[0:02]Hello, how are you? This is Heena from Team Valet and today's novel of discussion is Disgrace. Disgrace is an effective novel which talks about unprincipled or unchecked human nature and how it causes destruction. Yes? Let's move on who has written Disgrace? Yes, it is our Nobel laureate Mr. J M Coetzee. Look at Mr. Coetzee on the screen. So let's begin. The name of the novel is Disgrace, which won the Booker prize in the year 1999. And coincidentally, it was published also in the same year, 1999. Author as I told you is J M Coetzee, born in 1940 in South Africa, he lives in Australia. The genre of this novel is realism and contemporary fiction. Setting is different places in South Africa in the year 1998. Narrator is third-person limited, not omniscient. Omniscient means someone who has complete knowledge of what's going on inside character's minds. Limited means not having complete knowledge. And what does Disgrace deal with? It deals with two important points. First, post-apartheid South Africa, when the discrimination with the blacks ended. They could vote, and after this, the country's racial dynamics, they continued to remain tense. Because the whites minority began to fear the black retribution. The blacks, they were suppressed for so many years and now they were free. So how will the atmosphere be? Heated, of course, right? They were the victims till now, so now will they be the one who will make the whites victim? We'll come to know. And also Disgrace deals with sexual politics. Here is where I was telling you unguided human instincts. When you do not guide or when you do not control your instincts, it leads to destruction. This is sexual politics, which we will talk about. Let's begin with Disgrace. David Lurie is a fifty-two-year-old, twice divorced professor in Cape Town, South Africa. Initially, a professor of Romanticism, he now works as an adjunct professor of Communications. Result- he is unhappy with his career. So basically, he is twice divorced, he is 52-year-old and he initially used to teach Romantics. Even now, he has been given one class of romantic, but otherwise he works as a supplementary teacher, that is an extra teacher of communications. Which makes him quite unhappy with his profession, but don't you worry, this David Lurie, the most complicated character and the protagonist of Disgrace, has other ways of attaining satisfaction. And how is that? His weekly, his weekly rendezvous with a young, black prostitute named Soraya. Soraya, every Thursday evening, he will go to visit Soraya and do the act and feel happy, relieved and emotionally complete. Oh God. Now because of all this, David has developed a fondness for Soraya, about whom he knows very little. Whereas he reveals his life often to her. Do you understand the power dynamics here? David thinks he is controlling Soraya, he is paying her, so he's the master, okay, in bed. Otherwise, but he, you know, tells everything to Soraya. He knows nothing about Soraya. So who is controlling whom? That is the confusion, the sexual dynamics. Let's move on. Coetzee writes for David. Quote, "It surprises him that ninety minutes a week of a woman's company are enough to make him happy, who used to think he needed a wife, a home, a marriage. His needs turn out to be quite light and fleeting, like those of a butterfly. Understood? So he's happy with this ninety minute meeting with the prostitute Soraya. And he's done for the week. Once in a market, what happens by chance, David stumbles upon Soraya. And there, Soraya is accompanied by two young sons- a fact unknown to David. And because of this by chance meeting, the change in their relationship happens. Something strange enters Soraya's mind, she cannot face him. After he comes to know that she's the mother of two sons and after this, Soraya leaves the brothel and goes away. What will happen? Tell me. Of course, David is utterly disturbed. He tries to contact her, but in vain. Takes out her phone number, but she yells at him. Says do not try to contact me, be away from me and that is the end of David Soraya chapter. Another chapter will start. Now, David thinks about his past, thinks about his young days when he was charming. Once a handsome young boy who was desired by girls, David's now feels that he has become a ghost/ invisible. Nobody looks at him, everybody walks past by him. See come on. That is how life is, right? The old has to go down to bring the new. That is the rule nature has given us. We have to accept it. The new blossoms, the old withers, yes. But now he cannot accept that he's become a ghost or invisible to people around. Here the theme of time and change is discussed. Now result, you know, because of this, because of old age, what does he do? What does David do? Listen to the lines by Coetzee. He had affairs with the wives of colleagues. He picked up tourists in bars on the waterfront or at the Club Italia. He slept with whores. Considering the fact that David sees 'promiscuity as a way of recapturing his youth'. Multiple affairs will keep him alive, being sexually active will keep him young, that is what he thinks. Now, after Soraya leaves, David sets his eyes on another girl. The name of this girl is Melanie Isaacs, a twenty-year-old student in his college class. She's cute, she has her own thought process, she is smart. Now, using his authority over her, David invites Melanie to his apartment one night or one evening for wine and dinner. She accepts it, but reluctantly. Post dinner, David to Melanie, lines from the novel, "Stay. Spend the night with me." Melanie asks, "Why?" David, "Because a woman's beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it." What an innuendo! Melanie leaves, okay, nothing happens. But a lot will happen, you will know. Shortly after this, David takes Melanie to lunch, and then to his apartment again, where he makes love to her for the first time not on the bed, not on the couch, but on the floor. Without consent of Melanie. Melanie comes with him, but there's no consent of Melanie to make love with David. Here theme of power and authority is discussed. After this Melanie stops attending David's classes, but nonetheless, David marks her present. There is a time when David even gives her a good percentage of marks in exam. One evening, you know, after after few evenings, David arrives at Melanie's house. And he starts kissing her. He leads her to the bedroom, where they have sex again. This time also Melanie tells him that please don't do it. My roommate will come soon, but then it happens. Coetzee writes here, this is a very important line. Not rape, not quite that, but undesired to the core. As though she (Melanie) had decided to go slack, die within herself for the duration, like a rabbit when the jaws of the fox close on its neck. Here the theme of sexual harassment versus rape, what happened to Melanie is not rape, okay? She was not forced, okay? David is not forcing him into her. This is a case of sexual harassment. David used his authority, his power to seduce her, to somehow just manipulate her. And this is an example of sexual harassment or exploitation. They make love one final time. This time, Melanie comes to him, can you imagine? She comes to him at his doorstep and says, can I spend the night with you? This makes Melanie a very complicated character, I feel. But by this time, she feels completely disturbed and she decides to drop out of college. Then what happens? Ryan, a new character, Ryan, who claims to be Melanie's boyfriend, comes to threaten David and also vandalize or destroys his car. Soon after this, with her father's help, Mr. Isaac's help, Melanie files a case of sexual harassment against David. So one day David gets this post by mail that, you know, a case has been filed against you. And after this, David is sitting in front of a disciplinary, disciplinary committee. Okay, basically, these people who will question him about all the wrongs that he has done with Melanie. Okay, what happens? Listen to this meeting. At the meeting, David refuses to listen to the allegations against him. In his pride and vanity, he simply accepts his guilt. He does not want to discuss anything what he has done with Melanie. So here a character called as Farodia Rassoul, she is the chair of the university's "committee on discrimination". She doesn't like this David's ingenuine regret. She feels that David is not regretful, he's just saying that come on, let's be done with it, let's be over with it, let's continue with our life. So David says at this point, "Very well, I took advantage of my position vis-a-vis Miss Isaacs. It was wrong and I regret it. Is that good enough for you?" To this Farodia says, "The question is not whether it is good enough for me, Professor Lurie. The question is whether it is good enough for you. Does it reflect your sincere feelings?" Here the theme of shame, remorse and vanity is discussed. Did you understand? He's like get over with it, what I did with Miss Isaac, yes, it was wrong, don't talk about it, don't talk about it. You know, later in his, in this novel, David says that I just followed my natural instinct. It was my natural instinct, there is a beautiful girl, I wanted the flower to happen, I wanted our relationship to blossom. Don't you think all that is crap what he says? Let's move on. Let's come back to this meeting of disciplinary committee with David. The disciplinary committee hints that David might be able to keep his job if he undergoes counseling. If he just writes in written that, you know, this is the mistake that I have committed, I will undergo counseling, he might get to keep his job. But David refuses by saying, "I am a grown man. I am beyond the reach of counseling." Counseling will not help me, I am the way I am. That is shameful. Like this David resigns from the university in disgrace. That is how the novel gets its title, Disgrace. This takes us to the next section of the novel, which is David goes to his only daughter, Lucy. So David has married twice, one of the name of the wife is Rosalind, so one wife's name is Rosalind, that is the second wife. And David also has a daughter named Lucy. Let's talk about Lucy, David's daughter. Lucy is in her twenties. She lives alone in a dingy or a shabby farmhouse in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Now, when the father comes to his daughter, Lucy is willing to give her father the support or the refuge he needs in order to rebuild his life. She does not press David for details about Melanie's case and his resignation. She accepts his her father. She says, you can stay here for as long as you want. Lucy, what does she do for her living? She earns her living by selling flowers and also the produce from the farm and also she kennels or shelters dogs with the help of her assistant Petrus. So Petrus is a black, who lives in the same land, on the same land as Lucy. He lives there with his family, but Petrus has that, you know it, right? Of course, because of years of suppression, the blacks now rightfully think, you know, this is the post-apartheid period. They rightfully think that this land where this white lady is, this was my land. She took it by cheat, she took it by domination, they colonized us. Yes. So Petrus is that kind of dark character in the novel. He wants to take away Lucy's land which he thinks is his, okay. So right now, currently, he works as an assistant to Lucy, okay, and he has even taken a big patch of land from her on lease. Slowly, slowly he will increase his power, you will see in the novel if you read it, I'm also telling you. So as I told you, Petrus lives with his family on the same stretch of land as Lucy's. To utilize David's time, because he is free here, he has nothing to do. Lucy suggests that David should volunteer at the nearby animal clinic, animal welfare clinic, which is run by her friend Bev Shaw. A new character enters here, Bev Shaw. Bev Shaw lives near to the farm of Lucy. She is running an animal welfare clinic. She is described as a beautifully kind person. She's not attractive physically, but she is beautifully kind in her heart, okay? Along with running a welfare clinic for animals, she also does a job, which is very difficult. She euthanizes old, unwanted dogs. Euthanize, you know, is mercy killing, right? So she kills dogs who have become old, who, you know, are suffering a lot. Who want to end their life, you know, they decide that this dog is as good as dead and they euthanize that dog. This is Bev Shaw's job. Understood?
[18:11]And along with all this, David also begins, David agrees but he is reluctant, okay? He's like don't expect me to change after I volunteer in a welfare clinic, okay? I am the same person I am. But nonetheless, he agrees and he begins to work with Bev Shaw. He also begins to work on his next work, which is an opera about last years of the poet Byron's life, marked by affairs and scandals. Here you will find that he somehow connects Byron's life with his own. And let me tell you this opera never finishes. He keeps on boasting about writing an opera from the start of the novel to the end of the novel, but he's never able to complete it. Okay. And after this another, you know, increase in the story is that David starts sleeping with Bev Shaw. He calls Bev Shaw poor, simple, unattractive, and he thinks that he's doing a favor to her by sleeping with her and by being her boyfriend. Listen to the lines from the story. "Let me not forget this day," he tells himself, "lying beside her when they are spent. After the sweet young flesh of Melanie Isaacs, this is what I have come to. This is what I will have to get used to, this and even less than this." Now, another very, very important, heartbreaking thing coming in the novel, which is Lucy's rape. Now Petrus usually is always seen in or around the house, okay? One day Petrus just disappears. He's nowhere to be seen on Lucy's farm and Lucy and her father David, they are returning from a walk. You know, they even have the dogs with them. All of a sudden, three black men arrive and bombard into Lucy's house. They lock David in the bathroom and brutally, cruelly, madly rape Lucy. They murder all her dogs, except one. They even light David up with fire, but luckily he escapes, he's not killed. They steal the things from Lucy's house and they move out. After one day of this brutal incidence, Coetzee writes, listen. "The events of yesterday have shocked him (David) to the depths. He has a sense that, inside him, a vital organ has been bruised, abused - perhaps even his heart. For the first time he has a taste of what it will be like to be an old man, tired to the bone, without hopes, without desires, indifferent to the future." All of a sudden, he feels that his confidence is gone. He feels that he is weak. And note the uncomfortable irony surrounding this sudden reversal, since David has turned from abuser to victim. He's the victim now, right? After this incidence, Lucy changes completely. She's emotionally drained, she refuses to talk what happened with David. She says nothing, she is quiet. She enters her cocoon. She keeps on thinking about things which nobody knows. The father-daughter relationship drains away as David gets more and more suspicious that Petrus was behind this attack. One day, when David discovers that Petrus in fact knows Pollux, a boy who was one of Lucy's three attackers or rapist. He cannot control his rage and Pollux in fact is related to Petrus. And there is a time in the novel when Pollux will come to stay with Petrus, can you imagine? That time, David is enraged. And also after this, once he catches Pollux. Pollux is described as a very mentally unstable character. He catches Pollux staring at Lucy as she undresses. And David cannot control his anger. His rage bears traces of his racist and dated worldview. Note, "Never has he felt such elemental rage", Coetzee writes, "Phrases that all his life he has avoided seem suddenly just and right. Teach him a lesson, show him his place." He thinks about Pollux. Understood? And at this moment, David beats Pollux. Result- Lucy finally asks David to move out of her farmhouse. He demands that her daughter should leave her forever. How does 'Disgrace' novel end? We have come to the end of the novel. First, Lucy gets pregnant with one of the rapist's child. She decides not to abort the baby and also decides to marry Petrus. Petrus wants to marry Lucy only because of her property. Understood? You know, she says, he says that I will protect you. But in fact, he just wants that patch of land, he wants to increase his wealth. Second, David visits Melanie's family. And asks for forgiveness. This time, he kneels before Melanie's mother and sister, putting his head to the floor as a sign of repentance. He even asked for forgiveness from Melanie's father who says that, you know, go to God, ask for forgiveness from God. And third, David spends his time at Bev's animal welfare clinic. Note, lines from novel, "He has learned by now from Bev, to concentrate all his attention on the animal they are killing. Giving it what he no longer has difficulty in calling by its proper name, love." They are killing the animal lovingly. Oh God. And we are done with Disgrace. Wasn't it complicated? Wasn't it worth winning the Man Booker Prize? Absolutely. If you have time, read this novel. In fact, a movie has also been made with the same name. But I recommend read the novel, then you can see the movie, it will be a great comparison. And in between I have told you the summary already. How did you like it? Heart touching, very heart touching, heart wrenching. Everybody is an individual, no black, no white, no caste, no race, we are individuals. Work according to your own instincts. Do not become unprincipled, unguided. Check your instincts and work accordingly. Yes? Then we will have world peace. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[26:59]Yes. This is Heena from Team Valet, take very good care of yourself. See you soon, bye-bye.
