My Thoughts on Disgrace

I found the novel Disgrace by J.M Coetzee to be as a whole very well written and a good read. This novels beginning starting with David Lurie's affair was very interesting and rather fast paced especially witnessing the downfall of this fascinating character. The main problem i had with this book was the noticeable drop in pace after the climax where his daughter gets raped and this caused me to lose interest in the story towards the ending. I found the ending itself to be rather lackluster where nothing is really resolved such as what will become of Lucy Lurie and if she will accept Petrus's offer to marry her. Although this lack of action after the climax may be intentional on the part of the author I did not care for it much as it did not make it an interesting read for me. With regards to winning a noble prize i can understand that because this novel is highly allegorical with numerous references to poets such as Byron and Shakespeare and many of its elements can be analyzed at a deeper level and it is books such as these which are usually considered for awards.. This book also deals with a major issue which is apartheid and this no doubt contributed to it winning awards.

Is William Shakespeare overrated?

In terms of him being one of the masters of the English language and a true literary genius Shakespeare in not overrated. I believe that his mastery of the English language cannot be denied and his plays as well as sonnets such as Julius Caesar and Macbeth contain themes such as desire for political power which are very much applicable today and this is a factor in why Shakespeare is regarded with reverence by many. However, i do not believe that Shakespeare is the be all and end all of the English language and the elevation of Shakespeare to such a high status can cause other poets and playwrights of that period to be overlooked. The emotional and poetic breadth of Shakespeare’s work is great however the idea of Shakespeare being a genius should not be taken for granted and each of his individual works should be studied separately for their literary merit to be assessed.

Sonnet 1

When one’s hands are tied,
Passions skill deficient
When nothing’s left untried
Yet nothing produced sufficient

Attempted flee from mundane
Thirsting for the poetic
but all that’s found is inane
merely fancy rhetoric

What shall become of thee?
Dreamer lacking aptitude
He who seeks but cannot see
All’s needed, a slack attitude

Lofty concepts not permitted
Write whatever can be fitted

Sonnets

Sonnets have been an important form of poetry for hundreds of years and although have decreased in popularity they are still recognized today. I find there structure appealing and well organized and with regards to people finding them too limited I think being able to fit a poem's ideas and concepts into a given structure takes more skill than simply writing a poem free-verse.

Intro

I never would have thought i would have my own blog with me not caring much for the concept however if you must, you must and i must for english class. I still sense it is just some sort of experiment.

The First Line

The book disgrace opens with the line "For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well." This line is a very significant one and is the readers first glimps into the thinking of the principal character David Lurie with regards to sex which is a mjor theme in this novel. Further reading of the novel helps the reader understand why the character would make this statement, because he is shown to be a womanizer with a history of bad relations. He is twice divorced and admits to even having no problem with sleeping with his colleagues'wives and he eventually has an affair with a student. The reader can interpret that David Lurie's problem with sex is that it generally involves a woman which to his mind brings many emotional complications and unwanted passions and his distaste for this is seen in his desire to be left alone after sex and not be bothered. The context of this quote is when he is visiting a prostitute so for him the solution to sex is for it to occur weekly for 90 minutes and involve as little emotion as possible, being purely business, although he begrudgingly does end up feeling affection which is not reciprocated. His feelings for the prostitute Soraya show that he is unsuccesful in achieving his goal of sex free from emotions and these feelings eventually chase Soraya away from him in search of less attached clientelle perhaps.