J. M. Coetzee
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Literary Arts

J. M. Coetzee

Past Event: Sunday, March 3, 2002

At Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

Sponsored by University Book Store.

John Michael Coetzee was born in South Africa in 1940, the son of an attorney and a school teacher. He grew up outside of Worcester, living a provincial life. He attended the University of Cape Town where he received degrees in mathematics and English, and thereafter he moved to London where he worked as a computer programmer. In 1965 he left London for the United States, where he studied for a Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. He eventually returned to South Africa in 1971, after spending three years teaching at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Living in the U.S. during the turbulent 1960s inspired the novella “The Vietnam Project,” which follows a protagonist who is working on a propoganda project to destroy the country of Vietnam. This novella appeared in his first book, Dusklands (1974).

In the books that followed, Coetzee started to set his novels in geographical and political situations that implied South Africa, as he wanted to create geographical anonymity and avoid being labeled a “political writer.” Indeed, the exposed protagonist in an unspecified landscape is a structure Coetzee utilizes in most of his fiction. Writing in The New Republic, Caryl Phillips explained that Coetzee’s writing never collapses into “clumsy antinomies” of black and white, left and right, revolutionary and reactionary, or any other oppositions that “threaten to reduce the complexity of life to easily adhesive slogans.” In fact, he addresses the most sensitive of political issues without asserting a political agenda of his own.

Coetzee went on to win the Booker Prize twice, for Life & Times of Michael K and most recently for his 1999 novel, Disgrace. After the publication of DisgraceThe Sunday Times wrote, “This is a harsh story, told in a prose of spare, steely beauty and with an intelligent potency that makes it as exhilarating as it is grim.” It is an account of a man’s midlife crisis that turns into a starkly honest and compelling examination of his relationship with his daughter, contemporary South Africa, and, ultimately, human dignity and love.

Coetzee received the Lannan Literary Award for fiction in 1998. He is a professor of general literature at the University of Cape Town.

Excerpt from Disgrace (1999)
The two young sheep are tethered all day beside the stable on a bare patch of ground. Their bleating, steady and monotonous, has begun to annoy him. He strolls over to Petrus, who has his bicycle upside down and is working on it. ‘Those sheep,’ he says – ‘don’t you think we could tie them where they can graze?’

‘They are for the party,’ says Petrus. ‘On Saturday I will slaughter them for the party. You and Lucy must come.’ He wipes his hands clean. ‘I invite you and Lucy to the party.’

‘On Saturday?’

‘Yes, I am giving a party on Saturday. A big party.’

‘Thank you. But even if the sheep are for the party, don’t you think they could graze?’

An hour later the sheep are still tethered, still bleating dolefully. Petrus is nowhere to be seen. Exasperated, he unties them and tugs them over to the damside, where there is abundant grass.

The sheep drink at length, then leisurely begin to graze. They are black-faced Persians, alike in size, in markings, even in their movements. Twins, in all likelihood, destined since birth for the butcher’s knife. Well, nothing remarkable in that. When did a sheep last die of old age? Sheep do not own themselves, do not own their lives. They exist to be used, every last ounce of them, their flesh to be eaten, their bones to be crushed and fed to poultry. Nothing escapes, except perhaps the gall bladder, which no one will eat. Descartes should have thought of that. The soul, suspended in the dark, bitter gall, hiding.

‘Petrus has invited us to a party,’ he tells Lucy. ‘Why is he throwing a party?’

‘Because of the land transfer, I would guess. It goes through officially on the first of next month. It’s a big day for him. We should at least put in an appearance, take them a present.’

‘He is going to slaughter the two sheep. I wouldn’t have thought two sheep would go very far.’

‘Petrus is a pennypincher. In the old days it would have been an ox.’

‘I’m not sure I like the way he does things – bringing the slaughter-beasts home to acquaint them with the people who are going to eat them.’

‘What would you prefer? That the slaughtering be done in an abattoir, so that you needn’t think about it?

‘Yes.’

‘Wake up, David. This is the country. This is Africa.’

Selected WorkFictionDisgrace (1999)The Master of Petersburg (1994)Age of Iron (1990)Foe (1986)Life and Times of Michael K. (1983)Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)In the Heart of the Country: A Novel (1977)Dusklands (1974)

Non-fictionBoyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1998) Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996)Doubling the Point : Essays and Interviews (1992)White Writing: On the Culture of Letters (1988)

LinksReview of Disgrace on Salon.comArticle on Coetzee’s 2nd BookerFeatured author on New York Times web siteBook reviews written by Coetzee on The New York Review of Books’ web site

Event Details

Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium

200 University Street
Seattle, WA 98101

View directions.

Transportation & Parking

This event will be held in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, the largest event space at Benaroya Hall. 

Benaroya Hall is located at 200 University Street, directly across Second Avenue from the Seattle Art Museum.

By Car

  • From Southbound I-5
    Take the Union Street exit (#165B). Continue onto Union Street and proceed approximately five blocks to Second Avenue. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound I-5
    Exit left onto Seneca Street (exit #165). Proceed two blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.
  • From Northbound I-5 via Westbound I-90
    Take the 2C exit for I-5 North. Follow signs for Madison Street/Convention Place and merge right onto Seventh Avenue. Turn left onto Madison Street. Proceed three blocks and turn right onto Fourth Avenue. Continue four blocks. Turn left onto Union Street. Continue two blocks. Turn left onto Second Avenue. The Benaroya Hall parking garage will be on your immediate left. The garage entrance is on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street.

By Public Transit (Bus & Light Rail)

Benaroya Hall is served by numerous bus routes. Digital reader boards along Third Avenue display real-time bus arrival information. For details and trip planning tools, call Metro Rider Information at 206.553.3000 (voice) or 206.684.1739 (TDD), or visit Metro online. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, served by light rail, has a stop just below the Hall (Symphony Station).

Parking

The 430-car underground garage at Benaroya Hall provides direct access from the enclosed parking area into the Hall via elevators leading to The Boeing Company Gallery. Enter the garage on Second Avenue, just south of Union Street. Maximum vehicle height is 6’8″. ChargePoint charging stations are available for electric vehicles. Visit the Benaroya Hall website for event pricing.

Parking is also available at:

  • The Cobb Building (enter on University Street between Third and Fourth avenues).
  • The Russell Investments Center (enter on Union Street between First and Second avenues).
  • There are many other garages within a one-block radius of Benaroya Hall, along with numerous on-street parking options.

Accessibility

Open Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where a captioning screen displaying the words that are spoken or sung is placed on stage. This option is present at every event at Benaroya Hall in our 2021/22 Season.

Closed Captioning is an option for people who have hearing loss, where captioning displays the words that are spoken or sung at the bottom of the video during an online event. Captioning is available for all online events; click the “CC” button to view captions during the event.

Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) are devices that people with hearing loss use in conjunction with their hearing device (hearing aids or cochlear implants). Benaroya Hall has an infrared hearing system, which transmits sound by light beams. Headsets are available in The Boeing Company Gallery coat check and the Head Usher stations in both lobbies.

Sign Language Interpretation is available upon request for Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing individuals for both in-person and online events. To make a request for interpretation, please contact us at boxoffice@lectures.org or 206.621.2230×10, or select “Sign Language Interpretation” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process and we will contact you to confirm details. Please note: we appreciate a two-week advance notice to allow us time to secure interpretation.

Wheelchair Accessible Seating and Accessible Restrooms are available in all sections at our venues, and our venues are fully accessible to ticket holders with physical mobility concerns. Among other features, Benaroya Hall has designated parking spaces adjacent to elevators in their parking garage. Elevators with Braille signage go to all levels within the Hall. To reserve seating for a specific mobility concern, you may select “Wheelchair Accessible or Alternative Seating Options” during ticket checkout, and we will contact you to confirm details. For more details on their accessibility features, click here.

Guide and service dogs are welcome.

Gender neutral restrooms are available.

We are pleased to offer these accessibility services at our venues, and they are provided at no additional cost to ticket holders. Please contact us with any questions and feedback about how we can be more accessible and inclusive. Our Patron Services Manager is available at boxoffice@lectures.org, or Tuesday-Friday, from 12 noon–5 p.m., at 206.621.2230×10.

For more accessibility information, please head to lectures.org/accessibility. If you would like to make accessibility arrangements you do not see listed here, please contact our box office or select “Other Accommodations” from the Accessibility section during your ticket checkout process, and we will contact you to confirm details.