Coetzee: Brilliant Language, Odd Subject Matter

This is possibly one of the strangest pieces of writing that I have ever read, and I don't simply mean strange in the sense that Waiting for the Barbarians discusses some...odd...subject matter. Scrutinizing Coetzee's work yields the presence of some very unique stylistic approaches. The most manifest of these approaches is his use of the present tense to tell the reader the tale of the Magistrate--we, as the readers, become a part of the Magistrate. We become lost in his thoughts; we indulge in his senses. Coetzee's deliberate employment of the present tense not only lures the reader into each scene but also gives the novel a sense of immortality, of endlessness.

Furthermore, I must concede that I am fascinated with--and slightly baffled by--Coetzee's simple yet complex, contradictory yet perfectly lucid stream of consciousness. Namely, I speak of his interactions with the barbarian girl. Perhaps the most compelling and puzzling of his thoughts concerning her is this:

"The girl lies in my bed, but there is no reason that it should be called a bed. I behave in some ways like a lover--I undress her, I bathe her, I stroke her, I sleep beside her--but I might equally well tie her to a chair and beat her, it would be no less intimate."

It is in these contradictions that I become oddly enticed to read further.

I feel I must comment on another of these contradictions--one that I believe may be one of the most thought-provoking I have read thus far in Waiting for the Barbarians:

"Desire seemed to bring with it a pathos of distance and separation which it was futile to deny."

After having noted such captivating phrasing and careful positioning of themes and motifs, I have come to notice a trend of Coetzee's: he seems to juxtapose contrary ideas and subject matter--such as the concept of desire and its infallible resulting in separation. He also intermingles the contradicting threads describing the blindness of the barbarian girl with the graphic, visually-stimulating language used to describe the Magistrate's physical relations with the girl.

Overall, my first impression of Waiting for the Barbarian was a skeptical one. Yet as I continued reading, I found myself genuinely intrigued by the mystique surrounding the Magistrate's intentions, the barbarian girl's desires, and where their relationship would go. Also, I must admit that of all the works we have read thus far in the year, Coetzee's use of language and stylistic structure has been by far the most compelling.