by J.M. Coetzee
Coetzee’s novels are always so sad, even hopeless. “Waiting for the Barbarians” describes, despite of having a story, just a situation – a state of mind. I think only in the second place it counts the fate of the Magistrate. The Magistrate is in charge of a remote outpost of the Empire. The reader does not get to know, which Empire it is, nor what time in history it is.
The Magistrate acts foremost all as judge, keeps everything in its traditional balance, and pursues his leisure activities, like hunting and excavating sites of the local people who lever there before the Empire arrived. His life gets out of balance when Coronel Joll of the Third Bureau arrives. The Third Bureau is in charge of the Empire’s security and started a campaign against the barbarians at the Empire’s frontier. The Coronel thinks that only after thorough torture people will tell the truth. He exercises that at some captivated, defenseless nomads — the barbarians. The Magistrate is an old-fashioned gentleman of a good family, and cannot bear with this injustice. His resistance starts subtle, but deepens as the novel advances. The Empire creates its own enemies. Which side should he take? He represents the Empire but disapproves torture. You can watch a perverted system; the issue has gotten topical in the light of the modern war in Iraq and its debatable practices to get information out of those “barbarians”.
The barbarians never show up, but the life in this outpost gets unbearable. An interesting point is that only the two tortures have names.
The Magistrate acts foremost all as judge, keeps everything in its traditional balance, and pursues his leisure activities, like hunting and excavating sites of the local people who lever there before the Empire arrived. His life gets out of balance when Coronel Joll of the Third Bureau arrives. The Third Bureau is in charge of the Empire’s security and started a campaign against the barbarians at the Empire’s frontier. The Coronel thinks that only after thorough torture people will tell the truth. He exercises that at some captivated, defenseless nomads — the barbarians. The Magistrate is an old-fashioned gentleman of a good family, and cannot bear with this injustice. His resistance starts subtle, but deepens as the novel advances. The Empire creates its own enemies. Which side should he take? He represents the Empire but disapproves torture. You can watch a perverted system; the issue has gotten topical in the light of the modern war in Iraq and its debatable practices to get information out of those “barbarians”.
The barbarians never show up, but the life in this outpost gets unbearable. An interesting point is that only the two tortures have names.
Facts:
English title: Waiting for the Barbarians
Original title: Waiting for the Barbarians
Published: 1980
