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🦋 Narrative Layers
I'm in awe:
One morning... John appeared at the front door. 'I won't stay,' he said, 'but I thought you might like this.' He was holding a book. On the cover: Dusklands, by J M Coetzee.I was completely taken aback. 'You wrote this?' I said. ...
'I didn't know your father was a historian,' I remarked the next time we met. I was referring to the preface to his book, in which the author, the writer, this man in front of me, claimed that his father, the little man who went off every morning to his bookkeeping job in the city, was also an historian who haunted the archives and turned up old documents.
'You mean the preface?' he said. 'Oh, that's all made up.'
So J.M. Coetzee is writing a story with a fictional character named J.M. Coetzee who writes a book with a fictional character named Coetzee -- which book was also coincidentally written by the primary Coetzee...I have got to read Dusklands now...
posted afternoon of Sunday, February 21st, 2010
➳ More posts about Summertime
➳ More posts about J.M. Coetzee
➳ More posts about Readings
Jeremy, I haven't read Summertime but I'm enjoying your 'spoilers.' I'm surprised that in his early novel Coetzee already had a streak of this blurring of authorship. And that he is not beyond subtly advertising his work. Dusklands is a fascinating diptych with a curious structure and a puzzling plot.
posted evening of February 21st, 2010 by rise
Yeah, this bit is about the most effective advertisement I've ever read...
I just love the "Oh, that's all made up" -- because I kept thinking during Diary, Is this something that really happened in his life, is this a fictionalized memoir or something else (and of course as Julia asks JC at one point, how do the people in his life feel about being used as characters) -- and this stroke pushes me pretty hard toward the "something else" option and coming up with possibilities for what that s.e. might be.
posted evening of February 21st, 2010 by Jeremy
..and I cant wait for the spanish edition of Summertime! Dusklands was the book I was telling you the other day. Very interesting read!
posted afternoon of February 22nd, 2010 by Jorge Lopez
i love this kind of thing. will have to check out the book in question.
posted afternoon of February 23rd, 2010 by cleek
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