<Disgrace>, but never without the hope of salvation

Disgrace (Paperback)
존 쿳시 지음 / Penguin U.S / 2000년 11월

From the first moment picking up this book, I found it contained something inexplicable between the lines. You know the complexity of this book is disparaged with the simplicity of the synopsis at the back cover. Simply put, as a guy at my book club meeting said this book seemed to elongate a story short enough for 10 minute talk to huge and painstakingly long story of some 220 pages. I agree to that person in a way but it doesn't mean this book doesn't have anything to buy. Nevertheless, I still believe the profound meaning and complexity have this book worth reading once or twice.

Perhaps it is really simple to judge David Lurie as a middle-aged, secular westerner who found ‘Sex’ as a problem of his life and suffered severely from his womanizing instinct, who've been raised naturally by the women of his personal history. However, it is hard to sum up the geopolitical and religious meanings of his suffering, humility and disgrace leading him to a start-over.

Maybe you’re going to query what I mean with this word ‘religious’, because Lurie seemed not to have to do with any kind of religion in his life. Far from the geopolitical apparition of Afrikaaners in South Africa in Lurie’s vivid life story, his life didn’t seem to have any crossline with anything religious. Perhaps, he could’ve attended a church in youth, but his latest life didn’t make any kind of junction with religious course. Actually the reason why this ‘religious’ idea popped up in my brain while I was in my book club meeting was that, foolishly, the names like Lurie and Isaacs mislead me to remind of some Jewish origin of those names. As a matter of fact, Lurie is a quite popular family name among Jews. I was not prejudiced enough to consider the author's name Coetzee had any sort of Jewish stuff when I went through lots of chapters of ‘Disgrace’, but still had an idea that this book may have some similarity in its plotting with the stories of the Bilble.

Actually I found a stereotypical plot easily found in any stories of The Bible - sin, perdition, disgrace or punishment, any form of changes in life (Actually we call it repentance, but I’m not sure it goes the same way in the plot of this book, ‘Disgrace’, but anyway it contains somewhat similar meaning) and salvation.

Lurie was full of ‘secret pride’ which couldn’t be thrown away. He didn’t care other people’s judgment on his affair with young and attracting student named Melanie. His intention was only on nourishing his own desire of flesh. Simple is that. The hearing at the disciplinary committee was, therefore, nothing to a stubborn man with ‘secret pride’who simply ignored his folk’s demand to take what he was told to do at the disciplinary committee. However, this incident was nothing but a direct way to his own perdition which led him to the small holding of Lucy, his daughter, in the rural area. There was the real disgrace of his life awaiting him. 

Attack and rape of his daughter…  And he was assaulted and burned partially by natives around the area. His daughter accepted what seemed outrageous enough that did't cease to irritate readers' mind, not biding for the help from the police power of the city but accepting so called protection which had the real meaning of which her own right on the small holdings was to be a mistress to and taken over by the powerful tribal figure, Petrus, who had been considered as one of inferiors in the good old days. However, Lurie's life changed after that incident, which could be called disgrace or punishment as whatever you like, and eventually the story reached the start-over of his life, even though it was not like his former one.

Maybe you see the point here. Considering Lurie is a kind of apparition of Afrikaaners, we can see the stereotypical plot of The Bible - sin, disgrace, regret or repentance and salvation (new start).  And one thing more : The irritating nature of this book has abundant precedences in the books of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, etc. Summing up these two points, in my opinion, this book could be interpreted from the perspective of the prophetic writings of The Bible.

I know it would sound funny. But I suppose you may not find it weird anymore when we consider that prophets were people who should tell the inconvenient truth - inconvenient enough to provoke the others to hate them and to the extent that the others want to take their lives. From The Bible, you can find lots of examples like this book's story. If you can’t find them irritating you, it’s because you are alienating yourself from the audiences of the prophets in respect of time disparagement and ethnic differences. Normal folks in the biblical age were vexed and bugged by the prophets constantly. Maybe Socreates could be considered as one of the people who acted like prophets even though he was a Greek and not bearing even a drop of Jewish blood in his vein. You remember Socrates mentioned himself as a fly of Athens to wake up people who fell asleep into ignorance. ‘Disgrace’ provokes people who read it, when we think of the plot, no matter what Coetzee really intended to do with this book.

On the new start or salvation of South Africa, I need to explain one thing I remember from the last book club meeting. We need to focus on the point that Lurie was working on an opera on Byron’s life in Italy, even though it was not obvious whether he could finish it up. I guess this means the desire and aspiration,  for fame, of Afrikaaners and of South Africa as a ethnically mingled state. Recently, South Africa is getting more light from its economical and political improvements achieved in the last decade, after South Africaturned down the old transgressions, like apartheid, as Lurie killed the crippled dog. Maybe that was the moment of humility when his ‘secretive pride’ faded away but also the moment of salvation for Lurie to have a chance to start all over again.

One thing more to think about... Maybe somebody may ask on what quality Melanie was so different from other women in his former life, even she made it possible to ruin his life with a mere fling.

I think she was not that different from the other women. Maybe it was just timing or  natural course to undo his reputation like an implementation by the author to make story flow. As we know Lurie was nothing but the avartar of desire for flesh. This desire can be substituted by instinct to conquer and dominate when Lurie is a representative of Afrikaaners or westerners of the good old days. His desire and life were already combined as a sequel of iniquities and simply he didn’t understand and care for the ethical meaning of his life. From this view point, the incident with Melanie was just the continuation of his desire-driven life and some kind of passage to Lurie's disgrace. Anyway, as you well know, South Africa was condemned by the international society for apartheid and Lurie, a secretly proud representative of Afikaaners, was standing at the hearing and didn't care much about whatsoever other people concerned, just like South Africa didn’t care for its own reputation of the world. On that account, the same were they. Thus I suppose disgrace is not always something about humiliation. Someone, who goes through disgrace and have a trouble big-time, could have a chance to grasp a hope in his hand, even just a little bit of it, which means that a fresh new start and the chance for redemption exist always on the flipside like Janus has angry face on the one side but smily face on the other side.