The Disgrace of leaving my book behind…
My blog is a little late because I left my book on my desk at my job last night so I couldn’t read. I now have the benefit of writing after class discussion, so I have a little bit of an advantage, but I’m going to tackle a little bit of a different issue than we talked about it class.
I think one of the major questions in this part of the text is whether or not David has really changed. I was helping my boyfriend with an literature assignment for his class where he had to define a bildungsroman, which we found out is a coming of age novel about an adolescent becoming an adult. As I thought about it, it occured to the that Disgrace can be looked at in this way as well. Wikipedia gives a great definition of this and I think you’ll be able to see why I fell this way. I know David is an adult, but he spends the majority of the novel emotionally maturing, or does he?
My problem with David is that I don’t think he ever says things for the right reason. He reminds me a lot of Christopher Porco at his trial. In the scene where he attempts to apologize to Mr. Issacs he is not in any way sincere. He apologizes in order to clear his conscience, to clear his name. He in no way regrets what he has done to Melanie, he just knows now that it was wrong. I think I could pretty easily diagnose him as a sociopath if her were a real person.
Another issue that I thought of is the way in which he trains he manipulates and choses the women that he does. The reason that he fights with Lucy and says that he wishes she could be more simple is because she does not fit the role of a woman ( in Rubin terms). She defies what he knows and accepts a woman to be, a woman as defined by her role as a daugher, a wife, a prostitue, an ugly woman (Bev) who needs his love and sympathy; sounds pretty Rubin to me. The other women in his life have done this, and he got a long with them. This also coincides with what we talked about with the beginning of the book. As soon as a women defines herself as one who holds power, he no longer wants to be around that person.
What a great book! I’m kind of dissapointed that I had to hear the ending in class before I could read it for myself, but at least I found my book!
brett glasser said,
March 22, 2007 @ 1:02 am
I dont know how to send you my best writing. I wanted to send you my fanon reading but i dont know how. Can u tell me? - brett G
atticfox said,
March 23, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
Hi Sherri,
Thanks for the term “bildungsroman.” I went to Wiki and learned something new. The idea of a “coming of age” novel is interesting in that Coetzee seems to model Disgrace after the form. I agree with you though, he contradicts that form when David is unable to learn through his repeated contact with life lessons. Perhaps this is his point.
David constantly alludes to his age being the problem, which makes me wonder if Coetzee is commenting on the fact that cultural change rarely effects the generation of the moment. Our identities are molded and reinforced at such a young age that to relearn who we are creates confusion and takes several generations to overcome the damage done. Post apartheid South Africa has rippling effects, obviously both good and bad. I’m not saying change is not worth it, by any stretch. The world can certainly be a better place for our children. I’m just saying that racism and sexism are never eliminated, regardless of the power structures in place.