John Maxwell Coetzee, better known as J. M. Coetzee, is one of the most prominent writers of the 21st century and, without a doubt, the most celebrated one from South Africa. In addition to being a writer, he is a linguist, translator, screenwriter, and university professor. He has received the most important literary awards in the world, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. If you haven't read him, from Aristopet we strongly encourage you to discover his work.
No, it's not that we've suddenly become intellectuals. We're talking about Coetzee because, if he knew about our existence, he would surely also consider himself an Aristopeter. His animal-loving side is why we are talking about him on our blog today. Because Coetzee, one of the most lucid living minds, is a staunch defender of animal rights.
Coetzee addresses the issue of the suffering of non-humans in many of his books, including "The Lives of Animals," an argument against the holocaust of animals destined for consumption and in favor of a vegetarian diet. In this work, Coetzee's alter ego, Elizabeth Costello, denounces that 48 billion animals are killed worldwide each year, which is almost eight times the human population. This is equivalent to eliminating 130 million daily, more than five million per hour, more than 100 thousand per minute. This doesn't even include the other billions of animals annihilated, injured, or caged for entertainment, sport, or fashion. Chilling, isn't it?
On a personal note, Coetzee has made statements as serious as this one: "People complain that we treat animals as objects, but the truth is we treat them as prisoners of war."
Coetzee empathizes with animals, recognizes that they feel, and condemns any practice that disrespects animals. In that sense, the writer also doesn't hold back what he has to say, and specifically, our country has been the focus of harsh - and deserved - criticism from him. "Torturing and killing bulls purely for spectacle belongs to the Dark Ages and not to 21st-century Spain," he has said on more than one occasion. In fact, Coetzee wrote a brief, lucid, and harsh open letter to Spanish parliamentarians in 2013 to dissuade them from declaring bullfighting a "Cultural Asset." You can read that letter here.
Precisely about his absolute rejection of bullfighting and other issues related to animal life, Coetzee spoke on June 30 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Coetzee concludes the programming of Madrid Animal Capital 2016.
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