Waiting for the Barbarians
question
Thoughts on the relationship between the Magistrate and Mandel/Colonel Joll
Ameera
Feb 05, 2012 09:08PM
I was wondering what you guys thought about the relationship between the characters in the novel. When I read the text I felt as if the Magistrate is oblivious to his surroundings. He wishes for the wrong around him to not appear before him since that would require a reaction. I do not quite understand what the author meant to establish between the personalities in the novel. Let it be the Magistrate, Colonel Joll, Mandel, the Empire, the Barbarian girl, the barbarians. I just finished reading the novel and I would love to hear what you're response :).
reply
flag
The characters are intentionally faceless, and this communicates the Magistrate's obliviousness. Just as he is disinterested in our surroundings, Coatze is disinterested in allowing them to function as anything more than literary symbols.
Their lack of humanity is dissatisfying, but I feel that it is an essential part of the novel's impact. It certainly called attention to the degree which I am indifferent to people around me, all having experiences that are as compelling to them as mine are to me (I would imagine.)
Their lack of humanity is dissatisfying, but I feel that it is an essential part of the novel's impact. It certainly called attention to the degree which I am indifferent to people around me, all having experiences that are as compelling to them as mine are to me (I would imagine.)
The novel is a fable, and Coetzee does not tell you about the magistrate's past or his children because the sense of isolation is part of the world he creates. But I do believe that he humanizes the "barbarians," first when showing sympathy to the two who are tortured in the opening pages and then with the love story between the blind woman and the magistrate. By taking her home to her people and RECONNECTING her with her roots, the magistrate succeeds in putting her back in context and humanizing her in a way that he cannot do for himself. But then there is a reversal when he is punished for the act of taking her home, the equivalent of conspiring with the enemy. Dehumanization is essential to Coetzee's view of empire.
I strongly agree with david, and I think that coetzee is such a "masculine" writer, as sharp as a surgery blade..... In addition to this, he takes the title from Kavafis's poem, and much of the theme is wxpressed in the Greek poet lyric
all discussions on this book
|
post a new topic
