Het Vietnamproject : ****
Het relaas van Jacobus Coetzee : ***

Coetzee's Dusklands is a disgusting book. It provokes feelings of disgust. It contains stories within stories, and characters that bear the name Coetzee. This should be no surprise to anyone who has read other books by J.M. Coetzee. His uncompromising perspective on humanity is bleak in the extreme.

The first story ("The Vietnam Project") follows Eugene Dawn, an academic working on a report relating to the Vietnam war and the use of propaganda and the extent to which it is helping the prospects for American success there. This story includes quotations from the putative report, and some narration of Dawn's context and living situation. In particular, we learn about the marital relations with his wife, his son, and his mistrust of his supervisor, 'Coetzee'.

In the second story we travel back some two hundred years to colonist exploration expeditions in South Africa, following the fortunes of one Jacobus Coetzee as he falls ill, escapes, returns to administer 'justice' on the 'Hottentot' native inhabitants of the territory he has passed through. This is a particularly violent story, filled with the easily-made justifications for his colonising mission and instinct. Yet he is a real character, one with humanity and not merely a stereotype or caricature. The power of this section comes from realising how close we all are to these characters rather than from taking pleasure in our distance.

This was Coetzee's first published novel, which he began in January 1970 after years of procrastination and note-taking. It displays various features that would repeat in Coetzee's work in the years to come. In particular, the use of stories within stories, various tricks of perspective and reimagining narratives (legacy of the postmodernists) that work on one level to give some distance and perspective from the story, but on another level -- an emotional level -- to draw you back in.

I took this book to be an emblem of the need for emotional imagination, or imaginative work. Fiction is the art of making that effort to strain to place our minds in other situations, into the minds of others. Coetzee being Coetzee, this is always cast as a kind of moral endeavour. Not only is this fictional imagination a moral tool, but it is something, he seems to be saying, that we don't use enough for self-evaluation and examination.

Primul roman al lui Coetzee (de fapt, două texte fără mare legătură între ele) e departe de coerența și siguranța din "Dezonoare" (primul exemplu venit în minte). În ciuda ostentației de pe alocuri și a exprimării rigide (mai ales în cazul "documentelor oficiale" inserate în carte) "Ținuturi în crepuscul" ("Dusklands", în original) poate fi considerat un proiect ambițios, mai ales pentru un debut.

“I become a spherical reflecting eye moving through the wilderness and ingesting it. Destroyer of the wilderness, i move through the land cutting a devouring path horizon to horizon. There is nothing from which my eye turns, I am all that I see. [...] I am a transparent sac with a black core full of images and a gun. [...] The gun stands for the hope, [...] the gun is our mediator with the world the therefore our savior.”

This is a book consisting of two novellas; the first works of Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee. Not the best introduction into his works… or so I’m told. But it was still a satisfying read.

The first story in the book is entitled ‘The Vietnam Project’ and is about Eugene Dawn, a writer researching the effectiveness of the United States propaganda warfare in Vietnam. It’s written in journal format and his report to his superior (Mr Coetzee) is also included. What starts off as a somewhat dry dissertation on propaganda and a schizophrenic’s insights into Vietnam culture, jumps abruptly into a twisted delusional direction… work can do that to some people… I know.

I thought the opening and closing lines were brilliant:

“My name is Eugene Dawn. I cannot help that. Here goes.”
.
.
.
“I have high hopes of finding whose fault I am.”

The second part of the book is called ‘The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee’. This work possessed a more straightforward narrative but, I felt, more brutally explored the nature of colonization and the power of prejudice.

Both works were a journey into power, or lack of power depending on which side of the line you were on... or color of skin. Not a great read, but definitely worth the time. I’ll be looking up more of Coetzee’s work.

Well goodness me, that was brutal. Enjoyed the self comparisons with Patrick White et al, before going on to relate a story very similar to White's Voss, but better written and probably with more truth involved.

Shows a story of early colonialist attitudes without apology, complaint or florid heroism. Voetstoots, one might say.

J.M. Coetzee's first book, "Dusklands", is the fifth I have read by this author. To me, it is the weakest of the five, but the term "weakest" means "less excellent" (or "not as obviously outstanding"). It does not have the crystalline clarity and wisdom of "Disgrace" or "Waiting for the Barbarians", and it does not quite reach the depth and beauty of "Boyhood" or "Youth". It is still better than 99% of fiction out there, though.

The book is comprised of two separate short novellas, "The Vietnam Project" and "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee". In the former, the narrator is a researcher working on a report about the effectiveness of psychological warfare against the North during the Vietnam War in the 1970's. The researcher's supervisor is a Mr. Coetzee. The plot of the latter novella takes place in 1760's, when Jacobus Coetzee, a South African farmer, an explorer, and elephant hunter, embarks on an expedition to Namaqua to trade with the local tribe of Hottentot (now called Khoikhoi) people.

One obviously looks for a common denominator in two novellas. So-called professional reviewers point out the theme of colonialism: the European colonization of South Africa in the 1600-1700's is compared to U.S. attempts to prevail in the Vietnam war. I think the colonialism connection is tenuous. The only connection I can see is that of a "superior culture" destroying (or attempting to destroy) another culture. The first story, to me, is about one man's descent into madness. Whether his madness is caused by issues related to Vietnam war is a matter of interpretation. In fact, I much prefer the first novella because of its obliqueness. The second story is too direct; it is told in a straightforward fashion, yet it is quite hard to read because of passages that describe unspeakable atrocities people commit against each other.

People do not only kill people. Jacobus Coetzee kills wild animals to feel alive. His is also a "tireless enterprise of turning the wild into orchard and farm." The business aspect is particularly repulsive. Not only "the savage must clothe his nakedness and till the Earth because Manchester exports cotton drawers and Birmingham ploughshares", but the "savages" are exterminated en masse so that the business can flourish. The author also addresses one of the topics that he is most sensitive about (recall dramatic fragments from "Disgrace"): the topic of animal suffering. The killings of animals shown in "Dusklands" are cruel, prolonged, unimaginably painful, and graphically portrayed.

Even in his first work, J.M. Coetzee proves that he is an absolute master of prose and style. On the pages of "Dusklands", in addition to all the cruelty, one can find passages of sublime beauty, like the dream scenes and the "forking paths of the endless inner adventure" monologue. The fragment of the report that presents mathematics of bombing is hysterically funny.

Do not read “Dusklands” if you look for uplifting, positive themes in literature. However, if you tend to agree that the emergence of human race is one of the worst plagues that have happened to Earth, this book is perfect for you.

Three and three quarters stars.

Lang geleden dat ik hem voor het eerst las. Maar het deed nog steeds deugd.

Two short stories both examining violence and colonial exploitation / dominance. Not an easy read either in terms of content or style. Can’t say I enjoyed the read but it was interesting, I will definitely persevere and read more by Coetzee

n  Cuando yo era un niño que avanzaba discretamente por mis años de escuela primaria, tenía en mi habitación un jardín de cristales: agujas y láminas, de color ocre y azul ultramarino, que se erguían frágilmente desde el fondo de un frasco de conservas, estalagmitas que obedecían su fuerza vital de cristales muertos.n

La verdad es que sólo terminé "El Proyecto Vietnam". A "La narración de Jacobus Coetzee la terminé súper por arriba, ¿por qué soy así? En fin, la puntuación es para esa primera nouvelle, que quería dejar registro de haberla leído y terminado.

A "El Proyecto Vietnam" lo empecé medio contrariada; no me gustaba el tema, así que fue una lectura incómoda al principio, pero a medida que seguía leyendo y noté que se centraba más y más en la cabeza de Eugene, me terminó gustando. Su progresiva caída en la locura fue algo muy interesante de leer, al igual que todas las observaciones cínicas del protagonista y narrador. No creo volver a leer a Coetzee, pero "El Proyecto Vietnam" fue una bastante buena experiencia.

Ugly men inhabiting ugly worlds and ugly mentalities. The second story is far more successful.

I found this book less flowing than Foe, but quite powerful in places.
I think the Vietnam part is more effective, at least towards the end of it, than the Boers part. However, it is possible that my ignorance of this history factored in.
If nothing else, it made me want to learn a bit more about this history of South Africa. Without reading Heart of Darkness, I can see that they are connected.
It is a particularly interesting read in conjunction with my audio book, Homegoing.