Disgrace

by J.M. Coetzee

‘But it is true. They are not going to lead me to a higher life, and the reason is, there is no higher life. This is the only life there is. Which we share with animals. That’s the example that people like Bev try to set. That’s the example I try to follow. To share some of our human privilege with the beasts. I don’t want to come back in another existence as a dog or a pig and have to live as dogs or pigs live under us.’

‘Poor old Katy, she’s in mourning. No one wants her, and she knows it. The irony is, she must have offspring all over the district who would be happy to share their homes with her. But it’s not in their power to invite her. They are part of the furniture, part of the alarm system. They do us the honour of treating us like gods, and we respond by treating them like things.’

‘Thank you, Mr Lurie. You have a good presence. I sense that you like animals.’ ‘Do I like animals? I eat them, so I suppose I must like them, some parts of them.’

‘Do you think so?’ she says. ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think we are ready to die, any of us, not without being escorted.’

‘There was something so ignoble in the spectacle that I despaired. One can punish a dog, it seems to me, for an offence like chewing a slipper. A dog will accept the justice of that: a beating for a chewing. But desire is another story. No animal will accept the justice of being punished for following its instincts.’

‘I’m not sure I like the way he does things – bringing the slaughter-beasts home to acquaint them with the people who are going to eat them.’ ‘What would you prefer? That the slaughtering be done in an abattoir, so that you needn’t think about it?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Wake up, David. This is the country. This is Africa.’