This week I read Waiting for the Barbarians and while I found the violence a bit unsettling, I enjoyed the book nevertheless. I am always interested in the way J. M. Coetzee goes about making his character more believably human by putting so much attention into their physicality and sexuality. However, what really caught my eye from the start of this novel was Coetzee's repeated use of the idea of blindness, whether artificial, accidental or metaphorical. In the beginning of the novel the image of blindness we get is that of Colonel Joll and his "two little discs of glass" (Waiting for the Barbarians, pg.1) covering his eyes and the magistrate wondering if he is blind. This image is significant for two reasons. First, it establishes the idea that Colonel Joll has a questionable ability to see things because his eyes are covered, and second it demonstrates the fact that the magistrate and Colonel Joll are from different worlds.
We can see these ideas develop through out the novel. For example, not much further into the chapter a parallel is drawn between the first young prisoner we see and the Magistrate. The magistrate states, "He has probably never seen anything like it before...I mean the eyeglasses. He must think you are a blind man." (Waiting for the Barbarians, pg. 3) On one level this establishes a connection between the young "barbarian" and the magistrate because they both share a certain distance from the Empire and its modernity, which is exactly what Colonel Joll represents. Despite the fact that these are not the words of young prisoner, Joll is being set apart again from the world of the frontier town. There are many soldiers that are stationed there, but no one quite like Colonel Joll. While many soldiers are stationed there they grow accustomed to the ways of the town, Joll does not. Also, we are reminded that Colonel Joll's ability to see is being put into question, that is not his physical ability to see, but his ability to understand, analyze things and view them past the Empire colored lenses he wears. The Magistrate spends much of his time trying to make Colonel Joll and the envoys of the Empire understand that they are going about things the wrong way, but often he finds that they cannot be reasoned with. Their blindness therefore, becomes a handicap to their perception of the situation around them, which will ultimately lead to the erroneous military decision that devastates their armed forces as well as their town. However, it has to be understood that their blindness in no way serves as an excuse for their actions. The fact that Joll and Mandel voluntarily shield themselves against any reasoning or explanations presents the audience with an understanding that they do not wish see things a different way, much in the same way that the Empire wishes to do things its way without yielding to the demands of anybody else. The Magistrate describes Colonel Joll's glasses as "dark shields hiding healthy eyes" (Waiting for the Barbarians, pg.5) putting forth the fact that not only does Joll shield himself from what is truly going on around him, but hiding, much the same way the Magistrate tries to hide from the truth behind their interrogation methods at the beginning of the novel.
The ability to see, to experience things is very important in the novel because really the only person who sees the barbarians is the Magistrate, to everyone else they are only dark shadows in the distance. One cannot understand something that one never sees or experiences and the Empire's blindness to this as embodied by Joll is a comment on this idea. More over it is also a comment on the way the Barbarians become an abstract concept to fear, and the way in which the Empire itself has become an abstract concept beyond the people of the frontier towns who are suppose to be ruled by it.
(EDITED: September 27, 2011 12:29 to be double spaced)
Your bring up some good points with your reading of Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. The meaning of sight and blindness throughout this novel is no doubt neither simple nor single layered-nor can all the meanings be recognized with one or two, or perhaps ten, readings. You bring up some interesting ideas in your comments on the early scene between the Magistrate, Colonel Joll and the young male prisoner - ideas that I had not noticed in my preliminary readings. The connection you make between the prisoner and the Magistrate, by means of their relationship to Joll’s eyeglasses is great. It also seems to foreshadow where the story will take us. I especially like your comment that the eyeglasses bring into question Colonel Joll’s ability to see things; in addition, the fact that he is so proud of his eyeglasses, that he is “one of those” people privileged enough to own such a commodity, brings up another idea that backs up a separate point that you make: The idea that he does not want to see things in a different way is confirmed in his attachment with the glasses. It makes me wonder what the Colonel thinks he will see, or how he will understand his surroundings differently, if he were to remove them, or if he even considers any of that at all. (Most likely not)
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that the Magistrate in the only person to “see” the barbarians, in the sense that “seeing” is involved with understanding and not physical sight. I am not certain that any Barbarians actually exist. In any event, I would have to argue that his “seeing,” or “understanding,” never reaches, nor would that ever be possible anyhow, absoluteness. For him personally, I think he has the ability and desire to see the Barbarians far better than the degree to which this actually happens in the text. Unfortunately, it seems to be too little seeing too late in life. Lastly, your idea of the “abstract concept” leaves me with so many other ideas, unanswered questions and infinite possibilities to ponder. Your idea of the “abstract concept,” as the idea of sight is, multi layered, multi faceted and a fascinating concept all on its own.
Kelley Heinrichs ☺
This is very interesting, Karla! I like your interpretation of Joll's sunglasses as a form of metaphorical blindness to the culture of the barbarians and even humanity. I had a slightly different interpretation, but it is more or less along the same lines. I thought of his sunglasses as lenses through which he sees the world. I gave a quote in my blog about Joll being like an actor looking through a mask. I think the mask/sunglasses are his bias, a metaphor for the delusional way he sees reality through the perspective of the Empire. He thinks of himself as trying to find truth, but he only seeks to prove his preconceptions. In that way, he is indeed blind to the truth, as he would refuse any evidence that might disprove his opinion about the barbarians.
ReplyDeleteFor my Rhetoric of Science class we are reading this book called The Mismeasure of Man, by Stephen Jay Gould, and he tries to show how scientists/sociologist throughout history have used science (like measuring brain size and IQ) as a way to prove the inferiority of certain races (blacks, Asians, etc.) as well as women and lower social classes. Even when they found evidence that would suggest that they were incorrect, they always found ways of interpreting their data to prove what they already thought. We also had to read Nietzsche's “On Truth and Lying in an Extra Moral Sense” this week, and he talks about the idea of how we are always deceiving ourselves, which he calls “dissimulation.” I think all this relates to the idea that you are talking about, blindness. Joll, even when presented with evidence to suggest that the barbarians are of no threat to the Empire, never gives up his conviction that they are dangerous. I guess if he did admit this then the blood on his hands would begin to get to him and he wouldn't be able to sleep. People will tell themselves whatever they need to in order to justify themselves and ease their conscious.
-Holly Batty
Your observation about blindness/ability to see made me think of the scene where the Magistrate takes the lantern and enters the prisoners’ cell. I believe, this is the moment when the Magistrate begins to transform from an ordinary and somewhat passive character into a man who has seen ‘the light’ (hence his heightened sense of ‘moral awareness’ as the novel progresses).
ReplyDeleteSeeing is the first step towards action, if you think about it- you have to see the ‘wrong’ in order to make it ‘right’. The Magistrate, along with everybody else, has never seen the ‘faceless’ enemy- the barbarians, but he has now seen what the Colonel and his men have done to the prisoners, and perhaps, in this new light, he has seen the true barbarians.
With this discovery comes a great responsibility, for now the Magistrate can no longer rely on ‘blindness’ as an excuse not to act. Therefore, he says, he should have never gone to the cells, he should have never seen the ‘evidence’ of the tortures.
Seeing is also understanding, as in, the Magistrate can now ‘see through’ the Colonel (and the Empire). He is no longer to be ‘fooled’ by them, in other words. So, 'seeing' both as in ‘understanding’, and 'seeing' as in ‘witnessing’ is what ultimately causes the Magistrate’s transformation and his fall.