But I do. I must start off by expressing my intense disliking of the fact that I'm posting twice in one day, but alas, c'est la vie (in true J.M. Coetzee fashion). Now to fulfill this blog's orginal purpose and heartily answer the question:
"What do you think about JM Coetzee's writing style. What about his style is unique? Does that affect the reading of the novel?"
Immediately we notice Coetzee's matter-of-fact writing style. His writing style gives more than adequate information on the characters and their respective traits, the setting and the different incidents of the story. This is also enhanced by his using a third person point of view in the novel. I personally find that this leaves little room for imagination and numbs the desire to continue reading, since very much is laid out for the reader. What did drive me to continue, was the inital anoynymity of the protagonist, until we later discover that he is David Lurie. Coetzee often and effectively uses punctuation to put forth a notion, tone or possibility. The interesting twist to his writing style is his use of French and Latin phrases. I immediately thought of Nabokov's Lolita, where the author very similarily slips french phrases and terms. Since this is only the beginning of the book, it is difficult to fully understand why the author chose to use these phrases, but at this point I can assume the foreign languages are meant to give the protagonist an air of intelligence. Also, there are several allusions to different pieces of literature, including Madame Bovary and Oedipus. For me this makes the reading far more academic, requiring me to do brief research on the allusions I am unfamiliar with.
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There we go folks, I do hope you found that insightful/helpful/not bad enough to induce projectile vomitting.
-D
Nail Biting Factor:- weak to mild (depending on your levels of interest in J.M Coetzee, which really could be anywhere betweeen totally indifferent and stalker-like)
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1 comment:
danny! very good! your comments are very insightful, i tip my hat to you.
However, i have to disagree with you on one point, i think the author leaves quite a bit to the imagination, especially since he's not very descriptive about the setting and about the physical features of the characters, even Lurie's apartment. Usually when I read a book, i like to know the details of the characters appearance so that I can picture him/her in from of me and play the book out in my mind like a movie. This author did not provide that for me so in my mind, Lurie is a bit blurry. thats all....u see?
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