Fall 7
Commentary | Ice Axe 309: Breaking the Frozen Sea Within Us
J.
M. Kutsi Chronology 323

The Fall and Resignation of the Arrogant Liberal Intellectual
An allegory of what happened to humanity after postcolonialism

“I fell into a state of shame.
It won't be easy to get me out of there.
What I refused was not punishment.
There is no objection to that.
On the contrary, I try to live by it day by day, accepting the shame as the present state of my existence.” (Text, p. 242)

David Lurie, a 52-year-old divorced college professor, is embroiled in a scandal involving a student.
His scandal spread like wildfire, with articles appearing in not only the university newspaper but also local newspapers, and public opinion boiling over, demanding a sincere apology and reflection from him.
Eventually, a disciplinary committee is held against him, and his fellow professors on the committee demand that he repent, but he refuses and leaves the school.
Once he decides to leave, there is nothing that can hold him back.
He heads straight to his daughter Lucy's country farm.
There he writes about the passionate loves and scandals of the poet Byron, seeking meaning in his own humiliation.

Lucy, Professor Lurie's only child, was born in the Netherlands but immigrated to South Africa with her father.
She settled in the countryside as a member of a commune and remained on her own farm there even after the community disintegrated.
Now she wears a simple dress and walks barefoot on the dirt.
Although he feels unfamiliar with this behavior of his daughter, he tries to understand and adapt.
One day, as peaceful days continued, an unexpected accident occurred.
Three black men broke into the farm and raped Lucy.
Professor Ruri is very indignant about the incident, but Lucy is only trying to cover it up.


Post-apartheid South Africa,
The uneasy gap between what was old and what was hoped to be new

“It is necessary to question whether South Africa has truly entered a new historical era.
“I think we are currently caught in an uneasy and increasingly uncomfortable gap between what we hoped was old and what we hoped would be new.”_J.
M. Cootsi

If 『The Iron Age』, 『Waiting for the Savages』, and 『The Life and Times of Michael K』 depicted the apartheid era, 『The Fall』 deals with the post-apartheid reality.
1994, when Coetzee began writing The Fall, was a watershed year for South Africa.
South Africa's first democratic elections were held, resulting in Nelson Mandela becoming president.
Black people in South Africa, who were treated as subhuman, were made human through arsenic.
Mandela's government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which granted amnesty to those who had committed human rights violations and violence under the apartheid regime if they gave detailed accounts of their crimes during the hearings.
It was a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness that is hard to find in world history.
Countries that were burdened with the task of coming to terms with their pasts sought to emulate South Africa's example.


Kutsi was not optimistic about South Africa's future.
While everyone applauded South Africa's actions, he questioned the forced reconciliation approach proposed by the political establishment, led by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The history of suffering and its aftereffects could not be resolved overnight.
He keenly recognized the contradictory gap between the remnants of the apartheid era that needed to be liquidated and the hopes of a new era, and questioned whether South Africa had truly entered a new historical era.
For Kutch, who considers the novel as “a way of thinking,” “The Fall” is a reflective reflection on the uneasy gap between what was old and what was hoped to be new.