Overall, when I read/try to analyze books for school, I end up looking at the finer details, rather than the big picture. This happened to me earlier with Life and Times of Michael K, when we discussed how Part One was narrated in 3rd person, but almost had the verisimilitude of how Michael would narrate. That kind of went over my head until I took a step back and thought, "Oh yeah, now I see it." That happened again this week, and it really opened my eyes to a new aspect of the book. Mr. Allen pointed out the hints symbolizing Michael K as a god of some sort; how he had escaped the system of horror and warfare in South Africa. One particular instance was when Michael quoted the Burning Bush, alluding to God and the Bible.
A part of this insight connects to a belief I toyed with once about God, before I figured out that it's just better to leave it alone. For some time, I didn't really understand how there could be a God when there was still so much strife, pain and horror in the world. So in my mind I made up a theory that He created the world originally and put everything in it's place, and then just left, got sort of shut out. That was why all the bad things happened in the world: God was watching, chilling around the edges of reality, but for some reason, He couldn't help us; he'd just watch us mess everything up ourselves. This belief coincides with Michael, because he was very detached from the world and nothing really effected him directly. Yet he still inspired "religious" experiences in some of those around him (the doctor).
This insight let me discover another layer of the novel, which I originally thought to be much sparser. Coetzee really put in a lot of deeper meaning in his work, with supreme attention to detail. Seeing this really made me appreciate the novel much more. although I still don't absolutely love it. But I think that the depth and discussion we have inflicted upon it will definitely help me think more about the different layers of other novels that I read in the future.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment