http://cbmurphy.net/writing/essays/does-god-read-j-m-coetzee Rogue Anthropologist, Author & Artist Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:57:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://cbmurphy.net/writing/essays/does-god-read-j-m-coetzee/comment-page-1#comment-73 Robert Ragir Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:54:29 +0000 http://cbmurphy.net/?p=225#comment-73 I like Roth, Ford and Coetzee too. I find your commentary interesting. For me Coetzee especially represents the sense of deplacement that many older white males feel nowadays. Me for one anyway. The fall from power and privilege of the white South African is hard to imagine because it is such a big fall. I feel closer with the old white Communists in the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries--perhaps a Russian man in Estonia, for example. At the University of Wisconsin in the sixties the history faculty were mostly marxist and I would say I spent about half of college studying marxism. You can imagine how useless I feel now. Fallen from power or privilege or just out of favor such like the complaining old American Jew in Roth's Everyman. I liked that one. The only Richard Ford I read was called Women with men, three stories, one taking place in Paris and suburban Chicago. I couldn't put that one down. All three of these guys are testy old farts, grumpy male chauvinists and merit being disliked by many. I am so much fascinated by Coatzee that I read Boyhood which was really a masterpiece! I felt embarrassed to buy it. I wanted to understand his displacement better. I collected stamps as a boy. Boyhood by nature is outdated. That empty or unrequited feeling, the sense that most of what you have done in life is for naught and leads to nothing is touched on by all three of these authors. Perhaps their books merit a spot on the shelf and the range to bitch and complain to future human beings. perhaps that is meaningless. But is at least purposeful. I like Roth, Ford and Coetzee too. I find your commentary interesting.
For me Coetzee especially represents the sense of deplacement that many older white males feel nowadays. Me for one anyway. The fall from power and privilege of the white South African is hard to imagine because it is such a big fall. I feel closer with the old white Communists in the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries–perhaps a Russian man in Estonia, for example. At the University of Wisconsin in the sixties the history faculty were mostly marxist and I would say I spent about half of college studying marxism. You can imagine how useless I feel now. Fallen from power or privilege or just out of favor such like the complaining
old American Jew in Roth’s Everyman. I liked that one.
The only Richard Ford I read was called Women with men, three stories, one taking place in Paris and suburban Chicago. I couldn’t put that one down. All three of these guys are testy old farts, grumpy male chauvinists and merit being disliked by many. I am so much fascinated by Coatzee that I read Boyhood which was really a masterpiece! I felt embarrassed to buy it. I wanted to understand his displacement better. I collected stamps as a boy. Boyhood by nature is outdated.
That empty or unrequited feeling, the sense that most of what you have done in life is for naught and leads to nothing is touched on by all three of these authors.
Perhaps their books merit a spot on the shelf and the range to bitch and complain to future human beings. perhaps that is meaningless. But is at least purposeful.

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