Lit 101 - Short Assignment #2

Darlene McCoy
Jody Greene
Lit 101
February 14, 2011

Subtly Sexual Satire

In J.M. Coetzee's novel, Foe, he engages his text with quite the hefty amount of literary theory. In a certain scene, Susan Barton, the protagonist, discusses with a Mr. Foe, an author, how the written word comes to a person. She says, "The Muse is a woman, a goddess, who visits poets in the night and begets stories upon them. In the accounts they give afterward, the poets say that she comes in the hour of their deepest despair and touches them with sacred fire, after which their pens, that have been dry, flow" (Coetzee126). This passage engages with the idea of the Muse, as set down by Plato. "Therefore, since their making is not by art, when they utter many things and fine about the deeds of men, just as you do about Homer, but is by lot divine - therefore each is able to do well with only that to which the Muse has impelled him" (Plato 16). The Muse visits an author, and imparts upon him a story. It is only by chances that the Muse will visit, though, and the author will fail to produce quality work if the Muse has not yet seen him. Though the thought is similar, Coetzee is not simply promoting Plato's concept of the Muse - he is in fact, mocking the idea.

Previous to Susan's depiction of the Muse - she and Mr. Foe had been chatting, and he abruptly kisses her - to which she responds to positively. Love finds its way into the air, so when the reader reads the phrase, "She touches them with sacred fire, after which their pens, that have been dry, flow," the notion that more than talk of the Muse may be taking place enters his mind. Indeed, in the following pages, Susan Barton and Foe share a bed. They do as human beings do - they have relations of the sexual nature. Before the encounter, Susan whispers to Foe, "This is the manner of the Muse when she visits her poets" (Coetzee 139). After they finish, Foe says, "A bracing ride - my very bones are jolted, I must catch my breath before we resume" (Coetzee 140).  Coetzee pokes fun at the idea of the Muse's visit by sexualizing it. Plato describes the Muse's visit as from the gods, and the author as an interpreter of the gods - an event to be taken as quite holy and divine (Plato 15). In the novel, Susan and Foe fornicate in a fashion that is less than divine. Fornication on its own is a very human act – it is human instinct to reproduce, and humans are to the gods as apples are to minivans – completely different. The fact that Foe acknowledges that he has been "jolted" further emphasizes the joke Coetzee makes of the Muse. His specific reconstruction of the idea makes a parallel between Plato’s Muse and the happenings of Foe, making it easier for the reader to decipher the jest. By making this joke, he insinuates that the concept of the Muse is a folly, and that "inspiration" comes from life itself. This is a direct contradiction to Plato's intended meaning - for he truly believed that the Muse was a being of substance. After reading this passage, Susan's initial description of the Muse becomes increasingly symbolic of intimacy, and the idea of the Muse becomes increasingly absurd. Therefore, Foe engages with the text of Plato by mocking and contradicting it in a subtle little way.