j.m. coetzee's disgrace

while the book's still fresh in my head i shall blog about it. for once i'll be on top of things! =)
what an interesting read the novel was, really enjoyed the freshness of male perspective. it's funny how often you hear about female empowerment and War Against Rape but you never hear the rapist's side of things.

firstly, the unique character, david lurie, 52, yet immensely old in thought, behaviour and from what he sees of himself in others' eyes. his age gap from his main 'victim' in the book is glaringly obvious, a 30+ year difference from melanie isaacs. it is interesting how david lurie, being a literature professor, thinks and speaks in ways that i can identify with, how our literature professors themselves are so well-versed in poetry and prose and can come up with bits and pieces of words to suit each occasion. it is the way he speaks that differentiates him from melanie, antagonises her even, the fact that he is her professor. his experience, vast knowledge, all at once intrigue her, draw her further into his net, yet it also burns her, a moth attracted by a bright flame.

the way events play themselves out, limited by lurie the sole narrator, you are left in a limbo of sorts, unable to decide if the punishment meted out to him was satisfactory, deserved or no. it wasn't as if isaacs forcibly repelled him, fought against his advances. there was even mutual assent and participation, once. but in rape the victim will always be the victim, yes? i thought the way he handled the inquiry was simultaneously admirable yet irritating, the way he refused to comply to the board's wishes for a confession and apology, the way they refused to accept his frank declaration of guilt. things are never easy in reality, the situation is thusly believable here.

next, the relationship between david and his daughter lucy, a professed lesbian and woman 'of the earth', who grips the soil with the toes of her bare feet. the karmic cycle comes around when lucy is raped and the house plundered by three south africans. what david didn't understand about mr. isaacs before, he does now, with painful clarity. lucy puts rape in a new light, like murder it is: "when you trap her, hold her down, get her under you, put all your weight on her - isn't it a bit like killing? pushing the knife in; exiting afterwards, leaving the body behind covered in blood - doesn't it feel like murder, like getting away with murder?" the phallus as knife. no wonder we immediately assume rapists to be male if you hear of a rape case. in a sense, i can then understand david lurie's agony and desire for castration - to be rid of the organ which he cannot control and is subject to Eros' whim and fancy. his vision of the surgeon, poking around his body, dissecting it with a scalpel.

disgrace: a socially constructed concept. coetzee's characters are placed in such neutral light, each speech made causes an epiphanic moment in favour of the one who spoke. when we realise that right and wrong are merely labels, and that people are NOT divided into the major nor minor, perhaps we need to seek refuge in the extraordinary imaginary. like david lurie and his beautiful opera that exists only in his mind.