The Obstacles of Otherness: The Uncivilized Other
Another reason why the barbarian girl remains in the subverted position of the other is because as Barbara Eckstein states, “As a man of the 'first world,' [the magistrate] is accustomed to assigning meaning to sentient signs, particularly signs of the (barbarian) 'third world.' He can make presence or absence as he chooses.” (87) It is because the magistrate is unable to ignore the difference of “first world” and “third world” that he places yet another obstacle between himself and the girl. This can been seen particular in the fact that the barbarian girl never receives a name in the narrative, she is only known as “the girl” or “the barbarian girl.” In this way when the magistrate presents her in the narrative he never allows himself, or the reader, to forget that she represents the barbarian Other. In a sense this is a sign of the fact that although he wants to distance himself from the Empire he still wishes to retain the convenient advantages that being a man of the “first-world” provides for him. Naming is something that is strictly reserved for the Empire in this novel, and as Jennifer Wenzel notes, Joll has the power to do this as well. His naming of the girl is comparable to the way in which Joll utilizes his “political power to inscribe “ENEMY” into the flesh of his barbarian victims.” (Wenzel 65-66) Both characters are at once labeling the barbarians as the Other, and succeed in simultaneously erasing their identities as well. This is because, while the magistrate does not physically and violently erase the girl's identity and renames her, he also does not allow her to ever appear in the story with a name of her own, provided by her. Thus, by placing the girl outside of his world and into realm of the “third-world,” she always remains Other to him and to the reader. It is because of this that we are not allowed to see past her otherness in the text and what little of her story we do hear from her lips remains obscured in the distance. The magistrate at once laments that the distance between he and “her torturers...is negligible,” but he is also not willing to give up the power that the Imperial narrative provides. This unwillingness to yield his right to name and assign meaning comes from the magistrate's fear of having to give up what little control he has left over his story. This unwillingness to give up the authority of authorship is suggestive of what Michael Valdez Moses calls the “the fundamental distinction between civilization and barbarism,” which is described as being the as the difference “between the lettered and the unlettered.” (117)Moses argues that this distinction can be seen in the fear the magistrate has of “the arrival of a people who have no use of writing, and therefore have no respect for [it].”(117) Ultimately, what Moses is point to is the magistrate's hypocrisy. He at once wishes to remain in peace with the barbarians, and to avoid cruelty towards them at all cost, but he cannot due away with his prejudices. Early in the novel the magistrate has a discussion with a new officer who will join the town and while the magistrate
shows aversion to the officer's patriotic zeal, he remarks: “Do I really look forward to the triumph of the barbarian way: intellectual torpor, slovenliness, tolerance of disease and death.” (Coetzee 59) The magistrate struggles with trying to see the barbarians as simply human beings that must be respected, and here in this statement it can be seen that he thinks of them as part of the uncivilized Other who is not capable of intellect, that has poor hygiene, and just a general disregard for order and structure. The magistrate is willing to see the barbarians as a people of their own, but he cannot admit to himself that the ruins he has been excavating are a sign of a peoples who have a history of their own, and that unbeknownst to him possess a system of rules and customs. Furthermore, the magistrate insists on explain barbarian behavior in terms of what it means to him to be civilized. As hinted at earlier in the essay the magistrate needs to maintain the structure of what it means to be civilized, and it is because he cannot see beyond his prescribed notions he cannot allow the barbarians fully into the narrative.
shows aversion to the officer's patriotic zeal, he remarks: “Do I really look forward to the triumph of the barbarian way: intellectual torpor, slovenliness, tolerance of disease and death.” (Coetzee 59) The magistrate struggles with trying to see the barbarians as simply human beings that must be respected, and here in this statement it can be seen that he thinks of them as part of the uncivilized Other who is not capable of intellect, that has poor hygiene, and just a general disregard for order and structure. The magistrate is willing to see the barbarians as a people of their own, but he cannot admit to himself that the ruins he has been excavating are a sign of a peoples who have a history of their own, and that unbeknownst to him possess a system of rules and customs. Furthermore, the magistrate insists on explain barbarian behavior in terms of what it means to him to be civilized. As hinted at earlier in the essay the magistrate needs to maintain the structure of what it means to be civilized, and it is because he cannot see beyond his prescribed notions he cannot allow the barbarians fully into the narrative. However, Moses is more concerned with the magistrate's relationship with the Empire, and although he points to the magistrate's relationship with the barbarians and the girl, he does develop it extensively. It is nevertheless, important to point to his insights on the connection between writing and politics. Moses points to the fact that the magistrate's derisive opinion of the barbarians' abilities “makes visible the insidious and indissoluble bonds between writing and politics that so complicates the magistrate's response to the Empire,” but does not remark on the fact that it is also this which complicates his relationship to the barbarians. (118) It is these “indissoluble bonds” that bind the magistrate and hinder him from erasing the boundaries between himself and the supposedly, uncivilized Other. For this reason the magistrate does not find the barbarians as capable of writing their own story. Were the magistrate to give over pen and ink to the barbarians he would be, in his mind, running the risk of having this story of the battle between the barbarian and the Empire go untold. The magistrate contemplates the end of the town and muses that perhaps after the barbarians' arrival they “will wipe their backsides on the town archives...” (Coetzee 165) Despite all the experiences the magistrate has had, he cannot really feel akin to the
barbarians and insists on placing a distance between himself and them. In a sense part of the reason the magistrate does not succeed in coming to a shattering epiphany at the end of the novel is because he stubbornly holds to his binary of the civilized/uncivilized. If the characteristics of being a civilized society do not reside within the ability of its government, and its people, to be compassionate, then they must lie within its ability to read and write. Moses points to the fact that “civilization is marked off from barbarism by writing....[in] Western conception of history.” (117) The magistrate adheres to this idea and doing so reinforces the notions of the Other. The magistrate does not only make general statements on the barbarians dislike for writing, he also claims to see this within the girl. He tells us of her “a fondness for facts...the pragmatic dicta” and that “she dislikes fancy, questions, speculations,” and ends the statement by telling us that they “are an ill-matched couple.” (Coetzee 45) It is through this juxtaposition that we are told that barbarians do not make good storytellers, because they do not appreciate the idea of imagination and dreams, and only value practical facts. The barbarian girl is not only unfit as a woman to take up writing, but also on the grounds of her “third-world” roots, as Moses points out the magistrates sees an inherent hatred, or disrespect for writing in the barbarians, and thus while they should not be subjected to torture, they should also not be subjected to the great pains of having to narrate their own stories. Despite this paranoia that inhabits the magistrate, the novel presents us in the end a man that has changed through the experience of his own pain, and who understands in a way that in trying to rewrite history in the old way will lead him nowhere.
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