waiting for the barbarians (threefold cord)

'disgrace is his best imho... of the ones I've read...' opined a friend. 

disgrace is good (replied horsemouth) j.m. coetzee gives his disgraced academic a hard time and dumps everybody in the middle of an insoluble situation (the republic of south africa post apartheid). horsemouth has also read his book on animals, elizabeth costello, and waiting for the barbarians (but not for a long time).  

there is a concern for animals that runs through these books. the 'john coetzee' of summertime is a vegetarian (as is elizabeth costello). in disgrace the central character ends up taking the bodies of the stray dogs put to sleep to the incinerator week after week because he doesn't trust anyone else to dispose of their bodies with dignity and respect. 

in summertime coetzee makes his academic a fan of the cape town writer alex la guma. (horsemouth has la guma's somewhat neglected and a threefold cord somewhere).

yesterday a rainy day. horsemouth got nothing of importance done. today the discussion of the tasks for next week. 

six years ago horsemouth was reading laurie lee's as I walked out one midsummer morning. sten came out into the back garden to find evidence of horsemouth being there but no actual body - had he done a reggie perrin? had he been raptured? the back garden is currently rendered unusable (and indeed horsemouth is not there to use it) as is the living room (horsemouth guesses). he's back september for a bit (he guesses). 

kilvert is leaving cornwall (this morning of 1870) they miss the first train at 7.35 and have to return to tullimaar to wait for the 11.35. later he's back in langley burrell with his family in the evening. he's not back to clyro until about the 8th.  boswell has left london.  kafka (in 1914) has just watched a patriotic parade.

'what will be my fate as a writer is very simple. my talent for portraying my dreamlike inner life has thrust all other matters into the background...'

today it looks like it will be a good day. sunny and a pleasant temperature.