Forms of evil

I have read two contrasting books: one was by Jenny Erpenbeck, The Old Child and The Book of Words (two novellas in one book) and the other J.M. Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians.

I started Coetzee's book last night and read until my eyes closed, woke up early, and plunged straight back into it, with a feeling of relief and pleasure, because I loved the central character so much.

He's the Magistrate (no name) and runs a small outpost, a little town, on the frontier of an Empire. A Secret Service man arrives in the first paragraph and from there it is downhill all the way. What can be done about  paranoia and abuse of power?

Not a depressing book, on the contrary. I loved it.

Jenny Erpenbeck writes very very well, but her book was troublesome.  Finishing the first novella - The Old Child - I felt the need for a shower, to wash off something evil ...The world described reminded me of Elfriede Jelinek's descriptions of Austria - which I could not read for long either. A world lacking kindness, lacking soul. The Child does her best to cope. It is unrelenting.

Both Jelinek and Erpenbeck are Austrian. The friend who lent me this book said that Erpenbeck's second novella, the Book of Words, was troublesome for her...I didn't dare read it.

Jelinek: clear sightedness

Because of the Austrian scandal, I've spent the morning re-reading commentaries on Elfriede Jelinek, the controversial 2004 Austrian Nobel Prize winner (Literature).

Josef Fritzl lived out exactly what she portrays in her books - the domination of women in Austria, controlled, over-powered and objectified by men. Jelinek is vilified in her home country for her books and plays. It seems however that she sees clearly.

This is the second case revealed in Austria. Therefore it is likely, statistically speaking, that more women are subjugated and living incarcerated lives in Austria - and probably elsewhere. In Fritzl's case alone, he dominated his wife just as he subjugated his daughter: it is logically impossible that his wife would not have known something, despite her denials.

Elfriede Jelinek portrays a relationship of domination and possession in ways that have been described as pornographic, but I would call explicit, aiming to horrify rather than titillate. The energy sustaining her writing stems from rage and contempt rather than lasciviousness. She links this domination of women to fascist attitudes which are still prevalent in Austria, vide Jorge Heider's fascist party success. While his party was in government, she banned the performance of her plays in Austria.

Which is not to say that all Austria is fascist. All Austria is not fascist, but fascism is more openly acceptable there than in other countries. Fascism and the mistreatment of women exist everywhere. Austria is in the limelight at the moment.

Many of Jelinek's works have been translated into English: Lust (translated by Michael Hulse, 1992, Serpent's Tail, NY) is available from Wellington Public Library.