Sobriquet 46.2

The following post was originally published on 9/1/08.

Since I'm planning on spending the rest of the day preparing for classes, running errands, and getting a little bit of exercise, I'm going to post an extremely rare early afternoon blog entry.

I just finished reading Daniel L. Medin's excellent "Trials and Errors at the Turn of the Millennium: On The Human Stain and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace," which I consider to be one of the better comparative essays I have come across in quite some time. Though the parallels between South Africa's most decorated novelist and the man who has become, arguably, the United States' most celebrated contemporary writer are undeniably easily spotted, Medin's essay is a valuable contribution to the critical discourse surrounding both millennial novels. In it, Medin examines the ways in which both Coetzee and Roth, via the private and public trials of David Lurie and Coleman Silk, critique the often thoughtless waves of political correctness and sanctimonious scapegoating sweeping through academia and, by extension, contemporary South African and American society.

For tomorrow: Read another article.

Work Cited

Medin, Daniel L. "Trials and Errors at the Turn of the Millennium: On The Human Stain and J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace." Philip Roth Studies 1.1 (2005): 82-92.