them.

Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for “Disgrace” in 2003. Oddly enough, I only got to it earlier this year.

I was first introduced to J. M. Coetzee in college when assigned “Life and Times of Michael K”. I no longer remember the details of the plot, but I do remember the feeling it left me with and the novel’s pivot that made it unique. The protagonist is a simpleton. It was pointed out to me (I don’t think I thought of it myself) how difficult it must have been to write an interesting story about a simpleton. Yet, Coetzee had pulled it off; so much so, I remembered his name all during the decades when I read nothing at all.

The next book of his I happened across was “Slow Man”. Again, it was the story of an ordinary man who had lost his leg in a bicycle vs. auto accident and was trying to adjust to his loss - should have been a bomb. Not so. It pulled the reader along, page by page, sustaining interest in small, ordinary things; obviously very skillfully told. “Disgrace”, Coetzee’s breakthrough novel, again, was just as advertised – and more. It told of South Africa at the end of Apartheid through the eyes of a man burdened with his own troubles.

When comparing Gordimer to Coetzee, I see cars. Gordimer is an economy model (possibly Italian). It sputters and moves in fits and starts. Even when fitfully tuned, it coughs, rattles and shakes. Coetzee, on the other hand is a Rolls-Royce. From the first sentence, you can expect a smooth and solid ride. Coetzee is a reader’s writer. He sees to every comfort the reader could possibly want: easy, yet not simple prose; characters are defined again with each mention (not like the oodles of characters in thick, meaty Russian novels that make you lose your place and leave you hanging). He does not use sex or violence gratuitously. When it suits the plot, such things happen, and then it’s over. He does not build suspense in the usual predictable way. He simply makes us deeply interested in the characters he portrays. Not sure how he does it. In fact, it never occurs to even ask the question. He makes it look simple.

I know, of course, that it isn’t (simple). It requires uncommon discipline and much editing, and endless polishing. Coetzee’s novels tend to be relatively short. But they are gems.

The woman who called me today is an avid reader in several languages. She had found “Diary of a Bad Year” in a Vermont second-hand book shop. By the time she finished reading, she was excited and gushing. Everything I’ve said about Coetzee she would now second. …and she’s ready for more.
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Interesting to note the narrative that is emerging after Obama’s so-called bin Laden kill. On one hand you have a virtual treasure trove of material that shows bin Laden as head of a significant worldwide organization, inspiring and directing his followers to inflict dastardly damage on ‘The Great Satan’ that is America; that he was larger than life and quite worthy of Obama’s wrath and anger, so skillfully employed in his capture. On the other, he’s portrayed as a broken-down pervert, living in a hovel amidst half-eaten scraps of food, surfing analog TV in his underwear.

You would think that given a story with so many holes, this administration would make an effort to remain at least somewhat consistent. Suffice it to say, that no one writing the scripts for Obama has any notion of good literature. They have taken a terrific plot and reduced it to an incomprehensible mess, leaving most people scratching their heads.

The coda, to be released as soon as next week, said to reset this administration’s commitment to Middle East peace, should be painful to watch. Already, the race is on to preempt and outflank Netanyahu’s own initiatives, also scheduled to make headlines during the Israeli leader’s upcoming visit to Washington (next week).

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Australia: Still Tilting at Windmills

People of the West tend to focus on developing exterior spaces whereas in the East interior spaces are of primary concern. When, in fact, equal attention to both would seem ideal. The difference in emphasis could be attributed to the arithmetic of population density. Overriding all this is the fact that human beings are essentially an amalgam of political, economic and spiritual sensibility. We’ve seen an erosion in all three. Corruption in the West has centered primarily around economic issues.

Every part of ourselves has become vulnerable to the virus of corruption. Currently the race is on to see which political region is most at risk. Will the West’s economic power collapse. Will the Middle East succumb to religious extremism? Or, will the Far East implode politically?

Current odds favor the West’s early demise. We draw the line after that because, after it’s happened, we will no longer be in the game. The world, however, will continue even after America and its allies have fallen. This will leave political and spiritual corruption (which are now working in tandem against the West) to fight it out. It is tempting to believe that, after one or the other has been defeated, the world will be one and the struggle will cease. This overlooks the fact that corruption will still haunt what remains.

If Islam remains, it will fracture under its own weight. Ditto, (Chinese) authoritarianism. Nature abhors singularity.

Australia, as the West is in general, stands divided. This is usually a good thing. It is not good, however, when corruption is on the move. It is difficult for the eye to see itself; to know the speck (or beam) within own center. Similarly, it is difficult for a nation to recognize the usurper within itself. I must assume that climate change was a big factor in the Australian elections. As the whole notion of climate change (and what to do about it) has been largely discredited in the most of the West, it must be regarded as the biblical beam in the eye of Australia’s overall political process.

Australia seems to lag behind in its recognition of what the fight is ultimately all about. Whereas in the West the debate now turns on brass tacks: socialism vs. freedom; Australia still appears to be tilting at the illusory windmill project within which the real issue lies buried.

America Watching from the Sidelines

Pundits agonizing over what seems like a flurry of year-end diplomatic activity between sovreign states reflects the current trend of nations on every continent scrambling to re-fashion their alliances in light of U.S abdication of its traditional dominant role. The vacuum that has been created, either by ineptness or intent, since Barack Hussein Obama came to power is beginning to cause global concern. Unease has followed hope and ridicule. America is beginning to be perceived as ‘changed’, quite without the assurance that this change will translate into something better. Quite to the contrary, there is every indication that America is heading for something worse. It is time for the rest of the world to divest itself of its reliance on America’s teat or, at the very least, to begin scouting around for alternatives.

Specifically with respect to Asia, what is happening there is way overdue. Systems of governance should determine which countries should align and which should not. Democracies such as Japan, Australia, Israel, and India would make for a natural alliance. Authoritarian governments, of which China is the biggest in the region, make for an obvious counterpoint. Though some may see the democratic model as messy, history has shown that the democratic template generally yields greater and more profound advances in the long run. A profitable alliance between democracies in the Far East may even convince its non-democratic neighbors to adopt some democratic measures; that is, provided that ideology – often closely linked with corruption - does not cloud the obvious.

Unless America can regain some sense of its former confident self, she will be relegated to watching from the sidelines while the rest of the world advances through the next century.