Cosmopolitanism and Material Ethics 95uncertainty, producing an “uncanny feeling” that is perceptible
only “at the edge of my consciousness” (p. 42).^42 This inability to
“interpret” the event clearly signals a deficit in the prevailing epis-
temology of an (imperial) culture that subordinates the animal to
a position of inferiority within a prescribed structure of disciplin-
ary order. The Empire’s culture and logic, in other words, simply
lack the semantic apparatus to ethically justify the Magistrate’s
decision not to kill the animal. This is because such a justification
would demand the unraveling of the hierarchical logic (a term I
prefer to Boletsi’s “binary logic”) upon which imperial disciplin-
ary power is built.^43
The ethical ramifications of this scene are also worth consider-
ing, particularly when we take into account the epiphany’s appar-
ent reliance on the displacement of reason. Indeed, Coetzee here
appears to be depicting a profound clash between reason and moral-
ity, with the latter only coming into view outside a system of logic
that clearly complements—if not buttresses—imperial authority.
While there is not the time to elaborate further on this point here,
the same idea resurfaces, and much more explicitly, in a number of
Coetzee’s other works, such as Elizabeth Costello , Age of Iron , and
Disgrace. Indeed, in the latter portion of the current chapter, I turn
the focus toward Coetzee’s consistent evocation of the theme of ani-
mal exploitation and his conspicuous attempts to integrate animal
and human suffering into the same ethical discussion. Examining
David Lurie’s ethical development in Disgrace , for instance, one
observes a clear parallel between him and the Magistrate in Waiting
for the Barbarians , not only in the protagonist’s inability to under-
stand “rationally” the profound changes taking place in his emo-
tional world, but also the fact that one of his key epiphanic moments
is prompted by an encounter with an animal (and one similarly
facing the arbitrary violence of human beings). On returning home
from an emotionally demanding day at an animal sanctuary that
has seen him euthanize a dog to which he has grown attached, the
normally cynical Lurie breaks down in tears and “does not under-
stand what is happening to him. Until now he has been more or less
indifferent to animals.”^44 However, whereas the Magistrate’s onto-
logical and ethical transformation does invite comparisons with