J.M. Coetzee's Early Computer Programming Career and Its Influence on His Literary Work
By
bluejay2
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Summary
The article explores J.M. Coetzee's early career as a computer programmer (1962-1965) before he became a Nobel Prize-winning author, examining how his programming experience influenced his literary work. The author, a researcher who examined Coetzee's papers at the Ransom Center, argues that this brief but significant period in computing's early days was crucial to the development of Coetzee's writing style and literary project, revealing how computer code and programming logic shaped his approach to language and literature.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledWriter J. M. Coetzee's early poetry is almost undecipherable. That's because it was written in computer code.
Before he embarked on a career as a scholar and writer, the South African-born writer was a computer programmer in the early years of the industry's development (1962-1965).
I believe that this experience, while short, was vital for the development of Coetzee's writerly project.
Coetzee's papers offer tantalizing clues about his neglected 'other career.'
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