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October 03, 2003
I see that the Nobel Prize for literature was announced this morning. It was won by John Maxwell Coetzee.
It appears that Coetzee happens to reside here in Adelaide.
He is attached to, or associated with, the Discipline of English at the University of Adelaide. He is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow. He provides mentoring and support to Creative Writing postgraduate students and staff.
Adelaide University says Dr Coetzee is currently in Chicago, where he is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
The Committe on Social Thought looks to be an interesting place. Much more innovative than anything I ever came across in an Australian university. Their intellectual life was fragmented by disciplines that existed as if they were silos.
I have not read Coetzee's works. I gave up reading literature many years ago.
Good time to start again?
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I don't go out of my way to read 'literature' (whatever that means), but I did enjoy reading 'The Blind Assassin' by Margaret Atwood. I haven't read any of Coetzee's books. As a sometimes poet, I enjoy Atwood's poetry too. Before that i read a book by Jodi Picoult, which was quite good too, even if it did have ghosts in it. Before that 'Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters' (Johnny Warrens bio), 'Schild's Ladder' by Greg Egan and 'Eon' by Greg Bear. I probably read more science/speculative ficion than anything else.