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El proyecto Vietnam narra el descenso gradual hacia la locura de Eugene Dawn, un investigador que indaga acerca de la efectividad de la propaganda de Estados Unidos y la guerra psicológica en Vietnam. Su dedicación obsesiva a la redacción del informe, los problemas con su mujer y el secuestro al que somete a su hijo acabarán por llevarlo a un sanatorio.
La segunda historia, La narración de Jacobus Coetzee, cuenta una expedición de caza por las tierras de la tribu namaqua, capitaneada por Jacobus Coetzee, un colonizador bóer. Tras atravesar el territorio namaqua, el colonizador cae enfermo y pierde el control sobre sus hombres, que acaban por abandonarlo a su suerte. Consigue volver a casa y poco después regresa lleno de resentimiento para ajusticiarlos.
La segunda historia, La narración de Jacobus Coetzee, cuenta una expedición de caza por las tierras de la tribu namaqua, capitaneada por Jacobus Coetzee, un colonizador bóer. Tras atravesar el territorio namaqua, el colonizador cae enfermo y pierde el control sobre sus hombres, que acaban por abandonarlo a su suerte. Consigue volver a casa y poco después regresa lleno de resentimiento para ajusticiarlos.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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About the author
J.M. Coetzee
119 books5,268 followersJ. M. Coetzee is a South African writer, essayist, and translator, widely regarded as one of the most influential authors of contemporary literature. His works, often characterized by their austere prose and profound moral and philosophical depth, explore themes of colonialism, identity, power, and human suffering. Born and raised in South Africa, he later became an Australian citizen and has lived in Adelaide since 2002.
Coetzee’s breakthrough novel, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), established him as a major literary voice, while Life & Times of Michael K (1983) won him the first of his two Booker Prizes. His best-known work, Disgrace (1999), a stark and unsettling examination of post-apartheid South Africa, secured his second Booker Prize, making him the first author to win the award twice. His other notable novels include Foe, Age of Iron, The Master of Petersburg, Elizabeth Costello, and The Childhood of Jesus, many of which incorporate allegorical and metafictional elements.
Beyond fiction, Coetzee has written numerous essays and literary critiques, contributing significantly to discussions on literature, ethics, and history. His autobiographical trilogy—Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime—blends memoir with fiction, offering a fragmented yet insightful reflection on his own life. His literary achievements were recognized with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
A deeply private individual, Coetzee avoids public life and rarely gives interviews, preferring to let his work speak for itself.
Coetzee’s breakthrough novel, Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), established him as a major literary voice, while Life & Times of Michael K (1983) won him the first of his two Booker Prizes. His best-known work, Disgrace (1999), a stark and unsettling examination of post-apartheid South Africa, secured his second Booker Prize, making him the first author to win the award twice. His other notable novels include Foe, Age of Iron, The Master of Petersburg, Elizabeth Costello, and The Childhood of Jesus, many of which incorporate allegorical and metafictional elements.
Beyond fiction, Coetzee has written numerous essays and literary critiques, contributing significantly to discussions on literature, ethics, and history. His autobiographical trilogy—Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime—blends memoir with fiction, offering a fragmented yet insightful reflection on his own life. His literary achievements were recognized with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.
A deeply private individual, Coetzee avoids public life and rarely gives interviews, preferring to let his work speak for itself.
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August 23, 2024
HEART OF DARKNESS
Ecco l’esordio di Coetzee, quasi cinquant’anni fa (1974), debutto fulminante: due racconti lunghi, il primo di una settantina di pagine è sulla guerra del Vietnam e i suoi effetti – più in particolare, su come la propaganda possa rimodellare la narrativa di quella guerra e allontanarla dall’inutile orrore che effettivamente fu.
Il secondo, più lungo (un centinaio di pagine) ci catapulta in tutt’altra zona del pianeta, il Sudafrica dove Coetzee è nato e vissuto a lungo (da qualche anno s’è trasferito ad Adelaide, in Australia, che credo sia quell’altra parte del mondo che più assomiglia al Sudafrica in quanto a storia coloniale – una scelta alquanto peculiare) – e il salto è doppio, non solo geografico ma anche temporale, perché dal XX secolo si passa indietro di tre secoli.
In entrambi i racconti Coetzee inserisce un alter ego, o presunto tale (precorrendo l’arrivo di Elizabeth Costello).
In entrambe le storie c’è un personaggio che si chiama Coetzee proprio come il suo autore: nella prima è il funzionario dei servizi incaricato di valutare la relazione del protagonista, Eugene Dawn [Eugene è l’alba – Dawn - di queste terre al crepuscolo], dedicata a come migliorare l’immagine degli Stati Uniti a seguito della guerra in Vietnam.
[Per inciso, s’è dovuto attendere fino all’11 settembre 2001 per riuscirci. Ma gli US hanno impiegato poco a rovinarla di nuovo: meno di trenta giorni dopo invadevano l’Afghanistan. Poco più di un anno dopo invadevano l’Iraq, a caccia di armi di distruzione di massa, alla fine mai trovate, simili a quelle usate dagli USA nella guerra in Vietnam, le stesse che l’Uomo Nero Saddam Hussein aveva già usato proprio sotto l’occhio comprensivo e protettivo degli stessi USA].
Nella seconda storia Coetzee, Jacobus, compare proprio nel titolo, è un antenato, o spacciato come tale, dell’autore, che racconta un episodio di caccia e guerra ai namaqua, una tribù dei nativi ottentotti. In questo caso, gli indigeni sono colpevoli di non avere trattato Jacobus Coetzee con il dovuto rispetto, quello da tributare a un bianco (invasore e colonizzatore, schiavista e genocidario…).
Ma non basta: c’è un S. J. Coetzee, fantasioso padre dello scrittore, che raccoglie il racconto dell’antenato in olandese e lo completa con un’introduzione in afrikaans, che il presunto figlio, J. M. Coetzee, traduce dall’afrikaans in inglese e dà alle stampe.
Leggo che il tema affrontato è quello che sta più a cuore a J. M. Coetzee, e cioè:
il rapporto inestricabile tra il male e il bene, tra bianchi e neri, tra colonialismo e civiltà, il cuore di tenebra dell'umanità.
Aggiungerei che tra le sane condivisibili e ammirevoli fissazioni, ossessioni di J. M. Coetzee c’è quella col potere in genere, con l’autorità pubblica, il rapporto tra entità statale e singolo individuo.
Eugene Dawn lavora alla sua relazione, uno studio che diventa sempre meno scientifico, o forse sempre più scientifico nel momento in cui comprende i limiti della propaganda. Più Dawn capisce cos’è realmente successo in Vietnam, quali siano state le atrocità commesse dagli yankee, la brutalità del loro intervento, le atrocità pianificate e commesse nel più barbaro dei modi, più Dawn scivola progressivamente in modo irrecuperabile verso la pazzia: pur se messo in guardia, conclude il suo percorso in manicomio, dove aver tentato di sequestrare il suo stesso figlio.
Jacobus Coetzee vuole (deve?) vendicarsi dei namaqua che l’hanno raccolto malato, l’hanno curato in modo trascurabile (ma non l’hanno neppure ucciso, l’hanno comunque lasciato libero di seguire il percorso naturale della sua malattia, del suo corpo), e così facendo gli hanno profondamente mancato di rispetto, non l’hanno trattato come un bianco (occidentale, europeo, boero) merita di essere trattato. La sua vendetta (punizione?) sarà terribile.
Sulla copertina, Robert Riggs: Helicopters, 1965.
Ecco l’esordio di Coetzee, quasi cinquant’anni fa (1974), debutto fulminante: due racconti lunghi, il primo di una settantina di pagine è sulla guerra del Vietnam e i suoi effetti – più in particolare, su come la propaganda possa rimodellare la narrativa di quella guerra e allontanarla dall’inutile orrore che effettivamente fu.
Il secondo, più lungo (un centinaio di pagine) ci catapulta in tutt’altra zona del pianeta, il Sudafrica dove Coetzee è nato e vissuto a lungo (da qualche anno s’è trasferito ad Adelaide, in Australia, che credo sia quell’altra parte del mondo che più assomiglia al Sudafrica in quanto a storia coloniale – una scelta alquanto peculiare) – e il salto è doppio, non solo geografico ma anche temporale, perché dal XX secolo si passa indietro di tre secoli.
In entrambi i racconti Coetzee inserisce un alter ego, o presunto tale (precorrendo l’arrivo di Elizabeth Costello).
In entrambe le storie c’è un personaggio che si chiama Coetzee proprio come il suo autore: nella prima è il funzionario dei servizi incaricato di valutare la relazione del protagonista, Eugene Dawn [Eugene è l’alba – Dawn - di queste terre al crepuscolo], dedicata a come migliorare l’immagine degli Stati Uniti a seguito della guerra in Vietnam.
[Per inciso, s’è dovuto attendere fino all’11 settembre 2001 per riuscirci. Ma gli US hanno impiegato poco a rovinarla di nuovo: meno di trenta giorni dopo invadevano l’Afghanistan. Poco più di un anno dopo invadevano l’Iraq, a caccia di armi di distruzione di massa, alla fine mai trovate, simili a quelle usate dagli USA nella guerra in Vietnam, le stesse che l’Uomo Nero Saddam Hussein aveva già usato proprio sotto l’occhio comprensivo e protettivo degli stessi USA].
Nella seconda storia Coetzee, Jacobus, compare proprio nel titolo, è un antenato, o spacciato come tale, dell’autore, che racconta un episodio di caccia e guerra ai namaqua, una tribù dei nativi ottentotti. In questo caso, gli indigeni sono colpevoli di non avere trattato Jacobus Coetzee con il dovuto rispetto, quello da tributare a un bianco (invasore e colonizzatore, schiavista e genocidario…).
Ma non basta: c’è un S. J. Coetzee, fantasioso padre dello scrittore, che raccoglie il racconto dell’antenato in olandese e lo completa con un’introduzione in afrikaans, che il presunto figlio, J. M. Coetzee, traduce dall’afrikaans in inglese e dà alle stampe.
Leggo che il tema affrontato è quello che sta più a cuore a J. M. Coetzee, e cioè:
il rapporto inestricabile tra il male e il bene, tra bianchi e neri, tra colonialismo e civiltà, il cuore di tenebra dell'umanità.
Aggiungerei che tra le sane condivisibili e ammirevoli fissazioni, ossessioni di J. M. Coetzee c’è quella col potere in genere, con l’autorità pubblica, il rapporto tra entità statale e singolo individuo.
Eugene Dawn lavora alla sua relazione, uno studio che diventa sempre meno scientifico, o forse sempre più scientifico nel momento in cui comprende i limiti della propaganda. Più Dawn capisce cos’è realmente successo in Vietnam, quali siano state le atrocità commesse dagli yankee, la brutalità del loro intervento, le atrocità pianificate e commesse nel più barbaro dei modi, più Dawn scivola progressivamente in modo irrecuperabile verso la pazzia: pur se messo in guardia, conclude il suo percorso in manicomio, dove aver tentato di sequestrare il suo stesso figlio.
Jacobus Coetzee vuole (deve?) vendicarsi dei namaqua che l’hanno raccolto malato, l’hanno curato in modo trascurabile (ma non l’hanno neppure ucciso, l’hanno comunque lasciato libero di seguire il percorso naturale della sua malattia, del suo corpo), e così facendo gli hanno profondamente mancato di rispetto, non l’hanno trattato come un bianco (occidentale, europeo, boero) merita di essere trattato. La sua vendetta (punizione?) sarà terribile.
Sulla copertina, Robert Riggs: Helicopters, 1965.
December 22, 2021
Edited 12/22/2021]
This was the author’s first book, 1974. It’s two works: an extended short story and a 70-page novella. It’s not a pretty book and in fact, I’d say you have to have a strong stomach to get through the novella.
The first story, The Vietnam Project, has some memorable opening lines: “My name is Eugene Dawn. I cannot help that. Here goes.” The main character is an employee or perhaps a contractor for the US government writing about how to change the US propaganda approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese peasants.
He keeps a file of violent pictures and atrocities from the war. He is focused on abstract theories of myth and ‘father figures’ and even creates a mathematical formula. We can tell that this is the last thing any military leader out in the field is going to even read, never mind take into account. As he ruminates about his attitude toward his boss and his wife, we can also tell he has serious mental issues.
Sure enough he later kidnaps his young boy away from his wife. The theme seems to be that he became saturated with the violence he is absorbing every day in his work.
The novella is a purported journal of the author’s Dutch ancestor, The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, going back to 1760 and translated from the Afrikaans.
The ancestor has a large farm with Hottentot slaves. He takes them on a hunting expedition into unexplored (by Europeans) Bushman territory looking for elephants to kill for their tusks. Without getting into all the gory details of the racist stereotypes, the white man considers the Hottentots “subhumans” and the Bushmen “animals,” useless even as slaves. The Bushmen are ‘fair game to kill.’
(In modern times, anthropologists no longer support this racial distinction between Hottentots and Bushmen. Both groups are of the Khoisan language group. Hottentot is now considered a racist term, although Bushman is still used but the phrase ‘San people’ is preferred. )
As a geographer, I appreciate one section where he offers some heavy-duty philosophy about the spatial process of settlement. From Capetown, early settlers could basically only go North, a parallel to the American dream of go West. “We cannot count the wild. The wild is one because it is boundless. We can count fig-trees, we can count sheep because the orchard and the farm are bounded. The essence of orchard tree and farm sheep is number. Our commerce with the wild is a tireless enterprise of turning it into orchard and farm. When we cannot fence it and count it we reduce it to number by other means. Every wild creature I kill crosses the boundary between wilderness and number.… I am a hunter, a domesticator of the wilderness, a hero of enumeration. He who does not understand number does not understand death….Now that the gun has arrived among them the native tribes are doomed, not only because the gun will kill them in large numbers but because the yearning for it will alienate them from the wilderness. Every territory I march through with my gun becomes a territory cast loose from the past and bound to the future.”
On the trip he falls ill for a long period of time and is tended to by a Bushman tribe. Many of his Hottentots slaves leave him to stay with women in the tribe. The Bushmen steal his wagon, pack animals, guns, food and food cattle, and supplies. He gradually recovers but gets into a fight and is expelled from the village. His last slave dies on the way home as he walks back hundreds of miles. But that's not the end.
(Edited 7/10/19 to add the 8th paragraph)
Top photo: Sa Pa town, Vietnam from wikipedia commons
San family home in Tsumkwe, Namibia from jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu
Photo of the author (1940-), winner of Nobel Prize 2003, from wikipedia commons
This was the author’s first book, 1974. It’s two works: an extended short story and a 70-page novella. It’s not a pretty book and in fact, I’d say you have to have a strong stomach to get through the novella.
The first story, The Vietnam Project, has some memorable opening lines: “My name is Eugene Dawn. I cannot help that. Here goes.” The main character is an employee or perhaps a contractor for the US government writing about how to change the US propaganda approach to winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese peasants.
He keeps a file of violent pictures and atrocities from the war. He is focused on abstract theories of myth and ‘father figures’ and even creates a mathematical formula. We can tell that this is the last thing any military leader out in the field is going to even read, never mind take into account. As he ruminates about his attitude toward his boss and his wife, we can also tell he has serious mental issues.
Sure enough he later kidnaps his young boy away from his wife. The theme seems to be that he became saturated with the violence he is absorbing every day in his work.
The novella is a purported journal of the author’s Dutch ancestor, The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, going back to 1760 and translated from the Afrikaans.
The ancestor has a large farm with Hottentot slaves. He takes them on a hunting expedition into unexplored (by Europeans) Bushman territory looking for elephants to kill for their tusks. Without getting into all the gory details of the racist stereotypes, the white man considers the Hottentots “subhumans” and the Bushmen “animals,” useless even as slaves. The Bushmen are ‘fair game to kill.’
(In modern times, anthropologists no longer support this racial distinction between Hottentots and Bushmen. Both groups are of the Khoisan language group. Hottentot is now considered a racist term, although Bushman is still used but the phrase ‘San people’ is preferred. )
As a geographer, I appreciate one section where he offers some heavy-duty philosophy about the spatial process of settlement. From Capetown, early settlers could basically only go North, a parallel to the American dream of go West. “We cannot count the wild. The wild is one because it is boundless. We can count fig-trees, we can count sheep because the orchard and the farm are bounded. The essence of orchard tree and farm sheep is number. Our commerce with the wild is a tireless enterprise of turning it into orchard and farm. When we cannot fence it and count it we reduce it to number by other means. Every wild creature I kill crosses the boundary between wilderness and number.… I am a hunter, a domesticator of the wilderness, a hero of enumeration. He who does not understand number does not understand death….Now that the gun has arrived among them the native tribes are doomed, not only because the gun will kill them in large numbers but because the yearning for it will alienate them from the wilderness. Every territory I march through with my gun becomes a territory cast loose from the past and bound to the future.”
On the trip he falls ill for a long period of time and is tended to by a Bushman tribe. Many of his Hottentots slaves leave him to stay with women in the tribe. The Bushmen steal his wagon, pack animals, guns, food and food cattle, and supplies. He gradually recovers but gets into a fight and is expelled from the village. His last slave dies on the way home as he walks back hundreds of miles. But that's not the end.
(Edited 7/10/19 to add the 8th paragraph)
Top photo: Sa Pa town, Vietnam from wikipedia commons
San family home in Tsumkwe, Namibia from jitp.commons.gc.cuny.edu
Photo of the author (1940-), winner of Nobel Prize 2003, from wikipedia commons
April 25, 2019
Lacks a sufficient amount of cohesiveness--although we do unearth the strong rebellious nature of the revered South African master that later became his staple. His avantgardism* has been made clear to us since this here, his first novel (An IMPORTANT, historical must read, considering the writer and his envious prominence). It is a clearheaded (not in the editing, mind you) multi message work... that actually fails to build up to a monolithic whole.
"Dusklands" allows for tons of discussion about... political stuff. More impressed with ideas here than with a clear or classic plot.
*here Coetzee writes as a student of Coetzee, as a version of his grandfather, etc. He is original in his interpersonal doppelganger show, as well as the crisscross, mishmash, hoopla of breeding true fiction with fakish true life histories.
"Dusklands" allows for tons of discussion about... political stuff. More impressed with ideas here than with a clear or classic plot.
*here Coetzee writes as a student of Coetzee, as a version of his grandfather, etc. He is original in his interpersonal doppelganger show, as well as the crisscross, mishmash, hoopla of breeding true fiction with fakish true life histories.
November 1, 2025
2.5 ⭐ rounded up to 3 ⭐
Dusklands by J.M. Coetzee was one of the toughest books I've read in ages. The two stories comprising this anthology, The Vietnam Project and The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, were both not my cup of tea due to their excessive violence and convolutedness. In all honesty, I struggled to make it to the end of this one despite it's rather short length (less than 200 pages).
I would give The Vietnam Project 2 ⭐ since it is extremely sexually and physically violent, and almost completely lacks coherence from start to finish. Literally as this disturbing narrative progresses it becomes more and more jarring, until it degenerates into complete senselessness. One could argue, not unjustifiably, that this was the aim of the author, to take readers into the mind of a shell-shocked man as he descends into insanity after documenting atrocities committed by American forces in Vietnam. Yet somehow as this disjointed story unfolded it did not permit me to connect with the main character in any meaningful way, despite my dogged perseverance to the end.
The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee in my opinion deserves 3 ⭐. This story is more coherent than The Vietnam Project, yet no less violent and crass. An added off-putting dimension of this story was the blatant racism displayed by the protagonist, Jacobus Coetzee (ostensibly the forefather of the author), towards his servants/slaves and the indigenous Namaqua and Khoikhoi people. Admittedly this was authentic to the mid-18th century period in South Africa in which the story is set. Yet at times it felt like Coetzee (the author) was deliberately trying to shock readers with the obtuseness of the protagonist. Perhaps the only redeeming quality of this story was that Coetzee's prose is quite poetic and lyrical throughout the narrative in stark contrast to the gruesomeness of the subject matter.
Based on my experience, unfortunately I'm unable to recommend Dusklands to other readers. In doing so I do not in any way discourage the reading of Coetzee's other writings. As he is a Nobel laureate, I'm confident that his body of literary work merits the accolades he has received.
Dusklands by J.M. Coetzee was one of the toughest books I've read in ages. The two stories comprising this anthology, The Vietnam Project and The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, were both not my cup of tea due to their excessive violence and convolutedness. In all honesty, I struggled to make it to the end of this one despite it's rather short length (less than 200 pages).
I would give The Vietnam Project 2 ⭐ since it is extremely sexually and physically violent, and almost completely lacks coherence from start to finish. Literally as this disturbing narrative progresses it becomes more and more jarring, until it degenerates into complete senselessness. One could argue, not unjustifiably, that this was the aim of the author, to take readers into the mind of a shell-shocked man as he descends into insanity after documenting atrocities committed by American forces in Vietnam. Yet somehow as this disjointed story unfolded it did not permit me to connect with the main character in any meaningful way, despite my dogged perseverance to the end.
The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee in my opinion deserves 3 ⭐. This story is more coherent than The Vietnam Project, yet no less violent and crass. An added off-putting dimension of this story was the blatant racism displayed by the protagonist, Jacobus Coetzee (ostensibly the forefather of the author), towards his servants/slaves and the indigenous Namaqua and Khoikhoi people. Admittedly this was authentic to the mid-18th century period in South Africa in which the story is set. Yet at times it felt like Coetzee (the author) was deliberately trying to shock readers with the obtuseness of the protagonist. Perhaps the only redeeming quality of this story was that Coetzee's prose is quite poetic and lyrical throughout the narrative in stark contrast to the gruesomeness of the subject matter.
Based on my experience, unfortunately I'm unable to recommend Dusklands to other readers. In doing so I do not in any way discourage the reading of Coetzee's other writings. As he is a Nobel laureate, I'm confident that his body of literary work merits the accolades he has received.
February 17, 2019
L’umanità del disumano
Il libro raccoglie primi due racconti di Coetzee (del 1974, pubblicati in Italia nel 2003), che si presentano, già dall’esordio, caratterizzati da una scrittura potente, intensa, e da un contenuto terribile. Ambientati in epoche diverse e a latitudini differenti, i due racconti sono accomunati dal tema: il rapporto inestricabile tra bene e male, bianchi e neri, colonialismo e civiltà. Lungi dall’imboccare la rassicurante e scontata via del politically correct, lo scrittore sudafricano affronta con spietata lucidità il non riconciliabile, l'umanità del disumano.
Il protagonista del primo racconto, ambientato negli Stati Uniti della guerra in Vietnam, è Eugene Dawn, psicologo, chiamato dall'esercito americano a elaborare proposte in grado di porre un qualche rimedio agli effetti nefasti della guerra sull'immagine del Paese. Eugene è determinato a raggiungere l'obiettivo e ha molti strumenti a disposizione, ma la materia che tratta è scottante: di ogni dato o fotografia che guarda, memorizza, analizza, con angoscia crescente vede la brutalità inammissibile e l'altrettanto inammissibile "necessità"; la strada per uscirne, l'unica ad apparirgli via via sempre più limpida ed evidente, lo porterà alla pazzia.
Il secondo racconto è ambientato nel XVIII secolo e ripercorre il viaggio di caccia di un lontano avo boero dell’autore – Jacobus Coetzee – nell’entroterra del Sudafrica, fino ad allora inesplorato, tra i nativi Namaqua, una tribù Ottentotta: esseri primitivi, senza alcun principio etico, dagli “occhi pieni di una desolata stupidità”, sporchi, puzzolenti, indolenti… uomini e donne che non riconoscono la superiorità di Jacobus, non lo rispettano, anzi, quando lui si ammala lo abbandonano, lo umiliano. Una volta guarito, Jacobus si riapproprierà della sua identità di “domatore della natura selvaggia” e tra mille peripezie ritroverà la via di casa. Tornerà in seguito al villaggio Namaqua, ci tornerà e si vendicherà. Ah, se si vendicherà!
Due racconti duri, spietati, terribili. Il secondo meglio del primo.
Il libro raccoglie primi due racconti di Coetzee (del 1974, pubblicati in Italia nel 2003), che si presentano, già dall’esordio, caratterizzati da una scrittura potente, intensa, e da un contenuto terribile. Ambientati in epoche diverse e a latitudini differenti, i due racconti sono accomunati dal tema: il rapporto inestricabile tra bene e male, bianchi e neri, colonialismo e civiltà. Lungi dall’imboccare la rassicurante e scontata via del politically correct, lo scrittore sudafricano affronta con spietata lucidità il non riconciliabile, l'umanità del disumano.
Il protagonista del primo racconto, ambientato negli Stati Uniti della guerra in Vietnam, è Eugene Dawn, psicologo, chiamato dall'esercito americano a elaborare proposte in grado di porre un qualche rimedio agli effetti nefasti della guerra sull'immagine del Paese. Eugene è determinato a raggiungere l'obiettivo e ha molti strumenti a disposizione, ma la materia che tratta è scottante: di ogni dato o fotografia che guarda, memorizza, analizza, con angoscia crescente vede la brutalità inammissibile e l'altrettanto inammissibile "necessità"; la strada per uscirne, l'unica ad apparirgli via via sempre più limpida ed evidente, lo porterà alla pazzia.
Il secondo racconto è ambientato nel XVIII secolo e ripercorre il viaggio di caccia di un lontano avo boero dell’autore – Jacobus Coetzee – nell’entroterra del Sudafrica, fino ad allora inesplorato, tra i nativi Namaqua, una tribù Ottentotta: esseri primitivi, senza alcun principio etico, dagli “occhi pieni di una desolata stupidità”, sporchi, puzzolenti, indolenti… uomini e donne che non riconoscono la superiorità di Jacobus, non lo rispettano, anzi, quando lui si ammala lo abbandonano, lo umiliano. Una volta guarito, Jacobus si riapproprierà della sua identità di “domatore della natura selvaggia” e tra mille peripezie ritroverà la via di casa. Tornerà in seguito al villaggio Namaqua, ci tornerà e si vendicherà. Ah, se si vendicherà!
Due racconti duri, spietati, terribili. Il secondo meglio del primo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2019
“Solo i forti possono mantenere la rotta nelle paludi della Storia.”
Il pensiero che faccio da subito –ancor prima di aver aperto questo libro- riguarda la singolarità di esordire nel mondo della letteratura con un titolo che mette a fuoco il momento del declino.
[ Crepuscolo – la luce del sole si affievolisce, le ombre cominciano a stiracchiarsi allungando i propri contorni, l’occhio guarda ma fa fatica a definire le figure, c’è la sensazione di essersi lasciati alla spalle ogni cosa (“quel che è fatto è fatto”). ]
Dunque qui s’incontra l’inizio con la fine.
E’ il 1974 quando questo libro viene pubblicato (in Italia arriverà dopo 29 anni: nel 2003!) e John Maxwell Coetzee è rientrato in Sud Africa.
Gli Stati Uniti, infatti, hanno respinto la sua richiesta di residenza dopo la sua partecipazione alle proteste contro la guerra in Vietnam e al conseguente arresto.
Le Terre al Crepuscolo si riferiscono al graduale ed inesorabile scivolare del genere umano in una spietata lotta bestiale.
Mentre gli animali, però, lottano per la sopravvivenza l’uomo lotta per avere una supremazia di diritto esistenziale.
Ogni conquista – dai tempi remoti agli attuali, da lande selvagge a nazioni industriali, sempre e dovunque- ci parla del bisogno dell’Uomo di dichiarare l’Altro come essere talmente inferiore da non essere considerato degno di appartenere alla razza umana.
Questo esordio di Coetzee è ben lontano dall’essere una timida e sommessa entrata nel mondo della Letteratura.
E’ un vero pugno allo stomaco, anzi due, dato che si tratta di due racconti.
Entrambi ci parlano in prima persona nella forma del mémoir.
Entrambi chiamano in causa l’autore-
Il primo racconto s’intitola ”Progetto Vietnam” .
Eugene Dawn è uno specialista di mitografia e il suo dipartimento -presieduto dal Prof Coetzee (!!!)- ha avuto l’incarico di condurre studi sul condizionamento psicologico nella guerra in Vietnam.
Attraverso l’analisi dei miti, Dawn deve redigere un rapporto che valuti i risultati della guerra psicologica condotta attraverso i programmi radiofonici.
” Scopo della guerra psicologica è distruggere il morale del nemico. La guerra psicologica è la funzione negativa della propaganda: la sua funzione positiva è diffondere la convinzione che la nostra autorità politica è forte e durevole. Se lanciata in modo efficace, la guerra di propaganda indebolisce il nemico riducendone la base civile e il bacino di reclutamento e rendendo i suoi soldati, in battaglia e dopo, piú inclini alla defezione, rafforzando al tempo stesso la lealtà della popolazione. L’importanza del suo potenziale politico-militare non può dunque essere mai sottolineata abbastanza.”
Un compito che per Dawn risulterà fatale.
L’analisi dei fatti e soprattutto la visione delle fotografie scattate dai soldati americani sgretolerà la psiche di questo uomo.
E allora di declino di un uomo sarà speculare di quella cinica società che agisce nascondendosi dietro le bandiere.
” Purtroppo non riesco a fare un lavoro creativo in biblioteca. Il fervore creativo mi prende solo nelle prime ore del mattino, quando il nemico che ho in corpo è troppo addormentato per erigere mura difensive contro le incursioni del cervello. Il rapporto sul Vietnam è stato composto guardando a est, verso il sole che sorge, e con addosso il rimpianto pungente (poindre, pungere) di trovarmi inchiodato qui, nelle terre del crepuscolo. Niente di tutto questo si riflette nel rapporto. Quando ho un compito da eseguire, lo eseguo.”
Il secondo è ” Il racconto di Jacobus Coetzee” .
Confesso di non aver capito se Jacobus Coetzee sia personaggio immaginario o un reale avo dello scrittore.
In ogni caso, anche qui abbiamo un memoriale ma siamo catapultati in un’altra epoca e in un altro continente.
Siamo nella seconda nel 1760 nei territori sudafricani.
Jacobus Coetzee è un allevatore ma anche cacciatore: una vita di frontiera divisa tra le richieste dell’olandese Compagnia delle Indie e la necessità di sopravvivere in un ambiente ostile.
Il racconto parla di un viaggio verso sud con lo scopo di cacciare elefanti.
Si tratta di un resoconto di un esploratore e del primo contatto con un mondo sconosciuto: flora, fauna e popolazioni che fino a quel momento non si erano mai incontrate (si parla ad esempio della giraffa come animale mia visto prima).
Gli indigeni già conosciuti sono classificati tra ottentotti (già assoggettati) e boscimani (selvaggi e indomiti).
Il viaggio, però, condurrà all’incontro con un popolo dei Namaqua -che non aveva mai visto l’uomo bianco- e si trasforma ben presto in uno scontro…
”L’avanzata dell’uomo verso il futuro è storia; tutto il resto – il suo gingillarsi lungo il cammino, il suo ripercorrere la stessa strada – appartiene all’aneddotica, alle serate intorno al fuoco.”
Due racconti che parlano la lingua del colonizzatore e con forza denunciano i soprusi del potere al di là di ogni confine di tempo e luogo.
Il pensiero che faccio da subito –ancor prima di aver aperto questo libro- riguarda la singolarità di esordire nel mondo della letteratura con un titolo che mette a fuoco il momento del declino.
[ Crepuscolo – la luce del sole si affievolisce, le ombre cominciano a stiracchiarsi allungando i propri contorni, l’occhio guarda ma fa fatica a definire le figure, c’è la sensazione di essersi lasciati alla spalle ogni cosa (“quel che è fatto è fatto”). ]
Dunque qui s’incontra l’inizio con la fine.
E’ il 1974 quando questo libro viene pubblicato (in Italia arriverà dopo 29 anni: nel 2003!) e John Maxwell Coetzee è rientrato in Sud Africa.
Gli Stati Uniti, infatti, hanno respinto la sua richiesta di residenza dopo la sua partecipazione alle proteste contro la guerra in Vietnam e al conseguente arresto.
Le Terre al Crepuscolo si riferiscono al graduale ed inesorabile scivolare del genere umano in una spietata lotta bestiale.
Mentre gli animali, però, lottano per la sopravvivenza l’uomo lotta per avere una supremazia di diritto esistenziale.
Ogni conquista – dai tempi remoti agli attuali, da lande selvagge a nazioni industriali, sempre e dovunque- ci parla del bisogno dell’Uomo di dichiarare l’Altro come essere talmente inferiore da non essere considerato degno di appartenere alla razza umana.
Questo esordio di Coetzee è ben lontano dall’essere una timida e sommessa entrata nel mondo della Letteratura.
E’ un vero pugno allo stomaco, anzi due, dato che si tratta di due racconti.
Entrambi ci parlano in prima persona nella forma del mémoir.
Entrambi chiamano in causa l’autore-
Il primo racconto s’intitola ”Progetto Vietnam” .
Eugene Dawn è uno specialista di mitografia e il suo dipartimento -presieduto dal Prof Coetzee (!!!)- ha avuto l’incarico di condurre studi sul condizionamento psicologico nella guerra in Vietnam.
Attraverso l’analisi dei miti, Dawn deve redigere un rapporto che valuti i risultati della guerra psicologica condotta attraverso i programmi radiofonici.
” Scopo della guerra psicologica è distruggere il morale del nemico. La guerra psicologica è la funzione negativa della propaganda: la sua funzione positiva è diffondere la convinzione che la nostra autorità politica è forte e durevole. Se lanciata in modo efficace, la guerra di propaganda indebolisce il nemico riducendone la base civile e il bacino di reclutamento e rendendo i suoi soldati, in battaglia e dopo, piú inclini alla defezione, rafforzando al tempo stesso la lealtà della popolazione. L’importanza del suo potenziale politico-militare non può dunque essere mai sottolineata abbastanza.”
Un compito che per Dawn risulterà fatale.
L’analisi dei fatti e soprattutto la visione delle fotografie scattate dai soldati americani sgretolerà la psiche di questo uomo.
E allora di declino di un uomo sarà speculare di quella cinica società che agisce nascondendosi dietro le bandiere.
” Purtroppo non riesco a fare un lavoro creativo in biblioteca. Il fervore creativo mi prende solo nelle prime ore del mattino, quando il nemico che ho in corpo è troppo addormentato per erigere mura difensive contro le incursioni del cervello. Il rapporto sul Vietnam è stato composto guardando a est, verso il sole che sorge, e con addosso il rimpianto pungente (poindre, pungere) di trovarmi inchiodato qui, nelle terre del crepuscolo. Niente di tutto questo si riflette nel rapporto. Quando ho un compito da eseguire, lo eseguo.”
Il secondo è ” Il racconto di Jacobus Coetzee” .
Confesso di non aver capito se Jacobus Coetzee sia personaggio immaginario o un reale avo dello scrittore.
In ogni caso, anche qui abbiamo un memoriale ma siamo catapultati in un’altra epoca e in un altro continente.
Siamo nella seconda nel 1760 nei territori sudafricani.
Jacobus Coetzee è un allevatore ma anche cacciatore: una vita di frontiera divisa tra le richieste dell’olandese Compagnia delle Indie e la necessità di sopravvivere in un ambiente ostile.
Il racconto parla di un viaggio verso sud con lo scopo di cacciare elefanti.
Si tratta di un resoconto di un esploratore e del primo contatto con un mondo sconosciuto: flora, fauna e popolazioni che fino a quel momento non si erano mai incontrate (si parla ad esempio della giraffa come animale mia visto prima).
Gli indigeni già conosciuti sono classificati tra ottentotti (già assoggettati) e boscimani (selvaggi e indomiti).
Il viaggio, però, condurrà all’incontro con un popolo dei Namaqua -che non aveva mai visto l’uomo bianco- e si trasforma ben presto in uno scontro…
”L’avanzata dell’uomo verso il futuro è storia; tutto il resto – il suo gingillarsi lungo il cammino, il suo ripercorrere la stessa strada – appartiene all’aneddotica, alle serate intorno al fuoco.”
Due racconti che parlano la lingua del colonizzatore e con forza denunciano i soprusi del potere al di là di ogni confine di tempo e luogo.
May 21, 2011
Very powerful. To think that this was J. M. Coetzee's first novel.
This is my 4th book by him. Last year, I read his The Life and Times of Michael K, Disgrace and Slowman. Despite the Booker awards he got in the first two book, there were times I wondered how he was able to get his Nobel Prize for Literature. Michael K barely has anything on racism as it only touches on military involvement due to racial segregation with Michael K and his mother fleeing the city. Disgrace is about a professor asked to resign due to his affair with his student. Slowman is about this bicycleman who had an accident on the street.
So Duskland must be one of the reasons for J. M. Coetzee winning his Nobel.
It is composed of two stories about the complexity brought about by more powerful countries colonizing or taking over smaller or poorer countries. The first story is about Eugene Dawn, who is assigned to work on a propaganda about Vietnam War in line with the government's psychological warfare. Part of his job is to write articles or reports containing several pictures taken from the on-going war. Those pictures are themselves too disturbing and could speak for the horrors not of the war itself but by one race, not necessarily superior, trying to impose itself upon another. J. M. Coetzee brilliantly used Dawn to illustrate how wrong it is for the U.S. to think of itself as a nation whose values and practices are all good and must be copied anywhere in the world. The tragedies that he befell into later in the story are too sad for the message to be missed by the readers.
The second story is about Jacobus Coetzee and it is set in the 18th century and this time, not in Asia but in Africa. This reminds me of Charles Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Both of their stories are dark and sad. The only difference is that Conrad's prose is lyrical while J. M. Coetzee's is direct, hard-hitting and appeared like a non-fiction work because of the footnotes and the full research that he spent in writing Jacobus Coetzee's travel-like diary is astounding. Jacobus Coetzee's fate is similar to that of Eugene Dawn. He was thrown out from the tribe that at first welcomed him making him realized the evil of colonizing a race whose culture and beliefs were totally different from his own. Then J. M. Coetzee put that final twist making the story totally different from that of Conrad's.
Now, not an iota of doubt that Coetzee deserved his Nobel.
This is my 4th book by him. Last year, I read his The Life and Times of Michael K, Disgrace and Slowman. Despite the Booker awards he got in the first two book, there were times I wondered how he was able to get his Nobel Prize for Literature. Michael K barely has anything on racism as it only touches on military involvement due to racial segregation with Michael K and his mother fleeing the city. Disgrace is about a professor asked to resign due to his affair with his student. Slowman is about this bicycleman who had an accident on the street.
So Duskland must be one of the reasons for J. M. Coetzee winning his Nobel.
It is composed of two stories about the complexity brought about by more powerful countries colonizing or taking over smaller or poorer countries. The first story is about Eugene Dawn, who is assigned to work on a propaganda about Vietnam War in line with the government's psychological warfare. Part of his job is to write articles or reports containing several pictures taken from the on-going war. Those pictures are themselves too disturbing and could speak for the horrors not of the war itself but by one race, not necessarily superior, trying to impose itself upon another. J. M. Coetzee brilliantly used Dawn to illustrate how wrong it is for the U.S. to think of itself as a nation whose values and practices are all good and must be copied anywhere in the world. The tragedies that he befell into later in the story are too sad for the message to be missed by the readers.
The second story is about Jacobus Coetzee and it is set in the 18th century and this time, not in Asia but in Africa. This reminds me of Charles Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Both of their stories are dark and sad. The only difference is that Conrad's prose is lyrical while J. M. Coetzee's is direct, hard-hitting and appeared like a non-fiction work because of the footnotes and the full research that he spent in writing Jacobus Coetzee's travel-like diary is astounding. Jacobus Coetzee's fate is similar to that of Eugene Dawn. He was thrown out from the tribe that at first welcomed him making him realized the evil of colonizing a race whose culture and beliefs were totally different from his own. Then J. M. Coetzee put that final twist making the story totally different from that of Conrad's.
Now, not an iota of doubt that Coetzee deserved his Nobel.
September 9, 2025
یک شاهکار کوتاه از مکسولکوتزی و روایتی کوتاه از استعمار افریقا توسط هلند.
November 15, 2016
دو داستان با درونمایهی ضداستعماری، مثل باقی آثار کوتزی. داستان اول درباره جنگ ویتنام و داستان دوم در ارتباط با استعمار آفریقای جنوبی و قتل عام بومیان آن است. کوتزی با زیرکی نکاتی روشنگرانه را در متن داستان گنجانیده که شاید در حالت معمول مخاطب حوصله خواندنشان را نداشته باشد اما در قالب داستان جذاب و خواندنی شدهاند. انتخاب دو ضدقهرمان به عنوان راوی به جذابیت داستان افزوده است، بخصوص زمانیکه روایت شکل حدیث نفس پیدا می کند
September 25, 2012
J.M. Coetzee won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. I know this as a fact as every work published by him after this date is plastered with this fact. Two things are wrong with this statement: 1) you don’t win a Nobel Prize, you are awarded one, and 2) having a Nobel Prize conferred on you doesn’t automatically make all of your work wondrous.
I have always admired Coetzee – and admired is so the right word. You don’t love Coetzee, in fact sometimes he repels you; sometimes he spits in your face and expects you to like him for it. His prose is deliberately provocative, and it can be notoriously difficult. I read Disgrace in hardback, in 1999, and about six years later I read Life & Times of Michael K. Each successive new novel since Disgrace I’ve put on my ‘to read list’ and never gotten around to. There always seems to be some other author I should buy first, read first, and be angered by first. Then, the other day browsing a charity shop, I saw a collection of four early Coetzee novels and, on impulse, bought the lot. You don’t see any Coetzee’s, other than Disgrace, in charity shops very often. So last night, looking at these four Coetzee novels, I told myself I better start reading them, before they slip into my books cupboard along with all those other unread novels that gather there, waiting for me to read them.
I started with Dusklands. It seemed appropriate, being his first novel. I thought it might be interesting to see what protean Coetzeean elements were imbued in this novel. Quite a few, as it happens.
Dusklands is essentially two short stories. The Vintage edition I read clocked in at a meagre 125 pages. The first tells the story of Eugene Dawn, a man hired by Coetzee to write a report into the Vietnam War and who is edging into madness. The second tells of a different Coetzee, who is tasked with exploring South Africa in the 18th century, and who becomes embroiled in conflict with the indigenous peoples. Though they are separate stories, there are overlaps between the two in terms of theme and these thematic elements reverberate throughout the novel, building up depth and power.
Of the two pieces, I found the second more interesting. Both are very well written – you’d expect nothing less from a Nobel Prize ‘winner’ – but the story of Jacobus Coetzee has more visceral impact, and the historical questions raised seem pertinent even today (which is Coetzee’s point).
Dusklands is not always an easy read, but it is an ultimately rewarding one (even if not all its elements work as well as they should). I firmly believe that literature should challenge ones preconceived notions, as well as entertain, and Coetzee’s debut novel does both these things. Of course we know he will go onto to do this sort of thing better, and with more style and power, but for the beginning of a career, Dusklands is pretty heady stuff.
I have always admired Coetzee – and admired is so the right word. You don’t love Coetzee, in fact sometimes he repels you; sometimes he spits in your face and expects you to like him for it. His prose is deliberately provocative, and it can be notoriously difficult. I read Disgrace in hardback, in 1999, and about six years later I read Life & Times of Michael K. Each successive new novel since Disgrace I’ve put on my ‘to read list’ and never gotten around to. There always seems to be some other author I should buy first, read first, and be angered by first. Then, the other day browsing a charity shop, I saw a collection of four early Coetzee novels and, on impulse, bought the lot. You don’t see any Coetzee’s, other than Disgrace, in charity shops very often. So last night, looking at these four Coetzee novels, I told myself I better start reading them, before they slip into my books cupboard along with all those other unread novels that gather there, waiting for me to read them.
I started with Dusklands. It seemed appropriate, being his first novel. I thought it might be interesting to see what protean Coetzeean elements were imbued in this novel. Quite a few, as it happens.
Dusklands is essentially two short stories. The Vintage edition I read clocked in at a meagre 125 pages. The first tells the story of Eugene Dawn, a man hired by Coetzee to write a report into the Vietnam War and who is edging into madness. The second tells of a different Coetzee, who is tasked with exploring South Africa in the 18th century, and who becomes embroiled in conflict with the indigenous peoples. Though they are separate stories, there are overlaps between the two in terms of theme and these thematic elements reverberate throughout the novel, building up depth and power.
Of the two pieces, I found the second more interesting. Both are very well written – you’d expect nothing less from a Nobel Prize ‘winner’ – but the story of Jacobus Coetzee has more visceral impact, and the historical questions raised seem pertinent even today (which is Coetzee’s point).
Dusklands is not always an easy read, but it is an ultimately rewarding one (even if not all its elements work as well as they should). I firmly believe that literature should challenge ones preconceived notions, as well as entertain, and Coetzee’s debut novel does both these things. Of course we know he will go onto to do this sort of thing better, and with more style and power, but for the beginning of a career, Dusklands is pretty heady stuff.
March 11, 2020
Amid the visceral feelings of anger, shock and disgust that accompanied me throughout reading this book, oddly enough it was delirious laughter that found me when I turned the last page. I laughed for thinking Coetzee’s debut in the world of literature would be a little subdued and not as polished as his later masterpieces. Boy was I wrong. In Dusklands Coetzee confronted the unreconcilable inhuman humanity with such ruthless lucidity.
Dusklands consists of two thematically linked novellas set in different periods and at different latitudes. The first is about Eugene Dawn, a US special agent who is assigned to work on a propaganda about Vietnam War in line with the government's psychological warfare (the war in Vietnam was still going on at the time Coetzee wrote Dusklands) and the second is about a Boer frontiersman called Jacobus Coetzee who goes on an elephant hunting expedition in southern Africa during the mid-18th century. What made the book provoke a strong reaction from me is the lack of condemnation for the unjustifiable violence in it. Coetzee does not afford his readers the comfort of a character with a moral compass to anchor on. Both stories are told in first person and using a confessional tone which forces readers to view the world through their extremely distorted and narcissistic lens, and understand, as much as it’s uncomfortable, why they felt entitled to kill, rape and pillage.
There’s a lot more to consider in this slim book but what drew me in the most, in part due to the recent controversies in publishing, is that Coetzee lent his name to a secondary character in the first story and took it up several notches in the second novella by naming the antihero Jacobus after himself as a way of highlighting his ancestral complicity in colonialism. Its a lesson to *those* white authors who have an almost fetish desire to write outside their identity that sometimes you can highlight injustices with far greater impact not by inhabiting the other and making a mockery of them, but by writing close to home in the point-of-view of very flawed, very racist, very disturbing white (wo)men. But then again, not many writers are as self-aware as J.M Coetzee is.
Dusklands consists of two thematically linked novellas set in different periods and at different latitudes. The first is about Eugene Dawn, a US special agent who is assigned to work on a propaganda about Vietnam War in line with the government's psychological warfare (the war in Vietnam was still going on at the time Coetzee wrote Dusklands) and the second is about a Boer frontiersman called Jacobus Coetzee who goes on an elephant hunting expedition in southern Africa during the mid-18th century. What made the book provoke a strong reaction from me is the lack of condemnation for the unjustifiable violence in it. Coetzee does not afford his readers the comfort of a character with a moral compass to anchor on. Both stories are told in first person and using a confessional tone which forces readers to view the world through their extremely distorted and narcissistic lens, and understand, as much as it’s uncomfortable, why they felt entitled to kill, rape and pillage.
There’s a lot more to consider in this slim book but what drew me in the most, in part due to the recent controversies in publishing, is that Coetzee lent his name to a secondary character in the first story and took it up several notches in the second novella by naming the antihero Jacobus after himself as a way of highlighting his ancestral complicity in colonialism. Its a lesson to *those* white authors who have an almost fetish desire to write outside their identity that sometimes you can highlight injustices with far greater impact not by inhabiting the other and making a mockery of them, but by writing close to home in the point-of-view of very flawed, very racist, very disturbing white (wo)men. But then again, not many writers are as self-aware as J.M Coetzee is.
June 18, 2021
Coetzee retreads similar material in his work through what I see as near-perfect novels - even a debut, every sentence and paragraph as tight as a short story or poem (Morrison is similar to me in this way). His depth of insight and experimental nature keep the experience of reading his whole oeuvre interesting. This book also made me think of the concept of public guilt, expiation (in this culture we live in) and how Coetzee's own guilt (if it can be called this) seems a genuine form of that. How much more difficult self flagellation is than it seems. Which for us is often a defense, diversionary or escape mechanism.
The first novella funnily reminds me of Modiano's Occupation Trilogy and the second reminds me of Murnane - the metafictional self-referential aspect, the talk of the White man and his view of and movement towards the interior, escape from the coast. I do think that there is something to be said about the greater clarity and straightforwardness of his presentation in latter works - ex. Michael K, but there is also something to be gained in the construction of this one. Especially when possibly the main question is what do we lose to 'time,' 'history,' its curators? In the quietest way? The way the loudest of actions or events become silent by the subtlest means.
The first novella funnily reminds me of Modiano's Occupation Trilogy and the second reminds me of Murnane - the metafictional self-referential aspect, the talk of the White man and his view of and movement towards the interior, escape from the coast. I do think that there is something to be said about the greater clarity and straightforwardness of his presentation in latter works - ex. Michael K, but there is also something to be gained in the construction of this one. Especially when possibly the main question is what do we lose to 'time,' 'history,' its curators? In the quietest way? The way the loudest of actions or events become silent by the subtlest means.
November 6, 2015
دو داستان با مضمون مشتركِ استعمار.داستان اول،پروژه ي ويتنام شرح زندگي يك متخصص آمريكايي طراحي جنگ هاي رواني است كه در ميانه ي ساخت و پرداخت يك جنگ رواني تمام عيار عليه ويت-كنگ ها، در اثر فشار هاي رواني دچار فروپاشي رواني شده است.بخشي از داستان در مورد روش هاي جنگ رواني است كه براي من خيلي جالب بود.داستان دوم حكايت ياكوبوس كوتسي شكارچي فيل كه اردوي شكاري خود را در سرزمين هاي كشف نشده آفريقاي جنوبي ترتيب مي دهد و به قبيله بدوي ناماكوآ برخورد مي كند
كوتسي در اين دو داستان اسنادي از رفتار خشونتبار استعمارگران با مردم سرزمين هاي ديگر ارائه مي كند و به بررسي پوچي قدرت و آسيب پذيري صاحبان قدرت مي پردازد
.
كوتسي در اين دو داستان اسنادي از رفتار خشونتبار استعمارگران با مردم سرزمين هاي ديگر ارائه مي كند و به بررسي پوچي قدرت و آسيب پذيري صاحبان قدرت مي پردازد
.
March 22, 2014
I was stunned by Coetzee's first novel. Of course, we could object that this is but the rough sketch of the vision and the power of the following of his works, or that the construction is wobbly, as it is made of two short stories in different times and settings.
I cannot deny all that, but I think I read the book at the right moment, as I was researching how war narratives question gender, and more particularly masculinity. The two main characters fed my research, and teach the reader about the modalities of war, be it a psychological one, carefully planned and observed from a safe distance, or a conflict stemming from the quest for revenge of a man who seems himself as a paternal and morally authoritative figure, against the village dwellers who humiliated him.
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
J'ai été frappée par cette première œuvre de Coetzee. Bien sûr, on pourra objecter qu'elle n'est que l’ébauche de la vision et de la puissance des œuvres qui vont suivre, ou que la construction en est bancale, reposant sur deux nouvelles séparées géographiquement et temporellement.
C'est assurément vrai, mais je pense l'avoir lue au bon moment, en pleine recherche sur les interrogations sur le genre et la masculinité dans les récits de guerre. Les deux personnages principaux ont amené de l'eau à mon moulin, en plus d’éclairer le lecteur sur les différentes modalités de la guerre, qu'elle soit psychologique, planifiée stratégiquement et vue de loin, ou un conflit de revanche d'un homme qui se voit comme représentant d'une autorité morale et paternelle sur les villageois qui l'ont humilié.
I cannot deny all that, but I think I read the book at the right moment, as I was researching how war narratives question gender, and more particularly masculinity. The two main characters fed my research, and teach the reader about the modalities of war, be it a psychological one, carefully planned and observed from a safe distance, or a conflict stemming from the quest for revenge of a man who seems himself as a paternal and morally authoritative figure, against the village dwellers who humiliated him.
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
J'ai été frappée par cette première œuvre de Coetzee. Bien sûr, on pourra objecter qu'elle n'est que l’ébauche de la vision et de la puissance des œuvres qui vont suivre, ou que la construction en est bancale, reposant sur deux nouvelles séparées géographiquement et temporellement.
C'est assurément vrai, mais je pense l'avoir lue au bon moment, en pleine recherche sur les interrogations sur le genre et la masculinité dans les récits de guerre. Les deux personnages principaux ont amené de l'eau à mon moulin, en plus d’éclairer le lecteur sur les différentes modalités de la guerre, qu'elle soit psychologique, planifiée stratégiquement et vue de loin, ou un conflit de revanche d'un homme qui se voit comme représentant d'une autorité morale et paternelle sur les villageois qui l'ont humilié.
May 6, 2019
جان مکسول کوتزی نویسنده ی آفریقایی هلندی و برنده ی جایزه نوبل سال 2003 است. کوتزی را در واقع نویسنده ی سبک پسااستعماری میدانند.
کتاب سرزمین های گرگ و میش شامل دو داستان است. در این دو داستان کوتزی به نقد استعمارگری و مستعمره بودن میپردازد. داستان اول کتاب یعنی
پروژه ی ویتنام، در واقع به شرح فروپاشی روانی یک کارمند بخش جنگ روانی امریکا در زمان جنگ ویتنام میپردازد. داستان دوم یعنی حکایت یاکوبوس کوتزی، درباره ی یک شکارچی فیل است که به سرزمین های ناشناخته ی افریقا میرود و در انجا در یک قبیله ی تقریبا بدوی گرفتار شده و به بیماری سختی دچار میشود. و پس از بهبود مجبور به بازگشت بدون هیچ وسیله ای میشود چرا که همه ی وسایلش را غارت کرده اند. کوتزی از این ماجرا جان سالم به در میبرد و پس از مدتی با افرادی به آن روستا برگشته و انتقام میگیرد.
قسمت های زیادی از کتاب سانسور شده بود و تنها خوبی این کتاب این بود که کتاب چاپ 1388 بود و قسمت های سانسور شده را با [...] نشان داده بودند تا خواننده متوجه شود که قسمتی حذف شده. که این موضوع در کتابهای چاپ جدید نیست و اکثرا اجازه ندارند نشانه ای بگذارند تا حداقل خواننده ی بینوا بفهمد کتاب زیر تیغ سانسور چقدر شرحه شرحه شده.
نکته بعدی اینکه این کتاب از "سری رمان های فرودستان" شماره 1 بود. و من این کتاب را در کتابخانه دانشگاه پیدا کردم و تا به حال متاسفانه در کتابفروشی ای این کتاب را ندیده ام. حال سوال این است که نشر بیدگل شماره های دیگری از این سری را منتشر کرده است یا خیر؟
کتاب سرزمین های گرگ و میش شامل دو داستان است. در این دو داستان کوتزی به نقد استعمارگری و مستعمره بودن میپردازد. داستان اول کتاب یعنی
پروژه ی ویتنام، در واقع به شرح فروپاشی روانی یک کارمند بخش جنگ روانی امریکا در زمان جنگ ویتنام میپردازد. داستان دوم یعنی حکایت یاکوبوس کوتزی، درباره ی یک شکارچی فیل است که به سرزمین های ناشناخته ی افریقا میرود و در انجا در یک قبیله ی تقریبا بدوی گرفتار شده و به بیماری سختی دچار میشود. و پس از بهبود مجبور به بازگشت بدون هیچ وسیله ای میشود چرا که همه ی وسایلش را غارت کرده اند. کوتزی از این ماجرا جان سالم به در میبرد و پس از مدتی با افرادی به آن روستا برگشته و انتقام میگیرد.
قسمت های زیادی از کتاب سانسور شده بود و تنها خوبی این کتاب این بود که کتاب چاپ 1388 بود و قسمت های سانسور شده را با [...] نشان داده بودند تا خواننده متوجه شود که قسمتی حذف شده. که این موضوع در کتابهای چاپ جدید نیست و اکثرا اجازه ندارند نشانه ای بگذارند تا حداقل خواننده ی بینوا بفهمد کتاب زیر تیغ سانسور چقدر شرحه شرحه شده.
نکته بعدی اینکه این کتاب از "سری رمان های فرودستان" شماره 1 بود. و من این کتاب را در کتابخانه دانشگاه پیدا کردم و تا به حال متاسفانه در کتابفروشی ای این کتاب را ندیده ام. حال سوال این است که نشر بیدگل شماره های دیگری از این سری را منتشر کرده است یا خیر؟
March 31, 2024
Where to go with this one? Two novellas together or one novel in two parts? Two parts and the same story. Two different stories?
Coetzee's first published novel and a belter arrival on the scene.
The first part is the Vietnam Project - psychops narrative of Eugene Dawn. A diatribe. On propaganda against the North Vietnamese. But he's in California and obsessed with the project. But his findings go against the military or are couched in a way that the military are not going to accept. His superior has carefully asked him to re-write his report bearing in mind to whom it is addressed. His superior is Coetzee (whether that is important or not or just a trick on JMC's part I can't make up my mind, but given the title of the second novella leads me to suspect something with more purpose than mere putting himself in the stories). But he takes this as a put-down and an attack from Coetzee. What follows is the report and the more we read of it, whilst being to a degree quite believable (especially since there are archived examples out there on the net of programmes like the one written up here) the more deranged he seems. Not just obsessed with the project but internalised and obsessed with himself. He carries these photos of brutalities with him like obscenities and war crimes which elicit a frisson which is intellectual rather than sexual. He has all the bravado and over-confidence of the unconfident. He is megalomanic. And deranged.
His derangement continues unabated and he kidnaps his son and takes off. When he is tracked down, he stabs his son. In the final part we hear his internal monologue in the prison mental institution where he is incarcerated. Its clear he is never going to change or only to the degree that he can convince the institution that he is changed.
From that slap in the face we pass on to the second novella purporting to be the Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, an 18th century Africaans settler and explorer. He heads north into little charted territory, the land of the Namaqua, with his black bondsmen bearing gifts for the natives in exchange for non-violent passage over their lands to gain ivory and return to the Cape. But he falls ill on encountering the tribe and barely survives. When he finally emerges from his delirium he finds himself deserted by all his bondsmen bar one and thrown out with all his goods stolen. He manages to trek back against all odds to the Cape and returns with force to annihilate the bondsmen who betrayed him and all the Namaqua.
So... back to my first question.... one novel or two novellas? What connects them is the blatant deranged racism in both tales. And the dealing with that in both novellas is by violence. Both are the voices of bigotted self-contained righteousness. It doesn't matter what the 'others' think; they either comply or they die. Because we KNOW. And if you missed it or did not check back to it there is the reference in the first part to the anthroplogy of Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology and the opponent of 'scientific racism' - they are who they are because of their racial characteristics. There is also this sense of uncontrolled hitting out. Both Eugene Dawn and Jacobus Coetzee feel that they have been got the better of by people they feel completely superior to. So the people must suffer for their indignant actions in bettering their superiors. Dawn and Coetzee, as superiors, demand respect. If they don't get it then the penalty is death. They are both about power; deranged power; the closet and not-so-closetted power of colonialism. For Dawn it is his intellectual superiority. For Coetzee it is his racial superiority as well as his belief in religion and the truth in God. Both of them feel they are 'forgers ahead', explorers on the edge, pushing the boundaries, both solitary but confirmed in their own views - both megalmaniacs. Neither can fathom the 'others' they encounter.
This is a short novel but it is another powerful work from Coetzee, less of a parable than many of his other novels but with a strong message particularly given its genesis in 1974. In many ways it might be seen as a precursor to many of the themes which Coetzee would go on to develop more fully in Waiting for the Barbarians.
Coetzee's first published novel and a belter arrival on the scene.
The first part is the Vietnam Project - psychops narrative of Eugene Dawn. A diatribe. On propaganda against the North Vietnamese. But he's in California and obsessed with the project. But his findings go against the military or are couched in a way that the military are not going to accept. His superior has carefully asked him to re-write his report bearing in mind to whom it is addressed. His superior is Coetzee (whether that is important or not or just a trick on JMC's part I can't make up my mind, but given the title of the second novella leads me to suspect something with more purpose than mere putting himself in the stories). But he takes this as a put-down and an attack from Coetzee. What follows is the report and the more we read of it, whilst being to a degree quite believable (especially since there are archived examples out there on the net of programmes like the one written up here) the more deranged he seems. Not just obsessed with the project but internalised and obsessed with himself. He carries these photos of brutalities with him like obscenities and war crimes which elicit a frisson which is intellectual rather than sexual. He has all the bravado and over-confidence of the unconfident. He is megalomanic. And deranged.
It is the voice of 'Why are the Americans in Vietnam?'. We wanted to help you but you wouldn't look at us.; we wanted to give you things but you wouldn't accept them; we thought you might be gods, but you were empty. So we killed you instead. And then we ran out of pity.The whole basis appears to be 'guide it from within'; i.e. infiltrate and control it, or eradicate it. A plan that might envisage total genocide for non-compliance.
His derangement continues unabated and he kidnaps his son and takes off. When he is tracked down, he stabs his son. In the final part we hear his internal monologue in the prison mental institution where he is incarcerated. Its clear he is never going to change or only to the degree that he can convince the institution that he is changed.
From that slap in the face we pass on to the second novella purporting to be the Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee, an 18th century Africaans settler and explorer. He heads north into little charted territory, the land of the Namaqua, with his black bondsmen bearing gifts for the natives in exchange for non-violent passage over their lands to gain ivory and return to the Cape. But he falls ill on encountering the tribe and barely survives. When he finally emerges from his delirium he finds himself deserted by all his bondsmen bar one and thrown out with all his goods stolen. He manages to trek back against all odds to the Cape and returns with force to annihilate the bondsmen who betrayed him and all the Namaqua.
So... back to my first question.... one novel or two novellas? What connects them is the blatant deranged racism in both tales. And the dealing with that in both novellas is by violence. Both are the voices of bigotted self-contained righteousness. It doesn't matter what the 'others' think; they either comply or they die. Because we KNOW. And if you missed it or did not check back to it there is the reference in the first part to the anthroplogy of Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology and the opponent of 'scientific racism' - they are who they are because of their racial characteristics. There is also this sense of uncontrolled hitting out. Both Eugene Dawn and Jacobus Coetzee feel that they have been got the better of by people they feel completely superior to. So the people must suffer for their indignant actions in bettering their superiors. Dawn and Coetzee, as superiors, demand respect. If they don't get it then the penalty is death. They are both about power; deranged power; the closet and not-so-closetted power of colonialism. For Dawn it is his intellectual superiority. For Coetzee it is his racial superiority as well as his belief in religion and the truth in God. Both of them feel they are 'forgers ahead', explorers on the edge, pushing the boundaries, both solitary but confirmed in their own views - both megalmaniacs. Neither can fathom the 'others' they encounter.
This is a short novel but it is another powerful work from Coetzee, less of a parable than many of his other novels but with a strong message particularly given its genesis in 1974. In many ways it might be seen as a precursor to many of the themes which Coetzee would go on to develop more fully in Waiting for the Barbarians.
March 4, 2024
What little freaks these two are
September 21, 2023
Tierras de Poniente se publicó en 1974. Primera novela del Nobel sudafricano. Tremendo debut literario.
Esta novela contiene dos relatos con narradores protagonistas.
En el primero, Eugene Dawn, experto en psicología militar, habla de su vida personal y del ensayo que está escribiendo en la Biblioteca Harry S. Trruman, sobre la propaganda estadounidense para doblegar la resistencia vietnamita. Es un relato que gradualmente descubre los horrores de la guerra y la descomposición mental de su narrador.
En el segundo, Jacobus Coetzee, un colono boer, relata su incursión en tierras de los namaqua para cazar elefantes en 1760. Permanece cautivo y enfermo en esa tribu unos días, perdiendo animales, esclavos y pertenencias. Regresa a su hogar con la intención de volver y vengarse.
Ambos relatos dejan en evidencia los horrores de dos acontecimientos lejanos en el tiempo y en el espacio, pero unidos por la violencia desatada en pos de unos supuestos ideales civilizatorios, generados bajo el firme convencimiento de la superioridad racial, ética o sociocultural.
La maestría narrativa y el valor humanista crítico de Coetzee quedó en evidencia desde su primera publicación. Sin duda, uno de los grandes escritores contemporáneos.
Esta novela contiene dos relatos con narradores protagonistas.
En el primero, Eugene Dawn, experto en psicología militar, habla de su vida personal y del ensayo que está escribiendo en la Biblioteca Harry S. Trruman, sobre la propaganda estadounidense para doblegar la resistencia vietnamita. Es un relato que gradualmente descubre los horrores de la guerra y la descomposición mental de su narrador.
En el segundo, Jacobus Coetzee, un colono boer, relata su incursión en tierras de los namaqua para cazar elefantes en 1760. Permanece cautivo y enfermo en esa tribu unos días, perdiendo animales, esclavos y pertenencias. Regresa a su hogar con la intención de volver y vengarse.
Ambos relatos dejan en evidencia los horrores de dos acontecimientos lejanos en el tiempo y en el espacio, pero unidos por la violencia desatada en pos de unos supuestos ideales civilizatorios, generados bajo el firme convencimiento de la superioridad racial, ética o sociocultural.
La maestría narrativa y el valor humanista crítico de Coetzee quedó en evidencia desde su primera publicación. Sin duda, uno de los grandes escritores contemporáneos.
June 5, 2022
La primera historia, la he podido aguantar, con más fuerza de voluntad que otra cosa, más que nada porque quería leer a Coetzee, ya que ha sido galardonado con los más importantes premios, incluido el Nobel en el 2003, pero la segunda parte es tan indigesta y aburrida, con el tema de la colonización, que no la he acabado.
December 12, 2013
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.
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.
February 13, 2018
13/02/18
I exclusively re-read books which I've enjoyed the past but I had to re-read Dusklands for the postcolonial course I'm currently a participant in. I'm glad I read it again; to be honest I'm not sure I understood it completely when I read it three years ago.
It is also funny how I was almost bored to death by the novella "The Vietnam Project" and were pretty engaged with "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee", which in the past was the other way around.
Original review:
I really liked the first part "The Vietnam Project" - the other part, "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee" not so much. If I only had to rate TVP, I would have given Dusklands more stars, but TNOJC completely ruined the experience for me.
I exclusively re-read books which I've enjoyed the past but I had to re-read Dusklands for the postcolonial course I'm currently a participant in. I'm glad I read it again; to be honest I'm not sure I understood it completely when I read it three years ago.
It is also funny how I was almost bored to death by the novella "The Vietnam Project" and were pretty engaged with "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee", which in the past was the other way around.
Original review:
I really liked the first part "The Vietnam Project" - the other part, "The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee" not so much. If I only had to rate TVP, I would have given Dusklands more stars, but TNOJC completely ruined the experience for me.
Read
January 8, 2019I understood so little that it would be pointless to give it a rating... I'm not sure where I should seek meaning, especially in the second story. Both tell the tale from the agressor's point of view, in a convincing 'true story' tone. If it's a critique of the hunter/colonialist mind, it's one that comes from the reader's disapproval of the text, or even of human nature. The writing style is unique, but dense and confusing (+I'm dumb probably?) I'll tag it as to-be-reread, because there's definitely something there and the first one got me thinking for a long time, and researching about the Vietnam War and mythography. Heavy stuff for sure, both in subject matter and in complexity.
September 20, 2012
Un experimento.
October 30, 2025
This was a curious choice for a debut novel, one that displays a confidence and belief that turned out to be well justified, as Coetzee has become a master novelist with an extensive, high quality body of work.
I haven't been able to fathom just why this 'novel' is titled 'Dusklands'. This work, first published in 1974, is actually two seemingly unrelated novellas.
The first, 'The Vietnam Project' is the story of Eugene Dawn, who works for the American military on a form of psychological warfare, devising mythographies designed to justify America's role in this disastrous conflict while undermining the confidence and resistance of the Viet Cong.
He is tasked by his superior, whose name is Coetzee (?) to write an essay 'New Life for Vietnam', outlining potential psychological warfare and propaganda strategies.
What we witness, in fewer than 80 pages, is the degradation of a human soul, the breakdown of a marriage, the destruction of a family, resulting in Dawn harming his own child, and being remanded in a institution for mental rehabilitation.
It's all very stark and formal, while being disturbing in its obvious cynicism.
The second novella is 'The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee' (Edited with an Afterword by S J Coetzee, Translated by J M Coetzee). Again, this need to use his own surname in what is a fictional tale.
This section is written as a travelogue, detailing the journey of Jacobus Coetzee into the interiors of what is now South Africa, in the mid to late 18th century.
Coetzee is accompanied by a wagon hauled by oxen, a herd of cattle, along with native servants, generally referred to by Coetzee as Hottentots. The expedition has been approved by authorities for the stated purpose of shooting elephants.
What emerges is a stark, sometimes brutal tale of hardship, violence, misadventure and vengeance, as Coetzee's crew encounter and interact with other native populations. What began as an apparently hospitable relationship became violent, nasty and visceral.
This is a pretty experimental approach for a debut novel, but the signs of Coetzee's eventual greatness are apparent in his blunt and direct language, and the authenticity of his prose.
What links these two tales of different times and different places is a commentary on the nature of colonial domination, and the violent suppression that normally takes place when one people seek to control and dominate those of a different culture.
Borderline 4 stars.
I haven't been able to fathom just why this 'novel' is titled 'Dusklands'. This work, first published in 1974, is actually two seemingly unrelated novellas.
The first, 'The Vietnam Project' is the story of Eugene Dawn, who works for the American military on a form of psychological warfare, devising mythographies designed to justify America's role in this disastrous conflict while undermining the confidence and resistance of the Viet Cong.
He is tasked by his superior, whose name is Coetzee (?) to write an essay 'New Life for Vietnam', outlining potential psychological warfare and propaganda strategies.
What we witness, in fewer than 80 pages, is the degradation of a human soul, the breakdown of a marriage, the destruction of a family, resulting in Dawn harming his own child, and being remanded in a institution for mental rehabilitation.
It's all very stark and formal, while being disturbing in its obvious cynicism.
The second novella is 'The Narrative of Jacobus Coetzee' (Edited with an Afterword by S J Coetzee, Translated by J M Coetzee). Again, this need to use his own surname in what is a fictional tale.
This section is written as a travelogue, detailing the journey of Jacobus Coetzee into the interiors of what is now South Africa, in the mid to late 18th century.
Coetzee is accompanied by a wagon hauled by oxen, a herd of cattle, along with native servants, generally referred to by Coetzee as Hottentots. The expedition has been approved by authorities for the stated purpose of shooting elephants.
What emerges is a stark, sometimes brutal tale of hardship, violence, misadventure and vengeance, as Coetzee's crew encounter and interact with other native populations. What began as an apparently hospitable relationship became violent, nasty and visceral.
This is a pretty experimental approach for a debut novel, but the signs of Coetzee's eventual greatness are apparent in his blunt and direct language, and the authenticity of his prose.
What links these two tales of different times and different places is a commentary on the nature of colonial domination, and the violent suppression that normally takes place when one people seek to control and dominate those of a different culture.
Borderline 4 stars.
June 17, 2025
I cannot understand where Coetzee’s anti-colonialism is to be found
January 24, 2021
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.
August 29, 2021
«Después de eso me di cuenta de que ya no había más razón para ser blando. Las balas son demasiado buenas para los bosquimanos. Una vez, después de que los bosquimanos mataran a un pastor de rebaños, los granjeros atraparon a uno vivo, lo ataron a una fogata y lo asaron. Hasta lo rociaron con su propia grasa. Después se lo ofrecieron a los hotentotes.»
¿Hubo alguien en Sudáfrica, en 1974, que al leer la opera prima de un tal J.M. Coetzee entreviera o sospechara lo que en los años por venir sería una de las obras literarias más lúcidas y originales que el mundo ha podido apreciar? Seguramente no, sólo divago.
Sin embargo, fuese en Johannesburgo en 1974 y sin saber nada de él, o en México en 2009 luego de conocer toda su obra, aquel que se haya acercado a Tierras de poniente habrá podido sentir con claridad los ejes principales sobre los que se desarrollaría la narrativa posterior de Coetzee: la soberbia del poder y la inconmensurable desgracia humana que de forma inevitable acarrea.
Para ser honestos, más que la prosa escueta, libre de adornos que el autor sudafricano ha ido cultivando (no sé si «perfeccionando») a últimos tiempos, yo en lo particular prefiero al primer Coetzee, el de En medio de ninguna parte, Esperando a los bárbaros y La edad de hierro, que se ocupaba todavía de la música y la poesía de sus escritos tanto como de la concisión, y que, contrario a lo que pudiera parecer, en modo alguno servía para atenuar los horrores que sus historias mostraban.
Aquí, en Tierras de poniente, aún hay anhelos de poeta. En las dos historias independientes de que está conformada la novela, se le da tanta importancia al ritmo como al contenido, esas «superficialidades líricas» de que el autor se deshará en el futuro aquí todavía se muestran con orgullo, te mecen, te acompañan, realzan la riqueza de lo narrado y hasta el mero placer de la lectura.
No sé si me estaré contradiciendo, dado que en otras ocasiones he alabado la capacidad de Coetzee para decirlo todo en muy pocas palabras, pero es que, ¿es necesariamente mejor un escrito escueto (como Hombre lento) que En medio de ninguna parte, la más «musical» de las obras de Coetzee?
Supongo que, independientemente del tema o trama de cada una, ambas tienen su valor intrínseco. En realidad, creo que a lo que me refería entonces con capacidad de concisión, no es un escrito libre de poesía sino lo opuesto a la sobreabundancia, tal y como ocurre (en ocasiones) en Carlos Fuentes o Umberto Eco, quienes sin llegar a ser malos escritores, sí llegan a acumular una enorme cantidad de paja en algunas de sus novelas.
En fin.
En el primer relato, "El proyecto Vietnam", el tema es sin duda la culpa, la forma en que un ser humano común y corriente pierde la razón al sumergirse en las entrañas de la guerra, cómo su psique se quiebra al darse cuenta de las atrocidades que ella misma ha ayudado a perpetrar, y que además, supongo, era una abierta crítica a la por entonces (1974) todavía activa campaña estadounidense en Vietnam.
En el segundo, "La narración de Jacobus Coetzee", la perspectiva cambia radicalmente. No es ya el arrepentimiento o remordimiento sino la soberbia, el orgullo y hasta inconsciencia de la crueldad en su más cruda expresión. Para el Hombre Blanco, sea bóer o británico, sólo existen sus prerrogativas y derechos, mismos que le fueron otorgados por Dios y gracias a los cuales no tienen porqué responder ante nadie de sus actos y en cambio puede juzgarlos a todos. La respuesta de los nativos a los abusos de los colonos son para éstos nada más que muestra fehaciente de su salvajismo, ingratitud y hasta carencia de alma, sin darse cuenta siquiera de la cruel inhumanidad con que ellos mismos se comportan.
Como en ninguna otra de sus novelas, en ésta Coetzee lo narra todo desde el mismo corazón del mal, no son las víctimas sino los victimarios quienes se hacen oír. El mal destruye al primero enloqueciéndolo, mientras que al otro lo reafirma y da justificación a su existencia.
¿Hubo alguien en Sudáfrica, en 1974, que al leer la opera prima de un tal J.M. Coetzee entreviera o sospechara lo que en los años por venir sería una de las obras literarias más lúcidas y originales que el mundo ha podido apreciar? Seguramente no, sólo divago.
Sin embargo, fuese en Johannesburgo en 1974 y sin saber nada de él, o en México en 2009 luego de conocer toda su obra, aquel que se haya acercado a Tierras de poniente habrá podido sentir con claridad los ejes principales sobre los que se desarrollaría la narrativa posterior de Coetzee: la soberbia del poder y la inconmensurable desgracia humana que de forma inevitable acarrea.
Para ser honestos, más que la prosa escueta, libre de adornos que el autor sudafricano ha ido cultivando (no sé si «perfeccionando») a últimos tiempos, yo en lo particular prefiero al primer Coetzee, el de En medio de ninguna parte, Esperando a los bárbaros y La edad de hierro, que se ocupaba todavía de la música y la poesía de sus escritos tanto como de la concisión, y que, contrario a lo que pudiera parecer, en modo alguno servía para atenuar los horrores que sus historias mostraban.
Aquí, en Tierras de poniente, aún hay anhelos de poeta. En las dos historias independientes de que está conformada la novela, se le da tanta importancia al ritmo como al contenido, esas «superficialidades líricas» de que el autor se deshará en el futuro aquí todavía se muestran con orgullo, te mecen, te acompañan, realzan la riqueza de lo narrado y hasta el mero placer de la lectura.
No sé si me estaré contradiciendo, dado que en otras ocasiones he alabado la capacidad de Coetzee para decirlo todo en muy pocas palabras, pero es que, ¿es necesariamente mejor un escrito escueto (como Hombre lento) que En medio de ninguna parte, la más «musical» de las obras de Coetzee?
Supongo que, independientemente del tema o trama de cada una, ambas tienen su valor intrínseco. En realidad, creo que a lo que me refería entonces con capacidad de concisión, no es un escrito libre de poesía sino lo opuesto a la sobreabundancia, tal y como ocurre (en ocasiones) en Carlos Fuentes o Umberto Eco, quienes sin llegar a ser malos escritores, sí llegan a acumular una enorme cantidad de paja en algunas de sus novelas.
En fin.
En el primer relato, "El proyecto Vietnam", el tema es sin duda la culpa, la forma en que un ser humano común y corriente pierde la razón al sumergirse en las entrañas de la guerra, cómo su psique se quiebra al darse cuenta de las atrocidades que ella misma ha ayudado a perpetrar, y que además, supongo, era una abierta crítica a la por entonces (1974) todavía activa campaña estadounidense en Vietnam.
En el segundo, "La narración de Jacobus Coetzee", la perspectiva cambia radicalmente. No es ya el arrepentimiento o remordimiento sino la soberbia, el orgullo y hasta inconsciencia de la crueldad en su más cruda expresión. Para el Hombre Blanco, sea bóer o británico, sólo existen sus prerrogativas y derechos, mismos que le fueron otorgados por Dios y gracias a los cuales no tienen porqué responder ante nadie de sus actos y en cambio puede juzgarlos a todos. La respuesta de los nativos a los abusos de los colonos son para éstos nada más que muestra fehaciente de su salvajismo, ingratitud y hasta carencia de alma, sin darse cuenta siquiera de la cruel inhumanidad con que ellos mismos se comportan.
Como en ninguna otra de sus novelas, en ésta Coetzee lo narra todo desde el mismo corazón del mal, no son las víctimas sino los victimarios quienes se hacen oír. El mal destruye al primero enloqueciéndolo, mientras que al otro lo reafirma y da justificación a su existencia.
June 17, 2022
Powerful in places but not the best place to start reading Coetzee.
Read
September 11, 2019Jeg er så forvirret
February 23, 2013
"Dusklands" consists of two novellas, each concerning men who are pretty sure they know what's what. The first man, Eugene Dawn, is an expert on psychological warfare, and the story, "The Vietnam Project," concerns his struggles with both his professional and his private lives. His considering himself an intellectual realist does not keep him from doing some irrational things that get him into trouble.
The second man, one Jacobus Coetzee, an 18th Century Dutch inhabitant of South Africa, goes on an elephant hunt and meets a group of Hottentots, the outcome being, perhaps predictably, violent.
J.M. Coetzee is not afraid to depict humans at their worst. This is not a book for readers who look for likable or sympathetic characters.
The second man, one Jacobus Coetzee, an 18th Century Dutch inhabitant of South Africa, goes on an elephant hunt and meets a group of Hottentots, the outcome being, perhaps predictably, violent.
J.M. Coetzee is not afraid to depict humans at their worst. This is not a book for readers who look for likable or sympathetic characters.
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